Remember When: Jefferson Airplane Recorded Four Commercials for Levi’s Jeans in 1967 Then Pulled Out of Their Contract

During the 1950s through the 1970s, Levi’s jeans hit their peak. The jeans were already popularized by Hollywood actors like Marlon Brando in The Wild One and Marilyn Monroe in her final film, The Misfits, and all over the music industry with jeans-wearing musicians like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones—that revealing Sticky Fingers cover—and other artists embracing the brand at the time.

By 1967, the jeans company was introducing their white Levi’s and partnered with the famed concert promoter Bill Graham, who hired Jefferson Airplane to record several tracks at The Fillmore in San Francisco, mentioning Levi’s in the lyrics.

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‘Right now in your white Levi’s’

At the time, Jefferson Airplane had been together for two years and had broken out with “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” when the jeans company asked them to do a commercial. The band, who wore Levi’s themselves, recorded four psychedecli-drenched songs that would be played on various radio spots with Grace Slick singing Right now in your white Levi’s / White Levi’s come in black, blushing bravo blue / I love you, along with mentioning “whiskey” and “cactus” in one 1967 ad for the denim brand.

Jefferson Airplane recorded four songs—”Twig City,” “Balloons Stretch,” “East Indian,” and “Duck”—which appeared on a 10-inch promotional Salesman’s Record, released by Levi Strauss & Co. in the fall of ’67.

The record also featured spots by the San Francisco band, Sopwith Camel, and West Coast Natural Gas, out of Seattle.

[RELATED: Brian Johnson Recorded a Hoover Vacuums Ad the Day He Auditioned for AC/DC]

Abbie Hoffman Letter and Levi’s Strike

Shortly after the Jefferson Airplane ads started circulating, activist Abbie Hoffman responded to the band’s advertisements but writing a letter, titled “Their Thing,” to the Village Voice:

Last night I heard a commercial by the Jefferson Airplane pushing white denims made by [Levi’s]. It summarized for me all the doubts I have about the hippie philosophy. I realise they are just doing their ‘thing,’ but while the Jefferson Airplane grooves with its thing, over 100 workers in the Levi Strauss plant on the Tennessee-Georgia border are doing their thing, which consists of being on strike to protest deplorable working conditions that characterize most Southern textile factories.

Perhaps many in the hippie community find the acceptance of this contradiction mind-expanding; personally, all I get is a headache.

Once Jefferson Airplane became aware of the factory strikes, they asked to be relieved of their contract with Levi’s, and the company obliged.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images