Acorns From An Okie

Allen December 22nd, 2005

Charles notes that "jewelry is the gift to give".  Why?  Because it’s the gift you know can’t fail.

Non-Okies are probably scratching their head and wondering what we are talking about.  We are, of course, talking about the BC Clark Jingle — a staple of Oklahoma folk culture for as long as most of us can remember.

While many people know the song, few remember that it was actually re-recorded in 1977 to fit the standard 30-second time frame for commercials.  The deleted line was "The Christmas wish of B. C. Clark is to keep on pleasing you".  If memory serves me correctly it was just after the "since eighteen-ninety-two" line.

Fewer still know the names of the singers.  So few, in fact, that even the people of BC Clark don’t know.  I received this response when asking about the singers:

Allen,

Thank you for your email!  We actually do not know the names of the people who originally sang the jingle.  All that we do know is that it was sung by local talent in Dallas, TX where it was produced.  In 1977, when the missing line was dropped, the Jingle had to be re-recorded.  It was done again in Dallas and a couple of the singers happened to be some of the ones involved in the original recording.  The song was written by a gentleman named Al Fiegel in Oklahoma City.

Given that the original was recorded in 1956, I hope the singers weren’t hanging around the studio some 21 years later solely on the hopes that they would get a 2nd BC Clark gig.

So to some un-named group of studio singers in Texas, a  generation of Christmas shoppers (jewelry and otherwise) thank you.

Thanks also to Al, who won the Lowe Runkle Distinguished Service Award in 1956.  Al didn’t go on to write any other "blockbuster" songs that I was able to find.  Perhaps this one song was enough.

Who knows?  Perhaps Al’s little ditty will still be sung at Christmas 64 years from now.

• Music
• Comments(1)