The song "See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet" (title as filed for 1950 copyright)
[ is a commercial jingle from c. 1949, with lyrics and music by Leo Corday (]ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
) and Leon Carr
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
(ASCAP),[ written for the Chevrolet Division of ]General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
. The song was the Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
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 t ...
sung on the show '' Inside U.S.A. with Chevrolet'' by Chevrolet's real-life husband-wife duo, Peter Lind Hayes
Peter Lind Hayes (born Joseph Conrad Lind Jr.; June 25, 1915 – April 21, 1998) was an American vaudeville entertainer, songwriter, and film and television actor.
Early life
Hayes was born in San Francisco, the son of Joseph Conrad Lind Sr., a ...
and Mary Healy,[ years before it became associated with ]Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...
through Chevrolet's decade-long sponsorship of her television shows. Dinah Shore sang the song after 1952,[ and it became something of a ]signature song
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...
for her. Later the song was also sung by male spokesman Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...
on his ''Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom'' (ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
) from 1957 through 1960. When the games of the Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
were televised in the 1960s, commercials were aired with the song sung by baseball players John Roseboro
John Junior Roseboro (May 13, 1933 – August 16, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1957 until 1970, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. A four ...
and Don Drysdale
Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993) was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. A right-handed pitcher for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers for his entire career in Major League Baseball, D ...
, whose singing careers, announcer Vin Scully
Vincent Edward Scully (November 29, 1927 – August 2, 2022) was an American sportscaster. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located ...
said, were "destined to go absolutely nowhere."
Missing punctuation, the song is also titled as "See the USA in Your Chevrolet" on IMDb.[. Retrieved 2009-10-15.] The title has been catalogued for ASCAP since year 2001, as "See The U S A In Your Chevrolet (Chevrolet)" (listed without publisher in the 2001 ASCAP ACE Database).[
]
Adaptations
Over the years, this song has also been customized by local Chevrolet dealerships, incorporating the dealer name, brands and/or area they service. One example can be found in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...
, where The JN Automotive Group used the Dinah Shore commercial footage in a 2011 TV commercial that featured their customers singing the song.
Automotive dealership Ellis Brooks Chevrolet (now Ellis Brooks Auto Center) in San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
adapted the song into "See Ellis Brooks Today for Your Chevrolet". The radio and television advertisement became iconic throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
In popular culture
On February 6, 2011, during Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
's coverage of Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champi ...
, the cast of ''Glee
Glee means delight, a form of happiness.
Glee may also refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...
'' did a cross-promotion with Chevrolet which involved Sue Sylvester
Susan "Sue" Rodham Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, ''Glee''. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and appears in ''Glee'' from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009, through th ...
enticing the glee club to do a commercial in which they would receive a Chevrolet Cruze
The Chevrolet Cruze is a compact car that is produced by General Motors since 2008. It was designated as a globally developed, designed, and manufactured four-door compact sedan, complemented by a five-door hatchback body variant from 2011, and ...
if they participated, knowing that doing so would disqualify the New Directions from competing in any contests. Although the song was used in a dream sequence that involved a big budget production number, the group (in reality) declined Sue's bribe upon Rachel Berry
Rachel Barbra Berry is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists, alongside Mr. Schue in the Fox musical comedy-drama series ''Glee''. The character is portrayed by actress Lea Michele, and appears in ''Glee'' from its pilot epi ...
's realization of Sue's ulterior motive, which had previously caused trouble for the Glee club in a season 1 episode, "Mattress
A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a lying person. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, conta ...
". Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
ran several Super Bowl advertisements, one of which was this 30-second ad. The ad served as a teaser for a 2-minute and 20 second ad featuring the Glee cast as singers and dancers during a Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati (; born August 29, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, and author. She began her career as a child actress on Broadway (theatre), Broadway, appearing in productions of ''Les Misérables (musical), Les Misérab ...
-led rendition of "See the USA in Your Chevrolet" that aired during the Super Bowl lead-out program, which was "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle
"The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the American musical television series ''Glee'', and the thirty-third episode overall. It was written by Ian Brennan, directed by Brad Falchuk, and was broadcast immedia ...
" episode of Glee. A 60-second version of the ad was aired along with movie trailers
A trailer (also known as a preview, coming attraction or attraction video) is a commercial advertisement, originally for a feature film that is going to be exhibited in the future at a movie theater/cinema. It is a product of creative and tech ...
at nationwide movie theater
A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
s. The commercial was also to promote the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! was a 2010—2011 concert tour performed in-character by members of the cast of the popular television series '' Glee''. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy, was designed to build on the overwhelming response ...
tour. The "See the USA" ad was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (sometimes Alfonso Gómez-Rejón; born November 6, 1972, in Laredo, Texas) is an American film and television director. His television program credits include ''Hunters'', ''Glee'' and ''American Horror Story''. He was nomin ...
. Russell Carpenter
Russell Paul Carpenter, (born December 9, 1950) is an American cinematographer and photographer, known for collaborating with directors James Cameron, Robert Luketic and McG. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the 1997 Best Pic ...
was the director of photography
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
. Jello Biafra
Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and politician. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially ac ...
of the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk rock, punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, sa ...
talks about "the theme from ''The Dinah Shore Show''" in the short talking song "Night of The Living Rednecks", and asks someone if they want to play the part of Shore, commenting the reluctant audience member's fist "didn't go up so quickly this time".
During the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, soldiers in the U.S. army sang a revised version of the song as a military cadence that, according to one account, included the lines "See the DMZ from your APC; America is asking you to die. So grab your M-16 with your magazine; America is asking you to die." A second account recalls the opening line as being "See the DMZ, from your APC; America is sending you to Nam." The DMZ was the demilitarized zone separating North Vietnam from South Vietnam, an APC was and is an armored personnel carrier
An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world.
Acc ...
, and the M-16
The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...
was the standard-issue rifle used by soldiers in the U.S. army.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:See The Usa In Your Chevrolet
1949 songs
Chevrolet
Television music
Pat Boone songs
Road transportation in the United States
Songs about cars
Songs used as jingles
Songs with music by Leon Carr