3. Various ArtistsTeeVee Toons: The Commercials

Rock journalists both in France and Japan, for some reason, tend to ask questions you haven’t been asked before, which is always a refreshing thing. And we did an interview with a French rock journalist about a year ago and she said: “Did American advertising jingles have any effect on what Sparks’ music would become?” And I’d never really thought about that, because I always felt that I was influenced by mostly British bands from the sixties and that sort of thing. But when I came to think about it, it really did seem like that kind of jaunty, angular, sometimes overly happy musical expression had an effect on our music in some way. I was happy that she brought that up, because I’d never really even considered that. That it wasn’t necessarily just bands but mindless television that had influenced us, whether they were advertising Brylcreem or hair pomade, Gillette razors, Alka-Seltzer or even cars. Those jingles were always irritatingly catchy and I think they had an effect on me for better or worse.