(first posted 7/14/2017) In my mind, there seems to have always been a unique, tangible synergy between people’s love of music and of the automobile. I’m talking about even before an AM radio was common standard equipment on mainstream, American cars. All the way back in 1905, there was a popular song called “In My Merry Oldsmobile”, the most popular version of which was recorded by Bing Crosby in 1939.
Since the beginning of the Rock ‘N Roll Era, the start of which was roughly concurrent with the rise of common ownership and popularity of television sets, music has frequently been used to sell products, especially cars. In one of my previous posts from last month, there was discussion in the thread of comments of the timing of the recording and release of vocalist Al Martino’s version of the standard, “Volare”, relative to the introduction of that new-for-1976 Plymouth compact (and its Dodge Aspen twin) from Chrysler Corporation.
Many popular songs from the boom of the youth-oriented market of the 1960s made specific reference to car culture and the hot rides of the day. “Fun, Fun, Fun”, “409”, and “Little Deuce Coupe” by the Beach Boys, “No Particular Place To Go” from Chuck Berry, and Jan & Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” are just a few such songs that come to mind. (The Beach Boys clearly seemed to have cornered the market on this trend.)
A few years back, I had purchased a DVD of vintage commercials, ranging from the 1950’s through the mid-70’s. One of my favorite spots from about halfway through the program featured an early-forty-something, post-“Brady Bunch” Florence Henderson selling a product called “Klean ‘N Shine”. About midway through the above, thirty-second spot from 1975, it shows her touting the effectiveness of its application to the vinyl roof and swiveling “Strato” bucket seats of a GM Colonnade coupe (which looks like a Chevy Malibu Classic, from the dashboard – though I’m not certain).
Shortly after that spot in the DVD’s sequence, there was this… an ad for a ’69 Chevy Impala hardtop coupe, featuring the sweet harmonies, sharp costumes and innocuous dance moves of the 5th Dimension, who were then at the height of their popularity. Nineteen Sixty-Nine was a very good year for the group, with them scoring two hits that year that topped both the Pop Chart and what was then known as the “Hot Soul Singles Chart” on Billboard Magazine: their medley titled “Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In” and also “Wedding Bell Blues”. This advertisement’s nighttime imagery, sense of motion, and flashes of light and chrome were enough to grab my attention within seconds. Combined with this band’s mini-performance of what I find to be a truly classic jingle, this spot is one of my favorite car commercials of all time.
When I spotted our featured car – a ’69 Chevy Caprice (admittedly, not an Impala, and in four-door hardtop form), the first words that popped, involuntarily, into my head were, “Move along… with Chevrolet!” (Do you like how the ladies, Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo, were given only four, spoken words to share in the entire spot, whereas the guys each got their own line to recite?) Our blue Caprice did, indeed, “move along” smartly within the traffic on Michigan Avenue, downtown near Millennium Park on a Saturday afternoon during the three-day, Labor Day holiday weekend, two weeks ago. It seemed particularly adroit in spite of its size, almost as if it was dancing for joy.
I couldn’t find a breakout of production numbers for this bodystyle, but total production for the ’69 Caprice (including the two-door hardtop and Kingswood Estate wagons) totaled roughly 166,900. This example might have been powered by a 235-hp (gross) 327 V8, teamed with a 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic transmission. The Caprice was the second-most popular full-size, Chevy B-Body that year, behind the Impala, but ahead of the Biscayne and Bel Air.
As for the commercial featuring the Fifth Dimension, I miss the days of seeing an exciting car ad on TV. When’s the last time you remember seeing a singing star or group appear so excited about any car, let alone a Chevrolet? Perhaps it has been a while since American consumers could relate to this level of enthusiasm about a mainstream car, but I would still love it if modern advertisers would do just a bit more with selling some extra automotive sizzle along with the steak. That might just make me do the “Toyota jump”.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, September 2, 2017.
Related reading:
Once upon a time when we lived in that happening place called Canberra, Florence Henderson was touring. Tickets, please! I wasn’t sure I like cabaret before the event but was soon convinced.
Ms Henderson was a great entertainer. I decided then that I’d be a Florence groupie and waited in line after the performance to get a program signed. She listened patiently to all our stories and smiled like the hard working professional she was. When asked what brought us we replied a 69 Plymouth*, just like the blue convertible she had in TV land!
Uh huh…more smiles and a vague recollection. Then she returned the program with a delightful message to “Mr and Mrs 69 Plymouth.” And then to next in line…
Still have that somewhere, must nearly 30 years ago.
