Music Musing and Someone You Didn’t Know You Knew


Reading time – 1:22  .  .  .

A while back a commercial caught my ear because of the music playing in the background. It was a piece of our music and it dawned on me that this was a most unwelcome tunes grab. Since that time I’ve noted more of that kind of thing and kept an informal survey. Here’s a sampling from just a short term review of television commercials:

Okay, it’s clear whom they’re attempting to appeal to. We all get it. And we can safely assume that copyrights have been honored and appropriate royalties have been paid.

But jeez, they’re stealing our tunes!

Rosalind Palmer Walters died on Wednesday last week at age 95. There’s a good chance that you don’t know her by that name, but you surely know her by her other name: “Rosie the Riveter.”

She didn’t go by Rosie, preferring Roz, and her story is remarkable. She was a child of wealth (daddy was the head of E.R. Squibb). At age 19 and shortly after WW II broke out, she did what so many women did – pitch in – to help their country. She got a job on the night shift in a Connecticut factory popping rivets in the construction of Navy/Marine F4U Corsair fighters.

Vaught F4U Corsair

It’s said that Ms. Walters was the original model for this symbol of American can-do. There were others, too, who were models for “Rosie the Riveter” and we honor all of them for their sacrifice in the name of patriotism. This is especially poignant now, as March 8 was International Women’s Day.

Thank you, Ms. Walters – and all the millions of Rosies.

I urge you to read her New York Times obit here.

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2 Responses to Music Musing and Someone You Didn’t Know You Knew

  1. Jim Altschuler March 10, 2020 Reply

    I, too, have noticed the incursion into “our songs”. Those listed above and many more. It is wonderful for the songwriters (who get a small stipend every time their song(s) is played), but the commercial plundering of the songs and musical heroes of our youth seems to be inherently wrong (at least to me).

    These commercial advertisers, hawking their products, could have written (or have had written) new jingles that would be associated solely with their products as they used to do. In fact a few of those “product songs” even became pop hits (ex.: 60’s Alka Seltzer ad jingle “Whatever Shape Your Stomach’s In”).

    It seems this rape of our songbook of yesteryear is a personal violation. How DARE they violate us so?!?

    I have to go now and get my personal indignation under control. “Happy Trails to You”.

  2. wayne rhodes March 10, 2020 Reply

    I have noticed this too. There’s also an ad for a car company (I forget which one) with Stones’ “Time is on my side”.