Barry Manilow's Jingles Ranked By Catchiness

Most Barry Manilow fans know that he spent his early days writing and performing advertising jingles in the '70s. He may have broken big with hits like "Looks Like We Made It," "Mandy," and his signature ballad, "I Write the Songs," but his career as a humble piano-playing ad writer helped him sharpen his songwriting chops. It also allowed him to create some of the most memorable jingles the world has ever heard. They're meaningful enough for him to include as a nostalgic medley in his concerts.

What makes a jingle catchy? We think if the tune sticks in your head, even if you don't intend to buy the product it's pitching, that's a sure sign of catchiness. How much a jingle sounds like a full-fledged song, instead of just a quick tune to sell chicken or burgers, is also a solid sign that catchiness is part of the formula, too. And if the song transcends eras to become a timeless piece of pop culture history? Then, as far as we're concerned, the catchiness factor is in full effect.

Of all the catchy jingles Manilow came up with, some are bound to be catchier than others. These may not rate as Manilow's underrated tracks that should've gone to No. 1 but didn't, but they're an essential piece of his ongoing showbusiness career. Take a spin through the songman's greatest jingle hits to find out how we think they rank for catchiness when lined up against one another.

A blues-style cabaret romp for a colorful toilet bowl cleaner that brightened and deodorized your commode? If it seems an outrageous direction for a jingle, it's nothing compared to how it actually sounds. Barry Manilow came up with "Bathroom Bowl Blues" for Bowlene, that strangely-hued green goo that used to be a popular item with suburbanites, but somehow couldn't survive to the age of Poopouri.

The video ad helps give the brassy tune context. A dowdy, overworked cleaning woman bemoans the nasty labor involved in cleaning the toilet, decrying that it's the "low-downest, bluest job in town." The bottle of Bowlene flashes on the screen, and suddenly the maid has been remade into a stunning socialite in a vibrant green gown with fuzzy sleeves, dancing and singing about how "tough, green Bowlene beats the bathroom bowl blues." It's about as unrealistic as an ad from the early '70s can get.

There's a hidden meaning in the lyrics that some viewers may not pick up on. Around the same time, one of the best-known toilet cleaners was Ty-D-Bol, a bottle that sat in the toilet tank and released blue cleaner into the bowl with every flush. The idea of having a bluesy song about cleaning the toilet until you find a green cleaner that "beats the bathroom bowl blues" was a clever way for Manilow and co-writer Lois Wise to jab at the more familiar cleaner.

Back when it was still called Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC launched an ad campaign that beckoned America to "get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun." The upbeat tribute to the joy of fast food came courtesy of a young Barry Manilow, who helped chicken sales take wing with a jingle that sounded more sophisticated than many adverts of the time. Descriptions of just how grueling your day can be and the relief of having pre-made food at the ready tapped into a generation of busy workers, all looking to feed their families without adding more labor to their plates. It's the stuff smart jingle-making is all about.

If you were around in the day and age when this jingle made the rounds, you can easily recall the lyrics and melody, even if you haven't thought about it for decades. It made a lasting impression despite dropping off after its early-'70s campaign, even appearing in a more soulful R&B version on a promotional album released by the company in 1974. It's a fun one to snap along to when the memory hits, even if it isn't one of Manilow's more lasting contributions to the advertising landscape.`

One of the sillier songs Manilow tackled in his time as a jingle singer, the Dr Pepper tune may have been written by Randy Newman, but it's Manilow's dulcet tones that brought the soda's first-ever jingle to life in the mid-70s. Granted, it was clever enough to work in the tag line, "The most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world," and Manilow made it seem like easy work fitting all those lyrics in with a single breath. And don't be fooled by the actor tap dancing across the conference room table in the lavish Broadway-style commercial; Manilow is the voice behind the effusive song extolling the virtues of a wholly original cola-adjacent soft drink.

Some people mistakenly credit Manilow with writing the "I'm a Pepper" jingle sung by David Naughton in the late '70s and early '80s. That credit goes to Randy Newman (again) and Jake Holmes. But Manilow's vocal contributions on the initial Dr Pepper ad tune came at a time when the company was just catching on to the selling power of a snappy tune. It turns out Manilow launched one of the catchiest ad songs of the '70s, just not one of his catchiest jingles of all time.

