Jingle: Braniff “You’ll Like Flying Braniff Style” (1971)
It took me a few plays to realize this isn’t an original song.
It should’ve been obvious from the first line of the lyrics. But the Braniff version of “Everybody’s Talkin'” is so different from the original, I didn’t recognize it at first. While the original is quiet and introverted—the story of a man who wants to retreat from the world—Braniff’s version is loud, outgoing, and brassy. A folk song becomes psychedelic rock.
Would you really expect anything less from Braniff?
Actually, in the ebbs and flows of Braniff advertising, this song comes from a relatively quiet period. It came after the “End of the Plain Plane” in the mid-1960s and “When you got it—flaunt it” from the late 1960s, but before “Flying Colors” in the mid-1970s.
Having developed a reputation for putting style before service, Braniff toned it down—at least a little. Its advertising from the early 1970s is more sedate and harder-working, putting an emphasis on routes, schedules and fares.
I can’t explain why Braniff chose this song, most famously associated with a movie about a gigolo and a grifter, as the basis of their jingle. But I do know they made at least three versions of it. I can’t say for sure how the first two of these were used, but I suspect, based on their sounds, that they promoted Braniff’s new route to Hawaii and their extensive network in South America.
The third version is the strangest. And it’ll be the subject of the next post.
Airline: Braniff International Airways
Title: “You’ll Like Flying Braniff Style”
Agency: Clinton E. Frank Advertising, Chicago
Written By: Fred Neil (original), arranger unknown
Year: 1971
Lyrics
Yeah, everybody’s talkin’ about Braniff.
Come and fly away for a while.
You’ll like flying Braniff style.
Everybody’s talkin’ about Braniff.