Thank you Joseph for the piece and the prompt.
*This was, of course, a Navaho beige 4 door sedan badged Dodge Phoenix – but otherwise just like it.This level of detail was omitted, there are very few places the car nerd is truely welcome and there were others in the line waiting.
The horse race track in my town also had a good size indoor coliseum. They hosted a series of about 6 shows a year, three indoor, and three outdoor. They encouraged season ticket sales, and that got a little spendy if you were my parents.
The acts covered quite a range, but were usually pretty established personalities that were never quite A list, or were well past their A list prime. Think Bob Hope touring in 1975.
One of the outdoor shows was Florence Henderson, and my folks got tickets. I don’t remember much about it except that we saw the “Brady Bunch” mom host what was sort of a live variety show in the Carol Burnett tradition.
Canberra 30 years ago – no wonder you went to the Florence concert! I met her in the late 1980’s at the then Conrad Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast. Hilton was the sponsor of a thing called the Mrs World contest and they brought it to the International Showroom at Conrad from where it was live broadcast to the USA. Even thought it was 7.00am we all had to wear black tie/evening wear! Florence was the MC and she was great. I met her over lunch after the broadcast and she was a delightful person to spend time with. I was saddened to hear of her recent passing.
69 Caprice/Impala Is Among My Favorite Cars Of Last Century.i Wonder If This One Has Hose Near Rear Wheels That Shoots Out De Icer For Snowy day.Great Looking Car Nevertheless.
There was a very low take rate on those deicers…but they were cool.
I wonder if there is anyone who makes refills for those?
Don’t think you’ll get the enthusiasm of Dinah Shore or Pat Boone singing “See the USA in your Chrevrolet…” , the young ladies singing “Plymouths on the move” or the hilarious dealer commercial sent out to invigorate salesmen “Edsel, Edsel, What Do We Have TO Do! SELL THE CAR, SELL THE CAR!!” with dancing, singing salesmen. Or Jack Jones in a 1965 Chrysler commercial sings a cool laid back song, looks at the beautiful black ’65 New Yorker 2 door hardtop and says “Two and a half tons of solid luxury”
Ah yes! I’ll never forget Dinah Shore! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhR8GZ_WWMM
Regarding the Beach Boys cornering the market on car culture songs: Nationally, yes. And as a young teenager I avidly listened to everything that came over the radio (AM of course, WCRO 1230 in Johnstown, PA) at the time.
Since taking out a Pandora membership, however, I’m amazed at how much car culture music never got a lot of distribution past southern California. Do a channel entitled “Rip Chords radio” and you’re going to be amazed with what you get. (Don’t bother with “Beach Boys radio” as you’re only going to get top 100 from the 62-65 period.)
The Beach Boys were far from the only outlet for the car culture. They were just about the only ones to get national distribution, Jan & Dean being the biggest competitors. Everyone else was a ‘one hit wonder’.
One of my favorites from 1966.
It’s interesting how great those AM stations sounded coming through the single speaker on the dash. No satellite radio, no bluetooth, no CDs, no cassette tapes, no 8 tracks (aaahhhh 8 tracks), not even a Chrysler record player. AM, one speaker, five buttons, all tuned to top 100 stations, right hand ready to scan the stations when an ad came on.
Between this form of distracted driving, no seat belts, solid steering columns, bias ply tires, and drum brakes all around, I am surprised any of us survived to this day.
still do if you can find a station playing something good other than talk.
I kept the AM radio /single speaker in my 77 Chevelle for about year before the lack of decent AM programming drove me to install an AM/FM cassette and 4 speakers.
It still sounds pretty good even on a transistor radio.
I frequently use my smartphone like a transistor radio – can’t stand earbuds and no cord = greater mobility. Keep it in my shirt pocket. Usually tuned in to the listen live websites of far away places I’d like to visit or have visited. Recently, the B97/B93 FM station on Hawaii’s big island is my favorite. The wife & I were there this past spring & had a blast.
It’s interesting how great those AM stations sounded coming through the single speaker on the dash.
It’s because your ears were still young and working optimally. 🙂
Or nostalgic ears. My 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe had a completely intact factory one speaker AM in dash radio that worked perfectly. A prior owner had installed an under dash AM/FM stereo with two speakers well hidden under the rear deck.
It was the best of both worlds. Tune the old AM to an oldies station, and suddenly I was in my parent’s 1968 Impala again. It really was a distinct sound that was not all bad.
No doubt, even a modest mid ’80s FM stereo with two speakers was leaps and bounds ahead in sound quality.
I won’t say so much the speakers, but it is amazing how much better the AM reception was on radios back then.
Before we were married, Patti owned a 64-1/2 Mustang coupe, 260V8 with an automatic. And the original factory AM radio. At that time, I lived a good 40 miles from Richmond (Bumpass, VA), and getting WRVA (Richmond’s original radio station, 1140) could be iffy. Unless I used the Mustang’s radio. Then I could pick up any of the Richmond AM stations night or day. My boom boxes, cassette playes, etc.? Not so much.
Then again, back in the mid-60’s, AM was radio. Period. So of course they built the receivers to actually receive, loud and clear. You didn’t have any other alternatives in the car back then, so it had to do the job. Once FM took over for music, and AM degenerated into politically pathetic talk, the AM side of the receiver was cheapened.
Those 4 foot tall antennas probably didn’t hurt either. I have to keep the one on my ’65 Chrysler retracted part way or it hits the edge of the carport roof.
Nice find Joseph.
I’ll wager the driver of the yellow Corvette behind this beauty thought you were photographing him (or her), and then realized as you panned the camera forward that the Caprice was outshining the Corvette.
Not normally a fan of black wheels, these do seem to work here (as if someone removed the wheel covers) along with what looks like a sturdy (new springs) suspension system with a slightly raised rear.
Someone loves this car, and you probably made their day.
Speaking of one-hit-wonders, maybe someone can post a link here to the hilarious 1981 top-40 hit ‘Sausalito Summer Nights’ by the Dutch group ‘Diesel’, about a nightmare California road-trip in a Rambler!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I loved that song! One line referred to the “Rambler with a whirlpool in its tank,” if I recall correctly, which suggested that the Rambler was a gas hog.
I am surprised nobody mentioned “Beep Beep (The Little Nash Rambler)” from 1958.
In a weird sort of CC Effect, that ’58 Cadillac (or one like it) in your video was featured just yesterday.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/dealer-classic-1958-cadillac-coupe-deville-forget-the-cts-ill-take-the-deville-a-history-of-the-1957-58-cadillacs/
“How do I get this thing out of second gear”??
Pretty sure Wedding Bell Blues was Laura Nigro.
She wrote it and first recorded it; they covered it.
Just to let you know…It’s Laura NYRO.
I think Gml might have been inadvertently referring to her birth name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro
yep…you are right. Sorry for jumping the gun. 🙂
Laura Nyro is a really interesting figure who is largely unknown to the general public. She was notorious for writing songs which would go nowhere commercially when she recorded them herself, but would become hits for others when they recorded them. Fortunately for her, this put her in a situation where she made enough money from songwriting royalties that she could make a good living without needing to sell a lot of her own records. A few bits of Laura trivia:
–In the last week of November and first week of December, 1969, three songs written and originally recorded by Nyro were in the Top Ten on the Billboard pop chart simultaneously: “Wedding Bell Blues”, “And When I Die” (by Blood, Sweat & Tears), and “Eli’s Coming” (by Three Dog Night).
–The 5th Dimension hit the Top 40 five times with remakes of Nyro songs: “Stoned Soul Picnic”, “Sweet Blindness”, “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Blowing Away”, and “Save The Country”.
–Nyro only hit the Billboard Hot 100 once herself. Ironically, given her notoriety as a songwriter, it was with a song she didn’t write (a remake of “Up On The Roof”).
I’m not sure it’s all that unusual to make more off of songwriting royalties than off of performing.
Carole King is a good example. While she’s an outstanding and successful performer, it wouldn’t surprise me if she made more off of the bubblegum pop she wrote in her Brill Building days (118 pop hits between 1955 and 1999, according to her website).
Dolly Parton is another. The writer of over 3,000 songs, she refused to sign over half of the rights for “I Will Always Love You” as one of “Colonel” Tom Parker’s conditions for Elvis recording the song, so it never happened. Years later, Whitney Houston recorded it, earning Dolly an estimated $6 million. Dolly later was quoted as saying, “I knew he’d kill it…(but) when Whitney’s version came out, I made enough money to BUY Graceland!”
Exactly what I was thinking.
Dolly Parton likely made a lot more off of “I Will Always Love You” than Whitney did, due to the royalties/residuals.
And of course, Lennon and McCartney made tons off of theirs – both for ads and other artists covering.
