About
The JinglesAbout
The Jingles
Sun’s claim to fame for a hot minute was co-writing a bunch of Nick at
Nite’s station I.D.’s which ran for 6 or 7 years. Of the 20 jingles Sun
co-wrote with Art Labriola, 14 were chosen and produced. They were so
easy and so much fun to write that
Sun says he had about 70 more written. When he showed these to him, Sun remembers
Art went sort of glassy-eyed. Maybe we’ll eventually get some of those
hilarious lyrics on here. Of the ditties that aired, Sun got to sing lead
on one, in the ensemble on one and did a voice over on another (fancy that,
Sun with his as he calls it "affected New Jersey fag accent" being
asked to do a voice over). Sun sang on an additional version of one that
appears here for the first time ("Crazy" with Sun). There
were many versions of several of the Jingles listed and included here for the
first time in recorded history is the Mae West version of "Teddy Bear",
sung by Angela LaGreca. When TV Land became available through most cable
providers the networks wanted to avoid confusion and since the Nick at Nite
jingles all mention TV Land, they were taken off the air. Click
here to go where these jingles are.
Sometime before the Nick at Nite jingles were taken off the air TV Land hired Pompasello Productions, the company responsible for the Nick at Nite jingles to create a new campaign. Pompasello Productions produced many other promos, bumpers and jingles for Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon and many other networks and products. Since the Nick at Nite I.D.’s had been so successful, ("Beautiful Place" won the silver (2nd Place) BPME Award for 1992) and TV Land was looking for a sort of similar approach to give their 24 hour network an identity, Tom Pompasello engaged many of the same writers. The presentation of the demos was apparently astoundingly fresh and exciting and went over well but TV Land hemmed and hawed until the new campaign turned old and was simply forgotten. That was in early 1997. TV Land still has no station I.D.’s. Art and Sun submitted a dozen sketches for what was thought might be the first round of submissions. Sun has chosen 8 of those for your enjoyment. Since they never made it past the submission stage, Sun is singing on all of them - Yay! Click here to go where the TV Land jingles are.
"Dey All Over De Floor (The Rug Rats)"
Also commissioned by Pompasello Productions for Nickelodeon were 4 two minute songs for their popular show The Rug Rats. Art and Sun were asked to write one of these. 2 of the 4 submissions were to be selected and made into little videos for a special Thanksgiving weekend promotion featuring many of Nickelodeon’s shows. Most "kiddie writing" at the time followed the formula of using rap or 'oldies' style approaches. Sun wanted to try something a little different. At the time Snow and Ace of Base were having huge success with a crossover dance-hall reggae 'n' rap sort of thing which was extremely popular among teeny boppers so having made this approach appealing to Art, "Dey All Over De Floor" was born. Sun is singing on this unfinished demo. Tom Pompasello practically guaranteed this would be one of the chosen songs. It appears here for public consumption for the first time... and aren’t you glad. It’s FABULOUS!!! Click here to go to Dey All Over De Floor.
"Rockin’
Our Dreams (Club Disney)"
This cute little song assignment came Sun's way by accident. Sun was recommended to his co-writer by Art Labriola who's studio is on the same floor. Louie knew Art was a composer and asked if he would write lyrics for a 'jingle/song' he'd been hired to write for Disney who were creating a theme restaurant with "family oriented play areas or something" that were to be called 'Club Disney'. Art told him he didn't write lyrics but highly recommended Sun who'd written many of Art’s jingles that had lyrics. The song came out like a "latter day Laverne & Shirley meets those wonderful Bickley - Warren shows" theme song (Family Matters, Step By Step). Very cute indeed but it fit very little of the specs originally set out by Disney. Louie didn’t seem too interested in any of the ideas Sun had that were more in line with what Disney wanted. Other than the words magic, wonder, sparkle and rock the rest of Sun's 'Disney words' ideas were rejected. Sun succummed to giving Louie what he wanted, not what Disney wanted. The Disney specs seemed also to be avoiding the word 'club' and actually did mention the word 'place' but to the best of Sun's recollection Louie had apparently received 'additional information' from Disney that was not on the specs and the (in Sun's opinion) ultra hokey 'club' was used. Louie also resisted Sun's melody until the vocalist specifically asked Sun what the exact melody notes were... that it would be difficult to ad-lib well without knowing the melody. Louie finally let Sun teach her the melody, "I guess he was afraid of looking foolish. a lot of composers look at lyric writers as 'just the lyricist' and when we are more than that it's as though they feel threatened somehow." Sun will talk in greater detail at some other time about what he calls "a sort of musical apartheid" that exists regarding specific contributions each participant is allowed to make in the composing process. Bottom line?: "The over all writing experience with Louie was grin-and-bear-it-ingly unpleasant." Sun says he stopped by Art's at some point and said he wished he was writing it with him. Though the song came out good and he didn't say so at the time, Sun knew it didn’t stand a chance of being chosen. And anyway, for what? Is there a Club Disney? We want to know. The guitarist also finally looked to Sun for ideas and "did a smashing job" and Sun wishes he could remember his name. The gorgeous vocals were done by the super talented and always enchanting Lisa DeSimone who sang on many of the Nick at Nite I.D.'s. Click here to go to Rockin' Our Dreams.
PlayhouseRadio.com
A wonderful children's music website PlayhouseRadio.com allowed Sun to compose their site's theme song. A must hear, it's absolutely adorable and at only ten seconds you won't be sacrificing much to give it a listen. Unfortunately, PlayhouseRadio.com had to close but we've included the jingle on our site for your listening pleasure. Click here to go there.
For information about Sun's services as a jingle or songwriter, contact Emiline
