I went on a major music-buying spree this past summer. I’m that rare individual who still buys actual, physical compact discs in 2018, and the discovery of various online vendors of used CDs has proved, for the past several years, to be a major weakness for me. On rare occasions when I want just one or two album tracks and truly can’t stomach or justify purchasing the whole album, I’ll buy the individual downloads online, but I’m old-school. I want the actual, physical thing in my hands, whereas a digital file often seems far too abstract.
I love liner notes, pictures, lyrics, and other things that often come with a tangible jewel case. Spotify is great, as are Google Play and Pandora… but I often want to listen to something again and again, and I treasure my music library. Having said all of that, part of the fun of compilation discs is that they have often exposed me to artists and songs which were previously unfamiliar to me.
Have you ever heard a song and immediately thought that it must originally have been written expressly for use as a commercial jingle? I’m not even a minute and a half into the song above, and the effect is powerful. I’m already envisioning a new-for-midyear-’77 Pontiac Phoenix two-door on a slowly revolving platform with multiple pinspots shining on it from different angles, as a trio of very attractive ladies sing, dance, smile around the car, trying to convince me that the upscale compact, X-Body Phoenix would be a viable, more efficient alternative to the (much) larger, Colonnade-platform Grand Prix. “Eighty percent of the Grand Prix’s class, luxury and panache, for 80% of its price… and with all the style of a Phoenix!”
The mastermind behind this catchy tune, performed by Aquarian Dream and originally released in 1976, was jazz fusion musician and producer Norman Connors, who had a Billboard Hot 100 Top-40 / R&B Top-10 hit that same year with “You Are My Starship”. “Phoenix” was released twice – first in ’76, slightly predating the mid-model year introduction of the first, ’77 Phoenix, and then again in ’79, presaging the arrival of the newly-downsized, front-wheel-drive 1980 Phoenix. Did Connors perhaps pitch this song to GM’s advertising arm back then? After all, disco was white-hot between 1976 and early-’79.
I unashamedly stand by my love of disco music (this past weekend I went to watch the 2018 documentary on Studio 54 on the big screen), and having discovered this track on a compilation originating from England was a treat. I’ve come to the conclusion that as far as compilations discs go, many of my favorites have come from overseas record labels as, more often than not, they contain songs that may have been popular abroad, but haven’t been overexposed here in the United States. I’ll also say that using “Phoenix” by Aquarian Dream would have made a much more tuneful and interesting sales pitch to much of America than the incidental music that was ultimately used in the TV spot from ’77 above.
Click here and/or here for related reading on the actual Pontiac Phoenix.
Count me as another who likes to have physical possession of the music I buy. Says the guy with music in a variety of obsolete formats sitting unused for years in his basement.
Anyhow, that vintage disco clip and the Pontiac Phoenix just go together.
I still buy vinyl. The format has had a resurgence in recent years (that wasn’t supposed to happen!) and a surprising number of new and recent releases are available. Cartridges, stylii, turntable parts and accessories are all readily available, as are new turntables.
These days a lot of LPs come with a digital download as well which you can use in portable devices.
Agree on the CD’s. These days I stream my music. But a few years ago I went back to buying used CDs after struggling with awful sounding files on my iPod. The discs sounded so much better, it made their relative inconvenience worthwhile. Fortunately my daily driver at the time came with a 12 disc unit in the trunk. Old tech to the rescue, it seems.
I kind of like that wacky painted panel in the center of the front bumper. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before.
Joseph, you probably know about this, but there’s an excellent record store over down this way: https://www.dustygroove.com/about-chicago-recordstore.php
As a kid at the time, I found that body colored grille divide and painted lower center panel on the Phoenix super cool. It helped make the Phoenix (and other Pontiacs like the Lemans) extremely easy to identify as they approached you on the highway.
The downside? That painted section was notorious for being vulnerable to stone chips, and for especially highlighting squashed insects. 🙂
CJC, thank you for the recommendation! Next time I’m in that area, I’ll have to check out Dusty Groove. Most of my music purchases are done online, where I can preview tracks and instantly make a purchase, but I do enjoy the music store experience – especially if I’m out exploring.
Joseph, hope you enjoy! It’s one of those kind of places where it’s kind of easy to fall down a rabbit hole.
Daniel, I’m the kind of owner that probably would have been out in his garage every weekend with one of those little touch-up paint bottles brushing over that panel.