And and in today’s Top 40 landscape, it’s rare to see an artist with their own writing credits. The smart ones earn their money buy having a contract that allows the real cash to come from touring. Hell, look at iconic acts like Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Kylie Minogue, Brittany Spears. Dated to most eyes, and their records don’t sell for squat comparatively. But, when you see the cash they make from either Vegas residencies or sold out worldwide tours, it’s clear they have a better grasp of the business side of things than people give credit. No need for royalties when you can lock your finances down by brand recognition.
This was a fun writeup. Thanks. One detail – you say “This example might have been powered by a 235-hp (gross) 327 V8, teamed with a 3-speed Powerglide automatic.” I am pretty sure you meant Turboglide as I do not think powerglide was ever anything bu two speed.
You are absolutely right. Thank you! I’ll fix the text. 🙂
I hate to be “that guy” but I think you are thinking of the Turbo Hydra-Matic. The Turboglide was the short-lived oddball transmission that was only offered from 1957-61.
A quick look at the brochure says that Caprice came standard with a 327 V8 and a 3 speed column shift manual. Powerglide and THM were both optional. I would suspect that most Caprices were built with the 350 and THM.
(Dangit. 😉 ) Thanks, JP.
My first car was a 69 BelAir with the 327 and 3-speed column shift. It was Olympic Gold with a white roof and was a sharp looking car. People often mistook it for an Impala (I guess they didn’t count the tail lights) and were surprised that it wasn’t an automatic.
Thank you for the flashbacks Joseph. I recall my dad regularly purchased a spray product very similar to ‘Klean and Shine’. He used ‘The Tannery’ to keep the vinyl seats in his Dodge Aspen supple. 🙂 I recall various other vintage car care products in his car cleaning milk crate during the mid to late 70s. Including NuFinish polish (in the orange plastic bottle) and Blue Poly and Raindance waxes. Blue Poly having one of the more aromatic scents among automotive waxes at the time.
the Tannery was good stuff back in the day, dad had a couple cans I used well into the 90s, and NuFinish is decent stuff still. I remember the blue poly and raindance, those were ok, but NuFinish could last the summer in Texas, the rest were done in a couple weeks.
In the past year I’ve used NuFinish, Rain Dance and vintage Turtle Wax (for that Hard Shell finish) on my car.
When we emptied my grandmother’s house back in 2004 my mother’s pack rat husband wouldn’t let go of anything, even if it was seemingly way past its prime. I came across a milk crate last year full of old waxes, polishes and other car care products, purchased in the late 70’s and early 80’s by my grandfather. I took a shot with the NuFinish first, and discovered that car waxes in sealed containers really don’t go bad, so I used up the remainder of all three. ( I wax my car every 3 months due to the Florida sun, so I figured I’d experiment with these remnants.) Some of the containers still had stick-on paper price tags ($3.89 for Rain Dance in 19??) from chain stores now long defunct. (Anyone remember Jamesway or Ames? both regional Northeastern chains, I believe, both gone since the 80’s IIRC.)
I’ve now finished the dregs of the vintage products, so when October rolls around I’ll have to go out and pick up some McGuire;s or something.
Ames survived until 2002.
Brother was in his “11th year” working for them when they went “kaput”.
There is reason for caution using old car polish formulations. Prior to modern clear coat finishes, a number of them included a mild rubbing compound, these were frequently referred to as “cleaner waxes.”
Rain Dance was a cleaner wax back in the ’80s, and did a fantastic job of providing a smooth slick finish on my cars. But, it would tend to cloud a modern clear coat finish. Rain Dance did reformulate, but lost a lot of market traction in the transition. It is apparently still around, but I never see it on store shelves.
Coming from a long line of pack rats, I’d like to point out he was right to keep the waxes.
The man who rented my house from 1940 until his death in the 60s repaired, refinished, and resold antique furniture, including some of my grandparents’ that I now have. He also manufactured and sold his own furniture wax which hides scratches nicely. I’ve still got some in a jar.
Daniel, I remember NuFinish being a revelation when I first discovered it in the mid-’90s. By that point, my Oxford White ’88 Mustang was looking more than a bit dull, though I washed and waxed it regularly / semi-regularly.
At the recommendation of a neighbor (or was it a coworker?), I bought some and used it. The result looked like it took about three or four years off the age of my car.
I also used Armor All for interior vinyl bits and black exterior trim (very, very carefully, so as not to get it on the paint), and cherry-scented Tire Wet (that stuff smelled good enough to drink in a frozen slush!).
