Remember When Barry Manilow Wrote The TV Jingle That Made America Sing

By the early 1970s, Barry Manilow already had a small catalog of commercial jingles in his songbook. After arranging and composing for television, he eventually moved into writing more jingles, including the “Bathroom Bowl Blues” for the Green Bowlene toilet cleaner and “Feelin’ Free” for Pepsi.

Manilow even called his jingle-writing days “the best music college” he could ever imagine. “I learned the most about music working in the jingle industry,” said Manilow. “It was the best music college I could ever imagine. What I learned most of all in my jingle days was how to write a catchy melody.”

Before breaking into commercials, Manilow landed a job in the CBS mailroom while taking night classes at New York College of Music before attending Juilliard. Known as the “piano-playing mail boy,” at 21, Manilow was promoted to file clerk at CBS while he was also working as an accompanist for other artists and later took on the music director position of a new show, Callback, before arranging the new theme song for The Ed Sullivan Show.

Shortly after getting into the TV jingles, Manilow started singing some of the commercials he was working on, himself, including the Randy Newman-penned “Join the Pepsi People” for Pepsi and “Give Your Face Something to Smile About” for Stridex acne products in 1971, along with more songs he’d composed for fast food chains, including KFC and McDonald’s in the early ’80s.

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[RELATED: Barry Manilow Was Paid $500 for Writing the Iconic Insurance Company Jingle]

“Stuck on Band-Aid”

In 1971, Manilow also wrote and composed “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm,” the insurance company’s popular slogan, and was paid $500 without any additional residuals. After hearing it played on TV for more than four decades, Manilow said: It’s my greatest hit!”

That year, Manilow also wrote one of the most iconic brand jingles of his career: “Stuck on Band-Aid.” The song was written “in one pass,” along with lyricist Donald B. Wood, and became an infectious jingle that everyone couldn’t stop singing.

I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me
‘Cause they hold on tight no matter what on fingers, toes, and knees
I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ’cause Band-Aid helps heal me

Perhaps one of Manilow’s most iconic jingles, and one of the most recognized in the advertising industry, Manilow’s Band-Aid tune also earned him a CLIO Award in 1976 from the advertising agency Young & Rubicam.

Even as the Band-Aid commercials took on many variations over the decades, it always stuck to that main jingle.

“It’s been going for 45 years,” said Manilow of the famous State Farm Insurance jingle, “but nobody expected a jingle to last that long. Same thing with Band-Aid.”

Photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage