I was listening to our classical music station early one morning, and I hear the Rheingold beer jingle. OK, it wasn’t, really. But it certainly REMINDED me of it.
I discovered here that the melody I heard was in fact the Estudiantina Valse, Opus 191, No. 4 (The Students’ Waltz), a title I had never heard of.
“The tune was composed by a pair of obscure French composers, the tune itself by Paul Lacome (1838 – 1920); But ironically it is often incorrectly attributed to the man who arranged it in a rollicking Strauss-like arrangement for two pianos — named Emile (“Emil”) Waldteufel (1837 – 1915).
“Waldteufel included it in a set of tunes arranged for 2 pianos, published under his own Opus number, which blurred the issue of authorship right down to the present day.” In fact, I have found almost NO one to attribute this to Lacome, only to Waldteufel.
“The Beer jingle with a lyric by an unknown ad agent, used the melody of this famous light-classical waltz tune.”
The lyric was:
My beer is Rheingold the dry beer.
Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer.
It’s not bitter, not sweet, it’s the extra dry treat
Won’t you try extra dry Rheingold beer?
I remember the third lyric as “it’s refreshing, not sweet…”, but there are a lot of variations.
“Ironic that this melody, which some may remember as the quintessential German Beer Hall tune (images of people with swaying cups all singing in unison) is actually of FRENCH, rather than German, origin.
The beer sponsored Rheingold Theater, a dramatic anthology series, on NBC Primetime in 1955 – 1956. Rheingold Beer, “despite its Wagnerian opera name, was brewed in a little brewery located in Brooklyn, NY; and which tried to use the early medium of TV to get a little respect — or “brand recognition” at least.
Still, Rheingold Beer, “introduced in 1883, is a New York beer that held 35 percent of the state’s beer market from 1950 to 1960. The company was sold by the founding German American Liebmann family in 1963… Rheingold shut down operations in 1976, when they were unable to compete with the large national breweries… The label was revived in 1998…” but it’s not the same, or so I am told.
WHY do I remember the lyrics to a song for a product I have NEVER consumed? Herwitz Associates suggests “a dozen principles for improving memory, but the concepts can just as easily be applied to making a message memorable.”
Listen to Estudiantina Valse here or here or here or here, featuring a 26-tone Violinopan (thanks, Jaquandor!)
Listen to the Rheingold beer jingle here or here or here or here (modern)
Don’t remember the beer (not a beer drinker) but certainly recognized the music when I clicked to listen. Maybe one way to remember things is to give it rhythm and rhyme…ahem – just my topic today. LOL
Leslie
abcw team
Not familiar with that beer either but the music is.
I always felt that if facts and important information was set to music I would forever have it in my head.
Funny how ad jingles ~ especially music stay with us ~ good ear ~ great post ~ thanks,
Happy Week to you ~ ^_^
I could sway and sip to that jingle…
i heard this once in symphonic form and was shocked as well
Very lovely.
commercial jingles can get in your head can’t they, no matter how much one (DIS-).likes the item for which it is for.
In my youth, I, and my fiance fell amongst a group
of carousing German students on holiday. We were given
overfilled beer steins and asked to join in (think Edmund Purdon in the movie of The Student Prince and Mario Lanzo doing the singing, dubbed!)
Young fiance loved Mario Lanzo and could sing just like him…phew! What a night, but oh what a ‘next day’, moral to this tale is ‘Dont drink with carousing German students’.
Di xx
ABCW team.
The marching beer bottles on the advert may be something one might see after a few too many beers.
I’d would drink that beer 🙂
Hope you’re not doing this exercise because you’re afraid of losing your memory?
Jesh – well, not especially, I remember some things extraordinarily well. On the other hand, this whole blog is a memory aid.
thanks, Roger, I actually had a dream last night that two scholars explained go me the origin of this jingle that I can still sing60 years after I’d stopped hearing it.. and found your article!
I remember this beer and this jingle like it was yesterday….and I’m 74. Grew up on Long Island, NY so we were exposed to any advertising the company did. I even remember my parents buying, weekly, the 32 ounce bottle, glass of course, of Rheingold and putting it on the dinner table….and of course the first time they let me taste it. Good memories!