I’m suddenly having olfactory flashbacks to the various smells of all the car care products I used to keep in that old, powder blue Rubbermaid bucket in my parents’ garage. Thank you for that.
I still use NuFinish! It lasts longer than just about anything on the market.
These cars were everywhere once upon a time. Some neighbors had one in light green, and I believe that it was an Impala 4 door hardtop. At the time I did not like these as well as the 65-68 series, but I have come to like their looks a lot. And this car uses the Chevrolet bow tie emblem on the grille that Chevy should be using today – in blue.
As I think of it, either a neighbor or a family member owned a 1969 version of every big GM car but Cadillac. The Chevy Impala or Caprice stacked up nicely against all of them.
These were good driving cars. By 1969 Chevy had improved the road dynamics of their cars by a lot. By that time these cars were separated more by subjective feel than by actual capabilities. I think that 69-70 may have been a sweet spot where Chevy got competitive suspensions and powertrains and still maintained the old high-quality body structures that would disappear for 1971.
I completely forgot about the commercial angle. I am sure this was on TV when I was a kid, but I do not remember it at all. Maybe because I was such a Ford homer at the time.
I recall that John DeLorean was astounded by how poorly Chevrolet’s many, many advertising dollars were spent. There were too many cooks in the kitchen and a scattershot approach to advertising that resulted in lots of ads, but none of them memorable. Once he took over in 1969 I think everyone agrees that Chevy’s advertising became some of the most memorable.
Yes, 1969 was the summer of the 5th Dimension, with their records playing nonstop on the radio. But I never understood how Age Of Aquarius could not be fleshed out into a full-length single instead of adding Let The Sun Shine In, which was not nearly as strong of a song.
Okay, the younger readers might not believe it. but these Impalas were once as common as today’s Camrys and Corollas. GM made over a million of them a year…for a country with half the population it has now.
I remember them as well as the BelAir and Canadian Pontiacs like the Laurentian and Parisienne, there was once as common in the Great White North as well.
Such “fleshing out” of “The Age of Aquarius” might have resulted in the writing of a verse not in the original song, which I think would be an offense against the original writers. This is what happened with another song from Hair that got a lot of radio play: Oliver’s version of “Good Morning Starshine.” (Yep, I own that single as well as the Cowsills’ “Hair” – which cuts out the “my hair like Jesus wore it” verse – and of course the Fifth Dimension two-song medley, which by some accounts was the #1 single of 1969. That was probably my peak year for buying singles.)
(“Let the Sun Shine In” in its proper form would have been a rather bleak song for top-40 radio! Listen to the original Broadway cast recording. “We starve, look at one another short of breath, walking proudly in our winter coats, wearing smells from laboratories, facing a dying nation, a moving paper fantasy, listening for the new-told lies…” We played the 8-track of that album in the car a lot when I was a kid.)
My parents went to see “Hair” in LA in ’69 and brought the album home for us kids (8-12) to hear. I don’t think my mother knew the meaning of some words, but my sailor father must have. Too bad those guys never wrote anything else as good. Brain damage?
My first wife and I saw the Broadway version of Hair in, maybe 1969 or 1970, at the Biltmore Theatre. I know we drove into Manhattan in the grey 1964 Beetle, and I did not get that car until 1969. Talk about cars as icons and memory enhancers!
The show started with cast members crawling from back to front over the seated attendees in an awkward manner that made us both jump in alarm (probably others attendees were startled as well).
I think “Let The Sun Shine In” was the full cast line up finale, with the famous nudity, and very very low lights. So much for prurient interests.
Needless to say we got the LP and played it a lot.
Hair was not nearly as controversial as “Let My People Come”, a later (1974) off-off Broadway Greenwich Village show subtitled “A Sexual Musical”. Quite ahead of its time back then.
Chevy ads before Delorean were flat and forgettable. Ford was much better. Everyone remembers the “quiet as a Rolls Royce” ads for the LTD and the diamond cutter doing his thing in the back seat of a Mercury.
John Z. did know a thing or two about marketing. Back in his Pontiac days he and Jim Wangers, ad man for Pontiac, used creative advertising to turn that once frumpy division into the hottest thing at GM. They created not only the legendary GTO, Firebird, Grand Prix, but the entire muscle car culture. Google the infamous “humbler” TV ad for the GTO and you get the idea.
