The Hillside Singers were an American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology * Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or ...

group. The ensemble was created by advertising agency

McCann Erickson McCann, formerly McCann Erickson, is an American global advertising agency network, with offices in 120 countries. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, along with several other agencies, including direct digital marketing agency MRM//McCann, exp ...

to sing in a television commercial. McCann Erickson had written the

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 ...

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) "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 ...

" for

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 Atlan ...

, and had sought to have

The New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would have ...

sing it, but that group could not fit the project into their schedule and turned it down. McCann Erickson then got in touch with producer

Al Ham Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in Malden, Massachusetts — October 4, 2001 in Spring Hill, Florida) was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the ''Move Closer to Your World'' music package used since the 1 ...

, who put together a group of singers for the project (including his wife, Mary Mayo, and their daughter Lorri). The commercial began airing in July 1971 and was extremely popular, convincing Ham to rewrite the song as "

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 ...

" and to record an album and a Christmas record. The single hit No. 13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and No. 5 on the

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...

, which convinced The New Seekers to issue it as a single as well. The Hillside Singers version of the song sold a million copies, earning a

gold certification Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

from the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. The Hillside Singers also sang the vocal version of "

Move Closer to Your World Move Closer to Your World (MCTYW) is a television news music package composed in 1970 by Walt LissSanders, Nancy (May 22, 2022)Walt Liss Co-Author of Famous News Theme and WKBW Exec Has passed ''Buffalo Broadcasters Association. Retrieved September ...

", a theme created for television news by Ham, which is known for its long-time use by

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. In 1972, they had a minor hit with "We're Together", which peaked at No. 100 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in February 1972. Ham went on to create a syndicated radio music format called ''

Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and C ...

'', but he died in 2001. Lorri Ham (now known as Lorri Hafer) continued to work as a professional singer and an on-air personality on the ''Music of Your Life'' network. In 2009 several former Hillside Singers under the name Treehouse 10 released ''Bug in a Puddle'', an album of original children's songs. Ronald Bruce "Ron" Shaw and Richard Randall "Rick" Shaw were twin brothers born on February 1, 1941, in

West Stewartstown, New Hampshire West Stewartstown is a census-designated place in the town of Stewartstown in Coös County, New Hampshire, United States. It had a population of 263 at the 2020 census, down from 386 at the 2010 census. Geography It is located along U.S. Route ...

. Ron Shaw died on April 1, 2018, at age 77. Rick Shaw died on January 28, 2021, at age 79.

Members

*Lorri Marsters Ham *Joelle McDermott

arino Arino may refer to: People * Aitor Ariño (born 1992), Spanish handball player * Amalia Sánchez Ariño (1883–1969), Argentinian actress * Gaspar Ariño Ortiz (1936–2023), Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician * Julia Arino (born 1991) ...

*Billy Marino *Frank Marino *Laura Marino *Mary Mayo *Rick Shaw (vocals, string guitar) *Ron Shaw (vocals, guitar, banjo) *Susan Wiedenmann

Discography

*''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'' (

Metromedia Records Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...

KMD 1051, 1971) US No. 71 *''Merry Christmas from the Hillside Singers'' (Metromedia Records KMD 1058, 1972)

References

;Footnotes ;Sources * Hillside Singersat Allmusic.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillside Singers, The American folk musical groups