COMMERCIAL BREAK: "Peter Pan Peanut Butter"

In 1984 I started singing on quite a few commercials. I had been out in California for about 7 years or so and SWITCH was already released from Motown. I had sung background with quite a few artists and was also singing lead as a guest vocalist on many projects. But one day I actually got called to go down and audition for a Pacific Bell commercial. I had never auditioned before because I came out to California with the group, so this was a new experience for me. I got the commercial and from there I've sung on many commercials, both lead and backgrounds.

One particular commercial was 'Peter Pan Peanut Butter'. I got to sing backgrounds on this commercial with my brother James and Jim Gilstrap. The day I got called for the commercial I had an appointment in the evening in Woodland Hills, CA at 7:00 PM, but this session was scheduled for 4:00 PM in a Los Angeles Studio. Anyone that knows the 101 FWY out here in LA, realizes that it's quite hard because of traffic to make it from LA to Woodland Hills, CA in a timely manner. The commercial session started at 4:00, but went until a little past 6:00. I had to leave right away to make it to my next appointment, but without breaking too many laws I made it to my next appointment on time.


That commercial ended up running for quite some time. Usually a commercial has a 13-week run cycle and if they renew the commercial it can run another 13-week cycle which would make one commercial running for 6 months or more. I don't quite remember how many cycles this particular commercial ran but it was well over a year. As a commercial runs the singers get residuals and this Peter Pan Peanut Butter Commercial, because of the different cycle's that it ran, was one of the longest and biggest paying residuals that I had back in the 80s.

You might remember this commercial and others of you reading this BLOG wasn't even born yet. But as a session singer you can sing on many different types of sessions. That can include records, movies, Radio Staion IDs, commercials, animation, floats for parades, pre-recorded vocals for a show that you might see at Disneyland like "Captain EO: and "Honey I Shrunk The Audience" and the list goes on. I've had the privilege of singing on all of the above within my career, so I thought I'd take a 'commercial break' from time to time to share some of those great experiences of singing on commercials as well.

This one was "Peter Pan Peanut Butter", but there will be some surprises in the future. I've had people say, "I never knew you sang on that"....


Usually people bypass the commercials, but from time to time I'm going to take a 'Commercial Break' but only on the ones I sang on.


Catch a glimpse of nostalgia with this clip from YouTube:

Until Next Time - Phillip