"Here Comes the King" is a well-known advertising
jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...
written for
Budweiser
Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States.
''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrela ...
, whose slogan is "The King of Beers." Budweiser is the flagship brand of the
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
brewery.
Copyrighted in 1971, the music and lyrics are by Steve Karmen, who also wrote six other jingles for Anheuser-Busch. The song is often heard as the theme for the brand's winter-themed TV commercials featuring the Budweiser
Clydesdale Clydesdale is an archaic name for Lanarkshire, a traditional county in Scotland. The name may also refer to:
Sports
* Clydesdale F.C., a former football club in Glasgow
* Clydesdale RFC, Glasgow, a former rugby union club
* Clydesdale RFC, South ...
horses pulling the Budweiser beer wagon.
"When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All"
Another Budweiser jingle, "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All," also with music and lyrics by
Steve Karmen, was published a year earlier in 1970, and part of its lyric inspired "Here Comes the King."
The underlying instrumental is imitative of a stereotypical Bohemian polka band. Its style resembles the famous
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
jingle "
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing
"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song that originated as the jingle "True Love and Apple Pie", by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley.
The lyrics were rewritten ...
" in that it begins with a lone voice, joined by another singer, and eventually a choral group (Both songs can be heard on the CD, ''Tee Vee Toons: The Commercials''). Many of the lines are punctuated at the end by a double drumbeat.
The award-winning anthem was a hit from the moment it first aired.
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of husband and wife Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector.
The pair f ...
recorded a song titled,
"When You Say Love", written by two country songwriters using the tune of this jingle, and in 1972, it reached number 32 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 2 on the
Easy Listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
chart. (Karmen successfully sued the songwriters for copyright infringement.) In 1976 and 1977, the Budweiser company was sponsoring
Lou Rawls's live shows, and Rawls could be heard at the time singing on television commercials for the company.
Popular culture
"Here Comes the King" can be heard at the end of the seventh inning during all
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
home games and at different times during the game (mainly when the team is in a rally). During the period when Anheuser-Busch owned the Cardinals, it was played instead of "
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song ...
" during the
seventh-inning stretch
In baseball in the United States and Canada, the seventh-inning stretch is a long-standing tradition that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of a game. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their arms and legs and sometimes wa ...
, with ''Take Me Out to the Ball Game'' being played in the eighth inning. It is also played at
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
home games.
Saint Louis University also takes to playing the song during half-time of home basketball games. The SLU pep-band plays the song while the
student section
A student section or student cheering section is a group of student fans that supports its school's athletic teams at sporting events; they are known for being one of the most visible and vocal sections of a sports crowd as well as for their occa ...
sings the lyrics.
The tuba section of the
Florida State University Marching Chiefs, The Royal Flush, plays "Here Comes the King" while entering any time that they perform as a section.
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
bands play "When You Say Bud" regularly at GT sporting and alumni events. The band first played the song in 1970 as a tribute to then-head coach Bud Carson, and the tradition has remained strong. "Bud" is played between the 3rd and 4th quarters at football games, during the second half of Tech basketball games, as well as during volleyball matches, and as part of the 7th inning stretch in baseball games.
The
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
's band also plays the song at sporting events, changing the last line to "When you say WIS-CON-SIN, you've said it all!" The song has been known to sway the upper deck of
Camp Randall Stadium
Camp Randall Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. It has been the home of the Wisconsin Badgers football team in rudimentary form since 1895, and as a fully functioning stadiu ...
because fans dance the polka when the song is played.
Also, the Keith Stein Blue Thunder Marching Band of Boise State University plays the song at various events, usually following the school's fight song. Keith Stein, the owner of the Anheuser-Busch wholesaler in Boise, is a prominent supporter of Boise State University, and the band hall bears his name.
The
Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band
The Sun Devil Marching Band (SDMB), also known as ''The Pride of the Southwest'', is the athletic band of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The Sun Devil Marching Band motto is “Expect Great Things.” The acronym EGT is inscribed on ...
once played this song when they received sponsorship from the local Anheuser-Busch distributor. Since then, the campus and stadium have "gone dry," or stopped serving alcoholic beverages, and the song has fallen out of favor. The alumni band still plays the song in recognition of the past.
A Budweiser commercial featuring the jingle appears in the 1977 film, ''
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...
'' on Roy Neary's (
Richard Dreyfuss) TV, as he models Devil's Tower in his living room. Subsequently, a couple of Budweiser commercials with both jingles also appeared in the 1985 film ''
Beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
'', a comedy film that satirizes advertising.
See also
*''
When You Hear Lou, You've Heard It All
''When You Hear Lou, You've Heard It All'' is a 1977 album by American R&B singer Lou Rawls, released on the Philadelphia International Records label. On this album, only four tracks were produced by Gamble & Huff with the remainder shared amo ...
'' 1977
Lou Rawls album
*''
Lou Rawls Live Lou may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Personal name
* Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Lou (German singer)
* Lou (French singer)
* Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China
* Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most co ...
'' 1978 Lou Rawls live album, which includes a short performance of the original "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All" jingle
References
External links
TV commercial containing the "Here Comes the King" jingle.The original 1970 "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All" commercial
{{St. Louis Cardinals
Anheuser-Busch advertising
Jingles
St. Louis Cardinals
American advertising slogans
1971 songs