” 1969 was the summer of the 5th Dimension, with their records playing nonstop on the radio. But I never understood how Age Of Aquarius could not be fleshed out into a full-length single instead of adding Let The Sun Shine In, which was not nearly as strong of a song.”
Those songs were from the musical ‘HAIR’ and if I remember correctly that is how they were performed in the play.
The classic car are products were, Westley’s Bleech (not a typo?) White, Dupont 33 powdered car wash, and Blue Corral wax.
I am not a fan of 1968/69 full size Chevies for two reasons. I was drafted in 1968 and was in Fort Leonard Woods about two hours from St Louis. The taxis to the St Louis Airport were brand new full size Chevies with mismatched junkyard seats, no wheel covers, and disconnected odometers. These were used as taxis for a while, and the the original seats and wheels/tires were reinstalled and sold as new or low mileage demos.
I got back from Nam in 1970, and my new employer had a fleet of base model 1968/69 full size Chevies. Two options, powerglide and an AM radio. All painted in colors suitable for a wheel barrow. One as delivered with different coil springs on each side of the front. I was offered a job with a 1970 Chevelle 2 door hard top with 2 tone paint and full wheel covers, but the offered salary was an insult.
This is a perfect counter point to the ’73 Newport from earlier today. I love the loop bumper on this car. Such a tidy, integrated, well crafted look to that front end, and a 4 door hardtop with all 4 windows rolled all the way down always makes me want to cruise to some tunes. Lucky for me this one’s all closed up, since I’m, at work and shouldn’t be daydreaming about my wind-in-the-hair soundtrack.
As mentioned above, it does seem amazing in retrospect just how good AM radio used to sound through that one big dashboard speaker back in the day. And just the mention of Marilyn McCoo now has me humming “You Don’t Have to be a Star”, her disco era hit with Billy Davis Jr. And I can still remember how good it sounded, even with a hint of static and not enough treble, blasting through the tinny little dash speaker in my Mom’s light blue metallic Monza 2+2. Damn, I feel old.
Its strange that a car in such good shape is missing it’s front wheel well chrome. I had a 70 Impala. With no b pillar and four windows down it felt very sporty on hot days. The hint of pontoon fenders just barely pressed into the sheet metal was a nice touch on the 69 and 70. As for car songs I think that the best one is “Lord Mr. Ford” by Jerry Reed. If that doesn’t get your foot tapping you probably don’t have a pulse.
This one made my day for a number of reasons…My favorite cars of all time are the 65-70 full-size Chevys, with 65,68, and 69 being at the top of the list, and when new, my father had a 69 Biscayne as a company car. I, myself, have owned a total of four 69 Impalas since the late 70’s, with two of them still residing in my garage. But the biggest kick I got from this post was that the featured car is the same color as my 69 Sport Coupe: Code 55 Azure Turquoise with a white vinyl top. The Caprice appears to have a black interior, though it is hard to tell in the photo, whereas mine has the turquoise interior. The featured car also reminds me of my Jr. High School principal..he drove a Champaign colored 69 Caprice Sport Sedan with a black vinyl top. I still remember he had a personalized plate with his initials, WAE-9. That car was always kept immaculately clean. It was the very opposite of the 60 Bel Air sedan our grade school principal drove. it probably hadn’t seen a bath since the day it rolled out of the dealership…
Looks good with those Vette Rallys, Jim!
Thanks Rick. Your Dad had great taste in cars. My Dad’s first brand new car was a 68 Impala Custom Coupe, Grecian Green with a black vinyl top and black interior, 307 with Powerglide. He kept it until 1991, when at work, one of the truck drivers backed into it with a semi tractor. Pretty much took out much of the front and windshield so, unfortunately, that was the car’s demise. I loved that car so much that as my first car, I bought a 68 convertible and my Dad painted it Grecian Green. That was in July of 75. I still own it today.
Ah, the ’68 Impala Convertible. I may be a Ford guy at heart, but that is THE Curbside Classic I want in my fantasy garage. I’d want it in Light Blue Metallic with a White Top and White Interior. I had spotted one just like that on a nice day while shopping in Towson, Maryland and hung around for about half an hour hoping the driver would show. I think I would’ve made him an offer right then and there!
Boy does that pic bring back memories. My Dad’s ’68 was a Custom, but without the vinyl top. He had yet to jump on that band wagon. He traded it in ’73 for a Gold LTD with a brown vinyl top which was his first of only two cars he’d ever own so adorned (the second being an ’80 Bonneville). That LTD became my first car which explains how a kid from a GM family ended up with so many Fords (mostly T-Birds).
