First things first, have you seen Apple’s “Strength” commercial? If not, watch this:
The catchy song is called “Chicken Fat”. The singer is Robert Preston, perhaps best known as the star of the movie The Music Man.
Turns out, the original Chicken Fat song was created as exercise background music for school kids. Here’s the complete version of the original. Dismissed!
UPDATE: Apparently, the singer in the ad is not Robert Preston. According to the New York Times, a new version of the song was recorded for the commercial. [Hat tip to Steven Fisher]
I’ll be monitoring this comments thread to see if at least one reader thought that this piece of pointless trivia was worthwhile.
Cool. I checked, but sadly it’s not available in the store (Canada, at least).
I don’t think it’s the same voice, Dave.
Edit: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/business/media/q-and-a-with-stuart-elliott.html?_r=0
A new version of the song was recorded for the commercial, dear reader, but neither Apple nor TBWA/Media Arts Lab is divulging the name of the singer. It is not, as has been reported, a version of the song recorded in 2000 by a commercial singer named Bernie Knee. Anyone who recognizes the voice, please stop exercising long enough to clue the rest of us in.
Wow. I stand corrected.
I’m melting. I’m melting.
Brilliant. Thanks for the info. Post updated.
That was supposed to be me, it just changed me from Steven Fisher to Guest when I tried to merge the comments. 🙂
I’ll add your name. Tweet me @davemark if you want me to add a link to your Twitter name attached to your name.
They played this song in my elementary school during calisthenics. I believe it was a Mitch Miller choral recording.
Mitch Miller! Seems to me we had a bunch of Mitch Miller songbooks scattered around my house when I was a little kid.
He was popular with the World-War-II-era folks.
I’ve listened few times: Apple’s people (whoever they are) really did a fantastic job of capturing the feel of the song while simultaneously updating it; it sounds more retro than old now.