It's Manilow's voice imploring consumers to "join the Pepsi people, feelin' free, feelin' free" in a soda jingle aimed at the Me Generation. The 1974 ad featuring the carbonated anthem is a strange mix of adults running track and field events and kids climbing limbless trees. Their energy drink of choice? Why, it's Pepsi, of course — caffeinated, cold, and served in glass bottles like real cola should be. It's a strange mix that suggests Americans had a different idea of what a soda-fied good time was back in the '70s. But that's what pre-Bicentennial freedom meant: Be weird, and do it in a TV commercial.

This one feels a little like a national anthem that didn't quite catch on. But the spirited delivery with Manilow's unmistakable voice — soon to be a radio staple — instills confidence in the country and implores people to choose a beverage that represents their freedom. It may have been a bit of a stretch, but Manilow sells it confidently and mellifluously.

"You deserve a break today" became a mid-70s catchphrase for McDonald's, telling customers the golden arches were an escape from the rigors of modern life. This was when fast food was still seen as an occasional treat, before it replaced home-cooked meals for millions of American families on the go. The message with a melody resonated and set the tone for a thousand Big Macs to be enjoyed as a respite from the daily grind, and it all came courtesy of Barry Manilow before he hit the big time.

This Manilow jingle didn't have the musical stamina of "I'm lovin' it," the modern musical McDonald's catch phrase that just won't seem to go away. But it did give the "House of Ronald" an updated identity along with an adult contemporary soundtrack. The song was part of McDonald's advertising from 1971 through 1975, before making a comeback in the early '80s with a nostalgic wink.

This was another jingle that Manilow sang but didn't write. He often gets writing credit, but that honor belongs to a gentleman named Sidney Woloshin. But if Manilow's voice could make a jingle catchy, this McDonald's classic is one of his best, if not the best.

Admittedly, the Stridex song is an awkward jingle to both write and remember, as anyone who recalls the era in which it played knows all too well. Just hearing the melody again is enough to bring the angst of adolescence rushing back. Giving teens who worried about their complexion a tuneful jingle to sing as they shopped for solutions wasn't exactly a peak experience for them, but it did give Barry Manilow one of his catchier jingles, aiming to help the youth of America overcome their self-confidence issues.

Who wouldn't be compelled to buy a product that assured you, "Give your face something to smile about with Stridex!" Both the '60s-adjacent melody and the arrangement aimed for an upbeat message that told the target audience the product would give them reason to be happy. It was a message meant to instill self-confidence, though the all-too-happy delivery likely came across as a little glib to those grappling with their teenage esteem.

With a flashy, chugging beat and soaring vocals, this jingle echoes "It's a Miracle," one of Manilow's biggest hits of the '70s. It may be a forgotten favorite now that facial cleansers don't get their own theme songs, but once you hear it again, it sticks in your head like bubble gum.

This ultra-catchy jingle hung around for quite a while, appearing in various iterations into the '80s to remind everyone that whatever adhesive Johnson & Johnson used on its latex strips was durable through pretty much every situation. It was already somewhat nostalgic by then, having been sung by a generation of tykes who were now in their teen years. The instant glee of the bouncy melody and unforgettable lyrics that read like a nursery rhyme was — and still is — irresistibly joyous. The moment you say, "I am stuck on Band-Aid," you can count on someone across the room to call back, "'Cause Band-Aid's stuck on me."

It wasn't just consumers who got stuck on this catchy jingle. Manilow's work won a 1976 Clio award (the ad world's version of a Grammy) for ad agency Young & Rubicam. Furthermore, actors like Teri Garr and John Travolta appeared in ads singing the boppy tune early in their careers, adding to the pop culture mythos surrounding the song. 

How can we not rank the longest-lasting Manilow jingle as his catchiest commercial composition? The fact that State Farm still uses the slogan "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" in its ads is a testament to just how catchy the song is, as well as how effectively it sums up a brand whose aim is to instill long-lasting confidence in its customer base. There may be classic artists with better jingles than State Farm, but Manilow has a lock on the one with the most longevity.

The slogan has been echoed through the ages by Jake from State Farm, Peyton Manning, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, all with the nine-note melody playing underneath. It's kept the Barry Manilow jingle alive and well, making this one of the longest-lived branding moves in modern times.

Despite this ever-catchy jingle lasting for decades (Manilow wrote it all the way back in 1971), it hasn't contributed to the showman's ultra wealth. Per Manilow's own admission, he made a scant $500 for composing the tune — good money for a struggling songwriter back in the day, but not nearly enough to compensate for all the business it's drummed up for State Farm for the past 50 years. Still, in our opinion, it's his catchiest jingle ever, one that pops up in our lives more often than we'd like to admit.