I’m another proud lifetime fan of Disco, and that ain’t changing. I’ve never warmed up to digital music storage formats either, but I use them, because obviously…well, you kinda have to these days. I do have a small stash of vinyl tucked away unused since my turntable was damaged in a move a while back. It’s all Disco Era stuff, mostly flea market purchases.
I did have an only-child grammar school classmate whose mother drove a black Phoenix of this generation, very well optioned, with black vinyl top, wire wheel covers and red cloth interior. Yes, it was a Nova underneath, but true to form for the time, Pontiac did a nice job of styling their version, especially the instrument panel. His Dad was a handy guy who liked to tinker with things, and I’d speculate that he special ordered the car with optimal performance in mind, as the RWD X’s could be spec’d out quite nicely if the right boxes were ticked. I think it replaced a late 60’s full-sized Pontiac IIRC.
The Pontiac Phoenix was a car I disdained. (I was driving a ‘real’ Pontiac at the time, a ’66 Bonneville convertible, so I was naturally biased.) Did anyone ever buy a Phoenix with leather seats as shown in the ad?
With respect, I would contend that disco having been “white-hot between 1976 and early-’79” is somewhat of an exaggeration. The first wave of disco popularity was in the fall of ’75 when I was a college student (“Get Down Tonight,” etc.), followed by a long fadeout that lasted until late 1977 with the release of the Meco version of the Star Wars theme as well as the movie soundtrack double LP of Saturday Night Fever. That wave was bigger than the first, finally ending around the time of the Bee Gees’ last number-one single, “Love You Inside Out.”
(Each wave had an influence on a contemporaneous Steely Dan track: “The Fez” and “Glamour Profession,” respectively.)
Thus endeth the lesson.
Supposedly music writers claim the “disco’s last hurrah” single was “Funky Town” by Lipps, Inc. 1980.
1979 was when ‘ma and pa’ were doing disco dance lessons*, i.e. it had peaked and on the way out, quick.
*Also, AM radio was filled with disco songs like “Do you think I’m sexy” by Rod Stewart and “Don’t say goodnight” by Paul McCartney, rock artists.
Like any genre, there’s good and bad. But, seemed like there were too many “throw away” songs, example “Disco Duck”.
The AM top-40 format overplayed disco in the 70’s and , I think, ruined the genre for many people, including me. Many disco standards are still stuck in my head 40 years later and I never want to hear them again. But I’m happy to listen to 70’s disco that wasn’t overplayed and I admire how well-crafted most good disco tunes are.
I call it a saturation of the similar. (similar to the 2012-2015 “bro-Country” phase in Country music.”)
Can’t really point to a single Disco tune and say “that’s the one” that started the Disco Apocalypse. It was simple overload served with a generous side of attitude…”Rock is dead, Disco is the new Pop music, get used to it!”
“Funky Town” is well-noted as Disco’s Last Stand. There was still Dance music of course, but Irene Cara’s “Fame,” f’r example, had a bit more Rock edge to it with a bit more Rock drive. Times were changing.
The guys below were from literally Just Down The Road. Weirton, WV…Steubenville & Mingo Junction, OH.
“Play That Funky Music:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yILr8KdTPsU
Respectfully, Wild Cherry’s one-hit wonder is far more memorable than Pontiac’s X-body. The Knudsen/DeLorean days were getting further and further in the rear view mirror, and what followed became – to me – a return to Pontiac’s original form…Fancy Chevy.
The Silver Streaks of the 1940’s had come back as the ribbed cladding of the 80’s.
I believe Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo worked on the “We Build Excitement” campaign. Easily the best car jingle of the 80s IMO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dz6t0gmicY
Still hard not to snicker hearing it against images of the J-2000 Sunbird and A-6000. Sorry.
Re: Play That Funky Music… When I lived in Atlanta, I can remember going to parties and events where that song would be played, but it was missing a few words from the refrain. Growing up not too far away from Wild Cherry’s home base, we’d always heard the refrain on the radio as: Play that funky music, white boy… However, at these parties in the Atlanta area, it was just: Play that funky music…
Up until you mentioned this in the comments, I hadn’t thought about that little anomaly until now. I have no idea why that was, I never thought to inquire when I still lived down there. Maybe it was offensive to white folks? I have no idea.
