"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song (originally known as "True Love and Apple Pie") by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley.
The lyrics were rewritten by the songwritersâÂÂtogether with US advertising executive Bill Backer and US songwriter Billy DavisâÂÂas a jingle for The Coca-Cola Company's advertising agency, McCann Erickson, to become "Buy the World a Coke" in the 1971 "Hilltop" television commercial for Coca-Cola and sung by the Hillside Singers. "Buy the World a Coke" was produced by Billy Davis and portrayed a positive message of hope and love, featuring a multicultural collection of young people on top of a hill appearing to sing the song.
The popularity of the jingle led to its being re-recorded in two versions: one by The New Seekers and another by The Hillside Singers (as a full-length song) that removed the references to Coca-Cola. The song became a hit record in the US and the UK.
The idea originally came to Bill Backer, an advertising executive working for McCann Erickson, the agency responsible for Coca-Cola. Backer, Roger Cook and Billy Davis were delayed at Shannon Airport in Ireland. After a forced layover with many hot tempers, they noticed their fellow travelers the next morning were talking and joking while drinking Coca-Cola. Backer wrote the line "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" on a napkin and shared it with Cook and Roger Greenaway.
The melody was derived from a previous song by Cook and Greenaway, originally called "True Love and Apple Pie," that was recorded in 1971 by Susan Shirley. Cook, Greenaway, Backer and Billy Davis reworked the song into a Coca-Cola radio jingle, which was performed by British pop group The New Seekers and recorded at Trident Studios in London. The radio jingle made its debut in February 1971 before being adapted for the Coca-Cola "Hilltop" television commercial later that year.
The commercial ended with the statement:
The song became so popular that its creators revised it, adding three verses and removing product references to create a full-length song appropriate for commercial release. The full-length song was re-recorded by both The Hillside Singers and The New Seekers and both versions became huge hits.
"Buy the World a Coke" contains the line "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" and repeats "It's the real thing", which was Coca-Cola's marketing slogan. The Coca-Cola Company introduced that slogan in October 1969.
Several versions of the ad have been made.
In 2007, Campaign magazine called it "one of the best-loved and most influential ads in TV history". It served as a milestoneâÂÂthe first instance of the recording industry's involvement with advertising.
Marketing analysts have noted Coca-Cola's strategy of marrying the idea of happiness and universal love of the product illustrated by the song.
The commercial has continued receiving accolades; in 2000, Channel 4 and The Sunday Times ranked the advertising jingle 16th in the 100 Greatest TV Ads while in 2005, ITV ranked the advertisement 10th in its list of the greatest advertisements.
The advertisement and song have a significant role in the series finale to the television show Mad Men. In the finale, titled "Person to Person", the series' protagonist Don Draper is seen meditating in the episode's final shot before the episode cuts to the advertisement. The use of the advertisement as the end of the episode (and subsequently the series) has led to many interpretations about the future of Don Draper and his relation to the advertisement. Jen Chaney for Esquire wrote that "Mad Men's deliberately ambiguous conclusion most obviously implies that Don takes his experience at that touchy-feely California retreat back to McCann Erickson and does what Don, at his best, has always done: turns highly personal human experience into brilliant shills for product", implying Draper will eventually create the advertisement. (The series ends in the year 1970, and the advertisement did not debut until 1971) Regarding the use of the advertisement in the finale, series creator Matthew Weiner stated "[i]n the abstract, I did think, why not end this show with the greatest commercial ever made? In terms of what it means to people and everything, I am not ambiguity for ambiguityâÂÂs sake. But it was nice to have your cake and eat it too, in terms of what is advertising, who is Don and what is that thing?âÂÂ
After the TV commercial aired, radio stations began to get calls from people who liked it. Billy Davis' friends in radio suggested he record the song, but not as an advertising jingle. It became so popular that the song was rewritten without brand name references and expanded to three verses. Davis recruited a group of studio singers to take it on because The New Seekers did not have time to record it. The studio group named themselves The Hillside Singers to identify with the ad, and within two weeks the song was on the national charts. The Hillside Singers' version reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, #5 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart and #58 on the RPM charts in Canada. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 97 song for 1972.
The New Seekers later recorded the song and sold 96,000 copies of their record in one day, eventually selling 12 million total. "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" climbed to #1 in the UK, #3 in Canada and #7 in the US in 1971 and 1972. The song became a gold record in the US and has also sold over a million copies in the UK. The Coca-Cola Company waived royalties to the song and instead donated $80,000 in payments to UNICEF. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 93 song for 1972.