The New Seekers – I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing

The New Seekers released the single I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony), in 1971. The title has been included on the album We’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, from the same year.

The New Seekers was a pop group formed in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers.
Further members included: Laurie Heath, Sally Graham, Chris Barrington, Marty Kristian, Eve Graham, Paul Layton, Lyn Paul, Peter Doyle, Peter Oliver, Danny Finn, Kathy Ann Rae, Brian Engel, Vivien Banks, Nicola Kerr, Caitriona Walsh, Donna Jones, Mick Flinn, Victoria James, Francine Rees, Mark Hankins.

The music was written by the British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, who around this time also co-wrote the Hollies hit “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress).” The music they used for the commercial was based on something they had already written which they called “True Love And Apple Pie.”

They worked on the jingle with Backer and Billy Davis, who was the music director assigned to Coke’s account. Davis was also a successful songwriter, having co-written some songs for Jackie Wilson. The four of them stayed up all night writing the song, which Davis then produced with The New Seekers.

William Backer came up with the line “I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company” when his plane to London, where he was slated to create the commercial, got diverted to Ireland because of weather. He and his fellow travelers were not happy about this, but when they got together at the airport café for refreshments, Backer noticed their spirits lifted as they commisserated over their shared experience. He also noticed that many of them were drinking Coke, a beverage that crossed cultures. (The full story of how the Coke commercial came together is in Backer’s book The Care And Feeding Of Ideas.)

At first, The New Seekers balked at recording the full version of the song, so Billy Davis put together a group of studio singers to record it and called them “The Hillside Singers.” This version was released as a single and picked up steam, convincing The New Seekers to get in on the action. Their version was released a short time later – both renditions climbed the chart simultaneously, with The Hillside Singers version peaking at #13 the same week The New Seekers made it to #7.

The song was a global success, going to #1 in Japan, Ireland and the UK and reaching the Top 10 in a number of territories. It was recorded in a number of different languages.

The New Seekers made little money out of this worldwide hit. They were on £50 a week until this song got into the charts when it went up to £100. Occasionally, they’d be given a bonus of, say, £1,000 to buy some new clothes. For this song the five group members were paid just a £2,000 session fee and the rest went to charity and their management.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

The New Seekers - I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing

New Seekers I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing02:31

Coca Cola Commercial - I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) - 197101:00

Melodia originală e a fost inițial doar un jingle, “True Love and Apple Pie”.

Versurile au fost rescrise de de Bill Backer și Billy Davis pentru o reclamă la Coca-Cola, și au devenit “Buy the World a Coke”.  A fost interpretată de Hillside Singers. Popularitatea reclamei, i-a determinat pe New Seekers să re-înregistreze  această melodie, în versiunea curentă.

Views: 3