COMMERCIAL BREAK: "Sizzler"...Sounds Good

As I mentioned from time to time I'm going to take a commercial break. Over the years I've sung on quite a few commercials and had some great sessions and so I'll share some of the stories from time to time.

Back in the early 90s Jim Gilstrap, Mark Campbell, Phil Perry, and myself sang on a series of Sizzler commercials. The idea musically was to have some guys do a 'do wop' street vibe. The campaign was a huge success. The commercials would show a steak sizzling and then you would hear, "I like the sound of a sweet juicy steak, Sizzler...sounds good". There were other commercials showing different food items as well. This was all sung a capella. Mark Viegha of LANY music put together the music for this brilliant campaign. Mark Viegha was also the one responsible for the 'Peter Pan Peanut Butter' campaign that I spoke of  in this BLOG on April 17, 2011.

Since Sizzler was a franchise they would have their corporate events in various places around the United States. Well once Mark, Jim, Phil and I were invited to one of the corporate meetings in Boston. The idea was to re-create the commercial right on the spot by pulling some people out of the audience to come up and sing the commercial. The franchise owners didn't know we were there at the time. I was dressed as a waiter and Phil Perry had a 10-gallon western hat posing as a franchise owner. We were all scattered within the audience.

Cliff Eidelman from the advertising agency, who was responsible for putting this campaign together, was speaking at this corporate event. He called up Mark Veigha to talk about how this campaign had come together, with his phone call to Mark, the music, everything since it was so successful. As they were talking they asked if there were any in the audience who could sing, I raised my hand, remember I was dressed as a waiter going around pouring water into people's glasses. I got called up. Then one by one Mark Campbell, Jim Gilstrap, Phil Perry and myself were onstage at this corporate event singing one of the Sizzler commercials that we had recorded. That was pretty cool. The audience LOVED IT, and we had a great time. The flight from LA to Boston took longer than our singing. Still we got to spend about 3-days in Boston enjoying some of it's sights.

You really don't see too many Sizzlers in the US anymore, it seems that the whole Sizzler Corporation was purchased by an Australian company and now Sizzlers are going strong in that part of the world. It was great to have been a part of a huge advertising campaign for Sizzler....sounds good. 


Until next time - Phillip