Good IMHO ‘disco’ songs: “Don’t leave me this way”, “Knock on Wood”, “More, More, More.”, and “I Feel Love” [Donna Summer.]
Ethel Merman doing a disco album “Disco Mama”, was another example of it being played out.
Michael Jackson’s 1979 ‘Off the Wall’ album brought in new [better] era of dance music, though. IMO
I’m also a fan of Disco, having been 11 when it all started in 1975. ABBA, Wild Cherry, Andrea True and KC and The Sunshine Band figure prominently in my mixes.
A question on the Phoenix – was it available with the Pontiac V-8s or was it Chevy only?
I think these were around the time of the “GM shell game” engines. I think they may have started with Pontiac 301’s but later used Chevy 305’s and Olds 260’s as well as a Buick 231 v6. I think toward the end of the RWD X body run All GM makes used Chevy 305’s for V8’s. Not sure on the 6’s.
And there was a police Nova with a Chevy 350 for a short time too.
Bob
They also were available with the iron Duke 2.5 four. I know, as I drove a pre-production version as a taxicab: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/auto-biography-how-i-came-to-be-a-pre-production-test-driver-for-the-pontiac-iron-duke-engine-program/
I’m a big fan of the electronic duo Boards of Canada. They have a track called “’84 Pontiac Dream” that evokes the technology fad of the eighties.
This Pontiac digital dash was so high tech then…
I am currently employed by a show starring a famous singer/songwriter of the 1970s. He was generally known as more of a balladeer, but he was not immune to the disco craze. He (and Donna Summer) recorded a disco cover of one of his early ballads.
So I get to hear it nightly. I haven’t gotten sick of it yet.
Barry Manilow?
Donna Summer’s Manilow cover
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7R-likSeMU
That’s the guy!
And of course the Manilow song itself is basically Frederick Chopin’s Prelude #20 with new lyrics
Great topic Joseph.
‘Aquarium Dream’ reminds me a great deal of the music famous movie composer Alan Silvestri wrote for the TV show ‘CHiPs’. Something I didn’t know, was a number of the songs Silvestri composed for CHiPs included versions with lyrics and singers. If you listen to the first song at this link ‘Valley Go Home’, you’ll immediately recognize this song as its instrumental version from the TV show. But I do think this version of the song could have easily reached the Billboard US Top 40 Pop or Disco charts in 1979, if it was released to radio stations.
https://youtu.be/m0puTUbzOKg?t=6
Another Alan Silvestri composed song, the theme from the movie ‘Delta Force’, would have made a perfect cheesy background song for various early 80s cars. I think this tune would have been perfect for an introductory commercial for the Chrysler Laser or Dodge Daytona. LOL The early 80s ‘Jan Hammer’ style synthesizer suits the cheezy 80s tech theme and these cars perfectly.
I like all of these links! And yes – that “Delta Force” tune has very much the same, mid-’80s-tech vibe that you described. About as period-specific as this 1985 Plymouth Turismo Duster commercial. 🙂
Cocaine is a helluva drug.
Wow. Just Wow.
I think you’re right. There can be no other explanation.
What the hell did I just watch? That is the most 80’s thing I’ve ever seen! So many kicks, so many flips. So much hairspray! Also I think there was a car in there somewhere. This automaker is gonna be around for a long time! I will have this song in my head all night now, which is okay. Thanks for posting it.
I remember being very impressed at the time how Ford used the intro to Steve Miller’s ‘Swingtown’, a #17 Pop hit in 1977, to sell the brand new Fox Mustang.
Daniel, it’s funny that you mention this! The first CD I ever bought (when transitioning from cassettes) was Steve Miller Band’s “Greatest Hits 1974 – ’78”, which coincided with the preceding Mustang II’s run. I wonder if anyone else has ever also thought of that when viewing this ad.
