I am sure, like me, many of you’ll must have grown up listening to the radio early in the morning. We used to be woken up by the Akashwani signature tune, with the aroma of coffee or tea from the kitchen. It was the time mother used to start her work, dad used to get ready for his office, and we kids used to get up to a new rising day. The newspaper used to be flinged from entrance of the house, the milkman used to bring milk which my mom used to take in a steel can.

There was a beautiful compound between the two buildings where we lived in my childhood with a small beautiful garden and tall trees, and there was a small pond right next to our house, so we had a lot of birds and squirrels in our compound. We could hear the birds chirping clearly and there were so many different birds, each with a different chirp and sometimes they sat on our window sill and tap the glass with their beaks. It was so amazing!

The morning hustle and bustle used to start with this Akashwani radio tune. With it, the sunlight used to enter our house. It used enter home with stripe through the gap between the wall and the roof. The older people of the house would sit idly listening to the morning bhajan on the radio.

All India Radio’s caller tune has been heard by hundreds of millions of people since it was composed in 1936. This melody is based on raga Shivaranjini, and was composed by one Czech man Walter Kaufmann. He was the director of music at AIR and was one of the many Jewish refugees who found a haven in India from the Nazis.

Kaufmann had arrived in India in February 1934 and ended up staying for 14 years. Within a few months of landing in Mumbai, Kaufmann founded the Bombay Chamber Music Society, which performed every Thursday at the Willingdon Gymkhana.

The caller tune of radio is 80 years old; but still has not lost its charm. Every morning since then, this beautiful tune has been played at the beginning of the morning telecast of AIR, and with time has stamped itself into the memories of everyone who listened to radio in India. Some things never get old…..  This radio caller tune comes as a fresh air every day in the morning. We all still love it and it has become a part of our life. Kudos to this everlasting radio caller tune!!

You don’t have to be a trained singer to sing songs. You can start singing now, at this moment. Sing tunes which you have liked. You can be of any age and gender, sing to be happy. And, do you know, singing is a good exercise for your lungs?  It is good for your mind and body. It is good for breathing. A research which is  first of its kind was carried out at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London on the topic “Singing for breathing “which has proved that singing can improve our lungs condition and can make them stronger.

So, just don’t bother whether you are good, bad or terrible singer, sing for the love of your lungs.  It tones up our intercostals muscles and our diaphragm. It can improve our sleep. It decrease muscle tension. Our facial muscles get toned. Our posture improves. We can become more mentally alert. The advantages are many. So sing for the benefits.

Do you know ‘singing for the brain’ is a service provided by Alzheimer’s Society which uses singing to bring people together in a friendly and stimulating social environment? People come together and start singing some old, new or nostalgic tunes. Singing is not only a pleasant activity; it can also provide a way for patients to recover from dementia.  So, people with great careers but suffering from dementia come together to express them and socialize with others is a fun and the activity develops supportive group.

Music helps the sinuses and respiratory tubes to open up to breathe in more oxygen. It releases pain relieving endorphins from glands. Our immune system is given a boost enabling us to fight disease. It gives vent to stacked-up emotions this reduces anger and depression and anxiety. In Parkinson’s disease it helps the patients regain strength and balance. Music is a medicine for so many diseases and symptoms. It has positive effect even on plans and animals.

Singing fortifies health, widens culture, purifies the intelligence and enriches the imagination. Music is the universal language for happiness. It endows life with an added appetite. Sing while taking shower, sing while cooking, stitching, cleaning your house, while gardening. Hum loudly it makes a positive effect. Sing along with the radio, it not only stirs the deepest emotions, but if you actively sing it increases your vigor. Singing increases poise, self-esteem and also presentation skills. So next time when you hear somebody suffering from asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an umbrella term that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) suggest them singing; it cures the symptoms to great extent. And to avoid any lung problems in future, start singing now.

