Our remembrance of the late legendary ad man Hal Riney based on an interview with his long-time collaborator, noted editor Jacques Dury (4/11 SHOOT spot.com.mentary), hearkened back to the past. While that perspective was valuable in shedding light on Riney’s indelible imprint on our industry and how his work has stood the test of time, another aspect we didn’t touch upon was how Riney’s work carried future implications by virtue of being way head of its time.
Consider the contemporary buzz about the cooperative coming together of ad music and the record (CD) industry–and spot music becoming mainstream entertainment unto itself as reflected in SHOOT’s Music & Sound Series coverage last month (4/25), which included DDB San Francisco and Clorox releasing in response to public demand The Blue Sky Project CD containing select tracks from that client’s spots.
In that same topical vein, arguably the current holy grail would be to have music from a commercial become–or at least spawn–a hit song atop the Billboard music charts. Yet for Riney, this musical nirvana would hardly be a novel notion.
While he was at BBDO San Francisco in the early 1970s, Riney hired an up-and-coming songwriters Paul Williams and Roger Nichols to compose a theme for Crocker Bank. The song, “”We’ve Only Just Begun,” went on to become a number one hit by The Carpenters.
Furthermore, as the Association of Music Producers (AMP) looks to gain Grammy Award recognition for spot music (SHOOT, 4/18), it’s relevant to note that “We’ve Only Just Begun” was in 1998 inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording of lasting quality or historical significance.
Industry vet Susie Goldberg–a production assistant at the time of the Crocker spot working with Riney and his colleague, the now late director Dick Snider of the venerable N. Lee Lacy/Associates–recently helped SHOOT connect with Williams who shared his remembrance of “We’ve Only Just Begun.”
“I didn’t know him [Riney] well but remember him as being a very likeable and amiable man,” related Williams. “We had a brief meeting or two around the time of ‘Begun’ and I’m forever grateful for his part in the birth of the song…but, there aren’t really any great tales to tell. It seems to me he was a natural ‘storyteller’ and lovingly connected with his audience, the market he was addressing.
“Hal asked only that we write a little song to accompany his footage of a wedding, the reception and the young couple driving off into the sunset,” continued Williams. “He promised no audible copy and only the printed tag ‘You’ve got a long way to go .. we’d like to help you get there. The Crocker Bank.’ He didn’t want a jingle. What he envisioned we’d recognize today as a music video. Soft sell romanticism.
“When Roger Nichols and I wrote ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ for the spot, we simply finished it as a song in case anyone wanted to add it as an album cut. Happily Richard Carpenter saw the commercial and asked about the song. An angel sang it and the rest as they say…is simply advertising and musical history.”
“Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Sonic 3” Rule Box Office For 1st Weekend Of 2025
The Walt Disney Co.'s "Mufasa: The Lion King" claimed the No. 1 spot on the North American box office charts over the first weekend of 2025.
The photorealistic "Lion King" prequel earned $23.8 million in its third weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog 3," which has dominated the past two weekends, wasn't far behind.
"Sonic 3" stayed close with a 3-day estimate of $21.2 million, bringing its total domestic earnings to $187.5 million and helping the overall franchise cross $1 billion worldwide. "Mufasa's" running total is slightly less, with $169.2 million.
In third place, Focus Features' "Nosferatu" remake defied the fate of so many of its genre predecessors and fell only 39% in its second weekend. Horror films typically fall sharply after the first weekend and anything less than a 50% decline is notable. "Nosferatu," which added 140 screens, claimed $13.2 million in ticket sales, bringing its running total to $69.4 million since its Christmas debut. The film, directed by Robert Eggers, already surpassed its reported production budget of $50 million, though that figure does not account for marketing and promotion expenses).
No new wide releases opened this weekend, leaving the box office top 10 once again to holdovers from previous weeks. Several have been in theaters since Thanksgiving. One of those, "Moana 2," claimed the No. 4 spot for Disney in its sixth weekend in theaters. The animated sequel earned another $12.4 million, bumping its global total to $960.5 million.
The Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," dipped only slightly in its second weekend, bringing in $8.1 million. With $41.7 million total, it's Searchlight's highest grossing film since Disney acquired the company in... Read More