Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Spencer Davis Group advertises Great Shakes



So what happened to the Spencer Davis Group after Steve Winwood left to get it together in the country with his new band Traffic and his brother Muff left to become a record industry executive?

They did not have much success, but some of their later singles - Time Seller for instance - sound pretty good today.

And they got involved in some more commercial ventures. They recorded the theme song for Magpie and here they are advertising Great Shakes, which seems to have been a funky version of Nesquik.

1 comment:

burkesworks said...

I have the final version of their Great Shakes ad on the amazing 8-volume "Psychedelic Promos & Radio Spots" collection[1]; the makers of Great Shakes must have loved British music as there are also ads featuring the Who and the Yardbirds pitching for their product. First time I've ever seen the video though - and is that Robin Scott of the BBC doing a spot of moonlighting at the controls at around 1' 49" ?

[1] - for what it's worth, the only Winwood-related recording that I can find on those volumes is an ad for Traffic's first LP. There's a whole load of good gear there though, by everyone from Frank Zappa to the Beach Boys; paging Andrew Hickey!