Anatomy Of A Silly Commercial: The Bean Brothers

I am a professional songwriter.

Okay, stop laughing. But I have written songs! I’m even registered with BMI after I wrote lyrics for “The Board Of Health Blues #87”, a song by hillbilly rapscallions The Riverfront Boys.

Most of the songwriting I’ve done has been for commercials. For example, this yuletide offering:

Our latest musicale, an “image” ad for Trinidad Bean and Elevator, was inspired by Account Executive Mikala Toedtli (aka Mamacita). She played this clip for me:

I do love me some Brak. Now, of course, we can’t use the lyrics or track from this…copyrighted material and all. But I took the general concept of “something musical involving beans” and noodled around for a bit.

I wrote lyrics to the tune of “Pomp And Circumstance”. (Insider tip: Just like “O Christmas Tree” in the above DQ spot, “Pomp” is in the public domain. Which means we can use it in commercials.)

I recruited Herr Kroheim von Beanheim to sing the tune with me. I am a pretty heinous singer but the K-Man and I together manage to sound fairly decent. (Him being an actual…you know…musician helps.)

Here’s the Trinidad spot:

The hardest part of this spot was getting it even reasonably close to time. “Pomp And Circumstance” is not the snappiest tune, so some electronic fidgeting was necessary to get it to time, and to make at least a reasonable effort to sync the vocals and the music track.

Incidentally, Wenty and Kroheim (billed as The Happiness Boys) are available for weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and ice cream socials.