That Monte in the pic brings back some memories too. What is that? An ’84? My ex had one like it when we were married, but for only like 3 months. It had the 4.3 L V6 and was a pretty nice car. It was even that color, too, but without a vinyl top. It sadly met its demise at the hands of an elderly gentleman who rear ended it HARD while having a sneezing fit.
But our family (although my Dad still LOVES the old Chevys having had a ’56 Two-Ten for his first car) didn’t stay brand loyal to any one brand the whole time. In fact, my Dad just traded his second Ford ever, a 2014 Mustang in on a 2017 Accord. He also has an Acura (his third). Me? I still have my 2007 Mustang, but bought a new 2016 Civic last year. The wife has a Mitsubishi.
But I think my favorite 60’s cars were these Impalas. Heck, I wouldn’t even kick a ’63 out of my fantasy garage. (Make that one Pearl White trimmed in Red, please. ;o)
Man, that car is a looker! Beautiful.
My Dad had the ’66 Impala in two door fastback form, and then got a ’68 Impala Custom. They were Firethorn Red and Grecian Green, respectively. I had always wished one of these was in the color of the featured ’69, as it was one of my favorites from back then.
The ’66 had a 283, and most likely the Powerslide, but I can’t remember for sure on the transmission. I know the ’68 had a 307, and a THM, as I recall it being a 3 speed automatic. One reason I ‘think’ the ’66 had the PG was recalling my Dad mentioning the three speed being an improvement over the last car. I was only 8 years old in 1968.
Great Pictures as Always Joseph… you really are quick with that camera!
I really liked all of the “Sext-Six Chevys” (C) – Pending (LOL – ;o)… 1965 through 1970. That generation to me is Peak Impala, style wise (for a whole generation, anyway*), but I’d take any Impala from 1958 thru 1972 (with a ’73 rear bumper on that ’72 if I am allowed a little customization).
* Actually, the Peak Impala Style Award for a single year should probably go to THIS ONE: The ’61 Impala Sport Coupe…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1961-chevrolet-impala-sport-coupe-wherein-the-author-meets-his-nemesis-and-finds-love/
The commercials that come to mind when I was a kid in the 1980’s were the ones from Pontiac. The tagline was “we build excitement”
In the late 1980’s Pontiac ran this commercial called “Ride Pontiac Ride” It showed off the Pontiac lineup of that time amidst a backdrop of folks in 1980’s fashion backed by a 1980’s nameless and faceless hair metal band
Here is the long version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgQMIaF-PRo
As for the 5th Dimension, I don’t know why that commercial short changed the viewers at home with the lack of lines for the women, the reason the 5th Dimension was so big was because of those blended harmonies. Stoned Soul Picnic is a great example of those harmonies.
This is the last car commercial with music that I remember:
The song “GTO” (Officially it’s just called “GTO”, no “little” in the title), was actually by Ronnie and the Daytonas, not the Beach Boys.
You are right. I’ll just remove the reference. Thanks!
They were all affiliated with the Wrecking Crew anyhow
Well done, Mr. Dennis!
I’m a big fan of the ’69 full size Chevies for sentimental reasons. Dad bought a ’69 Impala Custom coupe in the summer of ’70. It had been a demonstrator from Tony LaRiche Chevrolet in Toledo Ohio. It kind of figures that it sold so late. The color was named Burnished Brown (dark metallic) and it had a 350 with what else? … Powerglide!
I always thought that this year of full size Chevy had a friendly face… and the correct color bowtie! (BLUE!!)
yep, correct Chevy Bow Tie, blue!
Like both 69 and 70, different strokes for …
Blue Bow Tie – Agreed!
The huge honkin’ black thing on the current big Chevy Truck just looks off to me. Not a fan of the big gold ones either, but I’m willing to give the current Impala’s a pass.
Ford should also stick with the Blue Ellipse too. (I know I’m being a geometric purist, but an Oval is two half circles connected by equal length and tangential line segments!) – Sorry… Digressing again…
The big silver Ford emblem just looks wrong on the front of their big truck. It looks as if the blue insert came unglued and fell off… I tried to find a pic online, but couldn’t come across one. There are several of these running around near where I live, and it just looks like something is missing without the Blue Oval. Maybe because I couldn’t find a picture means the examples I’ve seen running around DID have their blue plastic fall off. That did happen to one of my Mustang’s spinners, and now I keep the insert-less spinner only as a spare.
