While that name may not ring a bell with you, as soon as I saw his name as the sender, I was excited. That's because one of my earlier blog posts had mentioned his father, N. B. Winkless, Jr. and his work at Leo Burnett Co., the advertising agency that's had the Kellogg breakfast cereals.
N. B. Winkless, Jr. joined the Leo Burnett agency in August 1957. As a creative director, he was responsible for much of what was seen in the Kellogg commercials on those early days of television.
One of his many accomplishments was composing the beloved "Rice Krispies Song." Here's the commercial that I believe introduced the jingle.
Here's another version – the one I remember from when I was a kid – in which Snap, Crackle and Pop get banged up a bit.
Lastly, here's the lovable elves doing their best "hotel lounge singer" version of their signature tune.
Anyway, Nels contacted me to offer a minor factual correction to my original post about Rice Krispies (back here). I was glad he did, because it gave me the opportunity to trade a few emails with him, and learn about how his father created the beloved jingle.
According to Nels, his father "painstakingly banged that out of an old upright piano at home in Kenilworth, Illinois."
Nels also revealed to me in his email that his father had a little help – and that it took time to get the song just right.
"He was handy with words, but needed some help from my brother, Jeff, in the trickier parts of the music," he wrote. "We heard that thing taking shape for months before it went on the air for thirty years or so."
Well, the time and effort that N. B. Winkless, Jr. put into the creation of the jingle certainly paid off. Decades after he composed it, the catchy melody lingers on in our subconscious, especially when we sit down to enjoy a bowl of Kellogg's Rice Krispies.
Nels Winkless is a consultant who writes "The ABQ Correspondent," an
online newsletter that focuses on "the impact of new technology on
society."
5 comments:
Ah, first use of the word "rap" in a song!
Crackle - "geese cackle, feathers tickle, belts buckle, beets pickle, but crackle makes the world go round." That is pure genius.
I have long been wondering whose voices? Perry Como? Bing Crosby? Been looking apparently not the right places. I found this site after cocking an image of a 7" , 33 1/3 rpm but without writer or performers Thanks
Any idea what year that song was first used in a Rice Krispies commercial?
I’ve never seen an official year, even on the Rice Krispies website. But based on the package design (with the big head of one of the elves in the upper right hand corner) and the fact that an infamous Rolling Stones Rice Krispie commercial came out in 1964, I would guess around 1965 or 1966. I remember seeing at least two of the commercials posted above in the late 1960s, especially the one where they get banged up a bit and imitate the Spirit of 76. And the Rice Krispies Wiki page notes that the “Snap! Crackle! Pop! Rice Krispies!” theme dates to 1966.
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