Although it's always been relatively uncommon, legendary old-school blues musicians have let their voices and/or images be used to sell products in ads and commercials.
There's that semi-famous 1993 John Lee Hooker ad for Lee Jeans, for instance!
Still, this new find is a total surprise. It's a clip of Muddy Waters doing a radio ad for Dr. Pepper.
According to the info posted along with the clip on YouTube, this is one of several audio ads from an series composed by Randy Newman for Dr. Pepper's radio campaign in the late Sixties or early Seventies.
Although Muddy is clearly singing Newman's Dr. Pepper-centric lyrics, It sounds like he's making up the melody as he goes along—as any great blues musician would do!
You can check out the clip below.
“You wanted me to come on your track and do something in a Spanish style. I thought, ‘I have to show him how I do it on the whole guitar’”: Marcin shows an astounded Will Smith his virtuosic guitar technique
“I probably hauled in 20 guitars. I listened to the record top to bottom, turned to him and said, ‘It doesn’t need anything’”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on the one studio session where he lugged a ton of guitar gear – and didn't use any of it
