I was born in 1969, which let me experience all the coolest ’70s and ’80s pop culture during my formative years. Though I might have problems remembering which day to take out the trash, I can remember the wonderful commercials from this time as if I watched them minutes ago. A popular tactic of many jingles was to take a classic well known song that was in the public domain, and simply write new words for it. There were no royalties involved, and you get a recognizable ad that hopefully will ring in kids heads until they beg their parents mercilessly for it at the grocery store.

The funny thing was, that for kids like me, the first time they heard these tunes may have been the commercials. Surprised to hear the tune pop up later in life. The Golden Grahams commercial had a catchy tune that I would often sing to myself. One day, we went to an outdoor Bluegrass Festival and I heard someone play “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” on a banjo, and I was thrilled beyond belief that the band dug that cereal enough to perform the song in front of a crowd.

Perhaps the most embarrassing example was for the short lived but wonderful tasting Smurfberry Crunch. Now I was 13 when this came out, so you’d think I would have seen The Nutcracker Suite by then, but I had not. So when a commercial for a San Francisco performance of the ballet aired, it just about broke my mind to see people dancing to the Smurfberry Crunch song. I still think it works out better in my head that Tchaikovsky used a time machine and ripped it off.

Were there any commercials you experienced the same way? Or am I just crazy?