But, sadly everyone in the world does not like music. They are identified with a new psychological phenomenon termed “specific musical anhedonia” which refers to the reduced ability to experience pleasure from music, specifically due to some odd wiring in the centres of the brain. Researchers have found that between 1 and 3% of people don’t enjoy music of any kind. These people are not tone deaf or incapable of grasping the emotional meaning of a song; their brain simply does not find listening to music rewarding. This happens due to some psychiatric disorders are associated with the loss of the ability to enjoy music and feel pleasure of music.

But, the rest of world must thank the creator for giving us the ability to enjoy music, our ability to listen, and our ability to grasp meaning of the songs. Sing for yourself, sing for your friends, and sing for your heart and lungs.  Enjoy music.

A jingle is a short tune used in advertising; it contains one or more hooks (it’s a musical idea which often is a short riff, passage or phrase) which helps promote explicitly of a product or service. Jingles are hummable, catchy little slogans. They are typically a form of sound branding. Because we can hum them, they are phrased with catchy words which can be remembered easily. Jingles live a longer life. Though they seem trifling, they are successful at getting us to remember a product, to buy the product and even make us think we need the product to be accepted or successful.

The first jingle was born in 1926 in Minneapolis, Minn. when an a cappella group played a quartet in praise of “Wheaties” – a General Mills breakfast cereal. Executives at General Mills were actually about to withdraw Wheaties from the market, but when they noticed a point in its popularity in the regions where the jingle was aired, they changed their minds. The company decided to air the jingle nationally on the radio, and sales went through the roof. Eighty years later, Wheaties is still a household staple in kitchens across the globe.

Since then, jingles have become an important part of any advertising campaign. Some jingles will never die, and they have become a part of our lives. Effective jingles have the capacity to build tremendous brand equity of a product. A successful jingle promotes a positive image, making the consumer more likely to want to purchase the product.

Music can fulfill several tasks when it is used in advertisements. The appealing and entertaining aspect of music helps making an advertisement more interesting. Captivating jingles can make the commercials attractive and engage attention of viewers. From this point of view music need not necessarily manifest any special affinity with a particular product or service in order to play an effective and useful function. The music functions more as bridge between viewer and advertisement. Another basic attribute of music is to support an advertisements structure and continuity. Music adds dramatic approach to a TV or radio commercial. The narrative of the commercial becomes more meaningful with the music. Jingles are also called ‘Singing commercials’ and they have made a self-contained genre.

Look at the lingering jingle of Nirma washing powder; it is one of the most famous jingles. It’s been years down the line but the jingle of Nirma is still jingling in the ears of Indian People. It was of no importance whether the detergent gave clothes the “Dhood si Safedi” or not. But the feisty and spirited ad made a marvel out of the brand. Think of Nirma and the picture of a little girl twirling around with her white frock cannot be forgotten. This jingle has become so familiar in our minds. Nirma took on the might of giant multinationals and wrote a new chapter in the Indian corporate history!

Jingles have the poetic and emotional appeal; it scores over logical, informational advertisements. I think this happens because music can provide a message without the customer consciously noticing it. For providing rational facts in the same time “mixtures of speech and song provide advertisers with opportunities for both logical and factual appeals. Music can therefore function as a nonverbal identifier for certain groups with different musical taste.

Do you know that in sixties and seventies companies wishing to advertise on Radio used external radio stations like Radio Ceylon and Radio Goa (then Goa was under Portuguese control). Radio Ceylon was a popular station as it aired film songs, which was banned on All India Radio (AIR) because the then Information & Broadcasting Minister Mr. Balkrishna Vishwanath Keskar – who thoroughly disapproved of film music. However, in 1965 when Ms. Indira Gandhi was Information & Broadcasting Minister under the Prime Minister Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri, she changed things. In 1966, Ms. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister and she gave serious attention to the use of Radio as a mass media. In 1967, the government accepted the recommendations of an expert committee under the former Director of AIR – Krishna Chandra Sharma. And ads started broadcasting on radio which further saw a spurt in sweet and melodious radio jingles.

