Sunday, September 7, 2008

You'll Never Find Another Bud Like Mine

Although it had used the catchphrase "When You Say Bud, You've Said It All" before then, Budweiser introduced its jingle "When You Say Bud" back in 1970. The tune was written by a gentleman named Steve Karmen, who got his start playing sax for Bobby Darin. He also wrote "At Beneficial (toot! toot!), You're Good for More."

The Bud theme song was most notably done by Lou Rawls, who became so closely identified with it that one of his albums was called When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All. But oddly enough, in 1972, someone changed up the lyrics to "When You Say Bud" (the songwriting is credited to a couple of country songwriters named Jerry Foster and Bill Rice, in addition to Karmen), and Sonny and Cher made a record of it. Somehow, "When You Say Love" managed to squeak its way onto the charts, peaking at Number 35. It would be the last Top Forty hit for Sonny and Cher.

Lou Rawls did it much better, especially in his hometown (and mine):

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