I love seeing vintage 60’s sedans. Get tired of the over played “Elder Boomer” mantra “too many doors”. Not every car back then was a Camaro/GTO/Mustang.
It feels like the yellow Corvette is photo bombing the Caprice.
It’s great to see this four-door hardtop. Most vehicles at cars shows are either hardtop coupes or convertibles.
My friend’s family had two late 1960s full-size Chevrolets. Their metallic silver-green 1968 Super Sport fastback coupe was bought brand-new. I can’t remember the exact V-8 it had, but the car featured black vinyl bucket seats and a floor-mounted four-speed shifter. On the outside, it sported the standard Chevrolet full wheel covers, which, even at my tender age, I thought was odd. They did not look sporty – particularly compared to the rumble of that V-8.
Their 1969 Impala formal-roof hardtop coupe was bought used in the mid-1970s. It was metallic gold with a black vinyl roof. One day, they used it to remove a large bush at their house. The father wrapped one end of a heavy chain around the car’s frame, and the other around the trunk of the shrub. After a steady increase of pressure on the accelerator, there was a cracking noise, and the shrub was uprooted.
As for who promoted the 1969 Chevrolet – there is a print advertisement featuring O.J. Simpson and his first wife, Marguerite, with the 1969 Chevrolet Caprice. I don’t know if Simpson was featured in any television commercials. He appeared in an advertisement for a 1970 Chevrolet Impala, but without his wife.
Florence Henderson starred in splashy musical numbers that introduced new Oldsmobiles each year to dealers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also appeared in television commercials for the brand during this time. She held very fond memories of her work with the division, which helped launch her career.
;
A pretty Chevy doing it’s thing decades on .
Thanx for the comments that bring back memories ! .
-Nate
My first car was a 1969 Caprice, in 1978. It was gray, via an Earl Schrieb quality respray that cracked and crazed and oxidized beyond saving, black vinyl roof, and black cloth interior. The AC didn’t work, and Florida without AC is not fun. But, I loved that car. In my mind, it drove like a dream, and I do remember it had good power and a very comfortable ride. Freedom was its main feature, and jeez was it fun.
I love the sleek profile of the ’69-’70 Chevrolet four-door hardtops. The proportions are pretty much perfect.
Interesting insights about John DeLorean’s influence on Chevrolet’s advertising. Starting in 1969, copy in Chevrolet print ads was noticeably cheekier. Consider this example featuring a Caprice Sport Sedan:
In 1973 my father bought a 1970 Impala very similar to the one in the pictures but with a black vinyl top. The seller was from Minneapolis but spent winters in Fort Lauderdale, FL where my family lived at the time. Unfortunately the tin worm was very busy working under the vinyl top. Considering it was a 1970 model and my father purchased it in 1973 it didn’t take very long for the rust to begin it’s destructive work.
In August 1975 my wife and I moved to New Orleans and my father insisted that we take the Impala and he kept my 1971 VW Type 3 fastback. The deal was that when we came home for Christmas we would exchange cars. A few days before Christmas the Impala’s tranny failed. I was in a panic. I was an impoverished college student and I didn’t know where to take the car to have the tranny repaired. Aamco was not an option. After asking around I was directed to a shop that agreed to fix the transmission for $200. On the eve of Christmas Eve my wife and I took a taxi to the repair shop with our luggage. Our plan was to get in the car and hit the road immediately. The mechanic said the car was ready we paid the bill and hit the road. About two blocks from the shop the transmission started slipping and making grinding noises Oh shit!
Managed to get the car back to the shop under its own power. The guys started pulling the transmission immediately. At around 9 pm they declared the transmission good. The cause was wrong sized torque convertor they said. I didn’t know squat about transmissions I was just happy to start our trip home. At this point we were 5 hours behind schedule and we were going to make the 18 hour drive without stopping other than gas.
At the time I-10 was still under construction in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. There was a very large detour through Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The detour was on deserted two lane roads with very little to no signs. I kept driving and driving watching the gas gauge nearing empty and not a town or a gas station in sight. After what seemed like an eternity and raw nerves we pulled into a town, Panama City, with an open gas station. What a relief! Made it into Fort Lauderdale at 3pm Christmas Eve.
My father kept the Impala for a couple of more years when the roof metal was almost completely gone and the only thing holding it up was the vinyl roof.
Yes, the best big car of its time:
A nice car to be sure but if it’s not good going full tilt boogies through the twisties, what good is it ? .
-Nate