I also like the physical music format. In the early 2000s, I had downloaded 15000 songs. I made CDs from them at first, and then played the digital music player through whatever input the car had. I had them on an external hard drive which crashed. I don’t miss them and their crappy sound. Now I just buy used CDs from the video game store for the cars. If you download, find files that are as large as possible. 128kbps are garbage. 320 is when they become decent in my opinion. Old stuff to me sounds best on vinyl but that is not useful in the car or on the go. A record player makes a poor iPod…
I take the opposite view. I bought vinyl like crazy in the 1970s and CDs in the late 1980s and 1990s. Now I have a dream digital collection of music comprising around 215 GB on my PC with three full backups on portable drives. The music is arranged by artist/year/track and I’m still old-skool enough to listen to full albums. I listen through good speakers (Audioengine A2+) or headphones – both connected via USB to bypass the computer’s mediocre DAC. I agree that 128kbps is lousy but 256+ is acceptable to me. I don’t miss vinyl in the least with its surface noise, fragility, and relative lack of portability. CDs were better in terms of fidelity but they were a transitional medium. I’ve fully embraced digital now – easy random access and sequencing, the ability to cart my entire collection on a small external drive, and no worrying about losing a song ever again. No more physical media for me.
I have to agree. This old bear has everything in portable digital format.
I was not a fan of disco in the 1970s – I was more of a rock-and-roller/prog-freak and felt that “Disco Sucks!”. I’ve softened my stance over the years and now enjoy some of it. I just found out that the lead singer of Aquarian Dream was Gloria Jones, a soul singer of considerable experience. She never broke the Billboard 100 in the US, but she was pretty big in the English Northern Soul scene. Gloria first recorded “Tainted Love” ( a humongous hit for Soft Cell) way back in 1965.
Gloria Jones, in the glam early 70’s, was also very involved with Marc Bolan of T-Rex (Bang a Gong, and lots of other next songs that the Americans never noticed). In fact, if my memory is correct, she was driving the car the Bolan was killed in back in 1977.
That is correct; she wasn’t found at fault. Gloria Jones (who I never would have recognized on the Aquarian Dream song) did have a few hits on the R&B chart.
Wasn’t there a US car commercial that used T.Rex’s “20th Century Boy”? I’m thinking Nissan but can’t remember. (It was also used more recently in a UK Mustang ad)
Tonyola, that’s awesome – thank you for making that connection between Gloria Jones and Aquarian Dream.
I remember when my college friends and I used to go to “New Wave” night in the mid-’90s, how we all thought “Tainted Love” was an ’80s original. I didn’t like the Gloria Jones version when I first heard it, but I dig it now.
Back in the day, I was also prog-rock/heavy metal rocker. But I also was a teenager and if you wanted to meet girls, you had to go to the dances, the skating rinks, etc., so I absorbed a lot of disco music.
Now and again I hear it on the radio and actually find it enjoyable, but I really don’t know if it’s the music itself or the nostalgia. Either way, it’s a nice ride.
I liked the Phoenix, even the Citation based version later on. As a kid, I loved hood ornaments – that would be a good CC article, especially model specific ones instead of vehicle line ones.
Welcome to the kind of music that made me cringe in the late 70’s. And, for that matter, cause me to stop buying records until the Second British Invasion of the early 80’s.
My attitude back then (to a certain extent, still is) was, “If you can’t bite the head of a pigeon off to it, it ain’t rock and roll”. OK, by the point, I was widening my tastes. The Damned, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols were big on my playlist since society was too stupid to appreciate glam rock.
Yes, it would have been a perfect commercial to the car. And I wouldn’t have bought either: record or car.
Gag!!!
I used to have a lot of Styx albums, but the Pretenders changed my tastes, 😉
Almost forgot: Disco?
Another bit of evidence, along with broughams, that Western Civilization was damned close to completely crashing. If that was the future, I’ll happily settle for the Dark Ages and let the Visigoths rule.
Disco and Broughams are two of the greatest hates of my life. And, as far as I’m concerned, they’re inseparable.
I am proud collector of some classic vehicles . Regarding Pontiacs I have 2 : 1976 Pontiac Ventura coupe ALL original I bought it with 121 original miles Yes No Typo thats 121 miles since new nothing special has 260 v8 auto , factory am radio , tilt , rally wheels No AC Its not daily driver now it has about 350 miles on it ! To my big surprise was featured in article on Hooniverse some time ago here http://hooniverse.com/2015/02/01/weekend-edition-quick-hit-a-minty-fresh-1976-pontiac-ventura-coupe-with-only-120-miles-on-the-odometer/
My other Pontiac is 1977 Bonneville Coupe Non Brougham got 8K original miles has 350 4B , tilt, power windows , factory AC , factory am/fm radio its Brown exterior w tan landau abd beige cloth interior just beautiful original Pontiac from the past !!