Even today the jingle “tandurasti ki raksha karta hai Lifebuoy, lifebuoy hai jahan tandurusti hai wahan” rings in our ears. Similarly ‘Utterly, Butterly, Delicious AMUL’ was another great success.

In the seventies India witnessed a lot of new agencies being set up, including the Mumbai-based Rediffusion, Trikaya Grey and Chaitra and the Chennai-based R. K. Swamy & Associates. Reliance Group setup Mudra Communications in Ahmedabad. In 1977, Doordarshan started accepting ads. It changed the life of Indian ads radically and brought a qualitative leap in making of ads. I still remember the first TV ad was a still for the Topaz brand of razor blades from the house of Malhotras and the first ad prepared for TV was of Jenson & Nicholson modeled by Dalip Tahil and Maya Alagh arguing over the color of their bedroom. This ad was created by Rediffusion. There were only 3 TV Programs on Doordarshan. I still recall we never got irritated when in between the programs ads were played. The programs were: CHITRAHAAR, PHOOL KHILE HAIN GULSHAN, GULSHAN and Sunday Evening Feature Film. And, due to TV ads, lesser known brands were marketed with ease all over the nation.

And then in early eighties the Hawkins Pressure Cooker jingle sung by Preeti Sagar (My heart is beating, Film Julie singer) the jingle words were “Hawkins ki seeti baji, khushboo hi khushboo udi, Mazedaar, lazzedaar khaana hai tayyar, aji khaana hai tayyar! Murg Musallam, Tomayyto Soup, Matar Pulao, Maaki Daal, Kheer aur Dum Aloooooo Har vyanjan swadisht banaaye, minton mein jhatpat pakaaye Hawkins! Hawkins! Hawkins Pressure Cooker! Every Indian household thought of buying the Hawkins Pressure Cooker.

Alyque Padamsee of Lintas was approached by Lever Brothers to write an ad film for HAMAM. He drafted script showing a bikini model bathing with HAMAM under a waterfall. This idea was absolutely rejected by Lever Brothers considering that Indian housewives are restricted to kitchen, and they rarely go out for a picnic or a movie. Padamsee then made a simple ad “chehre ki sundertaa ko nikharta HAMAM”. See how ads show the transformation in society, its culture and philosophy – time passed and Lever team once again told Alyque Padamsee to write another ad film for a new soap – LIRIL. Alyque took out the old and rejected script from his cupboard, changed the title from HAMAM to LIRIL and rest is the history. Within 10 years the Indian housewife was elated from her mundane surroundings to a more confident and earning woman. The Liril ad showcased the modern and liberated Indian woman to the world. It was the hottest ad in the early 80s. Which showed the LIRIL girl drenched under the falls wearing only bikini? The ad was all about waterfalls, abundant water and the girl splashing about. The background score was “la…la la la laaa..”. The la,la, la notation just went about with a hummable tune. The first Liril ad was a masterpiece of with unmatched caliber; it was a product of Alyque Padamsee’s imagination. It was shot in Kodaikanal at a waterfall a little beyond Guna caves. LIRIL brand became largest selling brand of soap in Luxury Soap Segment. Both men and women used it!

I recall this sweet little jingle of Bajaj Electricals. It seems Bajaj Electricals made a historical success by giving a fight to Philips bulbs with their jingle “Jab mein chhota baccha tha, badi shararat karta tha, meri chori pakdi jaati,…aur roshnee karta Bajaj” the attractiveness of this jingle is haunting. The ad shows a kid hiding and reading comics, then a young man sneaking in room from window and at the last shot of an old man sneaking into the fridge for some sweet.  The changeover in pitch and tone from a childish jangle to the old man’s rattle is so fascinating in this jingle.

Some of the older jingles can still bring a smile on our faces. They are inseparable from our lives. They have become iconic and like diamonds they will remain with us forever.