Max, that’s awesome! I think I remember reading about your Ventura in that very article. One-hundred twenty miles. Absolutely incredible. I know you must be taking care of your Pontiac fleet. 🙂
Count me as a disco fan as well. Born in 1964 I was just the right age to appreciate disco music in the mid-late ’70s. And I also remember the huge box office failure of the Village People’s movie “Cant Stop The Music” in summer 1980. By that time disco was dead, and what followed on its heels was New Wave groups like DuranDuran and Depeche Mode, both of which I liked. My favourite disco song: Don’t Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston from 1977. I also buy CDs on occasion and miss the loss of the old cassete tape because you could rewind it to a favourite song part over and over again – can’t do that with a CD!
Always liked these Phoenix models, thought they were so much nicer than the Ventura with a better front clip too.
The Phoenix commercial does a great job of only showing you the parts of the car that don’t look like a Nova – the new front end, the Grand Prix-like instrument cluster and real Pontiac steering wheel, and the seats which were upholstered similarly to larger Pontiacs. I have to say I like what Pontiac did with it – the grille is bold and previewed what was to come with the ’78 LeMans. This was the first car to use the newly-approved single rectangular sealed beams BTW.
The jingle in that advert had full lyrics too in another version without the voiceover (maybe only used for radio commercials?) The only lyric I remember besides what’s here is “Phoenix does what only Phoenix can do”
There have been many times I wasn’t sure if a song was appropriated as an advertising jingle or the reverse. Like for example, this 1969 Pontiac ad, like many from the late ’60s, is replete with buoyant sunshine-pop harmonies; I was sure that was written specifically for Pontiac’s “Breakaway” campaign….
But no; it’s a real song, and one that apparently achieved some notice in the UK that (like the Gloria Jones track mentioned above) was associated with the Northern Soul scene:
And apparently Pontiac even made a long-form version of it, though I’m not sure when or where this was shown. The clip below is a montage of a folksy rendition of the Breakaway jingle/song before segueing at 1:00 into some awesome proto-Devo motorik that sounds more 1981 than 1969. Then back to an extended version of the Breakaway theme and a fun beach trip in a Firebird. I would’ve been taking lots of pictures of the cute girl in the orange-striped t-shirt too….
Back to the car, Pontiac Phoenix.
For spring 1977, was treated as an “all new car”. But, as soon as the new ’78 LeMans and Grand Prix arrived, the Phoenix was demoted.
The 1978 Phoenix line added a base model to replace Ventura, with older rear tail trim. It had a plain black vinyl front bumper pad, instead of body color. Name debasement, again.
I always wondered why only some of the ’78 Phoenixes in my internet searches had the revised tail-panel, and others (from the same year) had the same, old Ventura tail. It was the LJ models (with prices that started approximately 10% higher) that got the new rear end styling. This explains a lot!
The Phoenix used three different tail panels. The old Ventura one shared with the Nova, one with longer tail lights shared with the Chevrolet Concours, and one with longer wrap-around tail lights shared with the Omega and Skylark.
I read an article about this once, and I recall that it was something of a mix-and-match – there wasn’t consistency between which was used based on model year or trim level.
Count me in for a physical CD as well. You can see what you got for your money, get the full sleeve notes and artwork, can lend it, borrow others, and have tangible event of the music.
Only issue is that although my Alfa has a CD player, now unusual, there is no practical CD stowage space, so i end up with an MP3 player connected tot he USB socket which offends my (car interior only) OCD tendency. Still there is voice recognition, so I can connect it and say “Sophia, play Genesis” successfully.
And don’t start me on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells on LP…….
Im a closet disco fan but my teenage daughter (who drives an ’84 Grand Prix btw) would insist that I post her beloved FOB here
I knew one person who had this particular model of Phoenix, he’s a friend of my brother’s, bought it the same year (1978) that my brother bought his star-crossed Mercury Zephyr. I really don’t remember a lot about that particular car, it seemed to work well for his purposes.
I do have a bit of a soft spot for this generation of X-body. Equipped with the right engine and suspension, they were pretty decent runners for the day. A buddy’s father had a 350 powered 1978 Olds Omega which was a smog-era hot rod. No one would believe that this dowdy little compact family sedan was such a… Rocket.
(Sorry)
Crap… that should read: “a 305 powered 1978 Olds Omega…”
350 just rolls off the fingertips so much more easily…