Steely Dan’s Lost Jingle for a Schlitz Beer Commercial (Circa 1973)

Some­where between the record­ing of their first and sec­ond albums (1972–1973), Steely Dan wrote a jin­gle to pro­mote Schlitz, “the beer that made Mil­wau­kee famous.” Accord­ing to Amer­i­can Song­writer, the jin­gle “fea­tures Steely Dan jazz fusion along with Fagen singing Once around life / Once around livin’ / Once around beer / And you’ll keep around Schlitz.”

Schlitz nev­er ulti­mate­ly used the track. The song includ­ed lyrics that Fagen trans­lat­ed from Span­ish to Eng­lish: When I get home from a hard day’s work / He says he likes to grab for all the gus­to he can get / ‘Cause you only go around one time.” Appar­ent­ly the word “grab” came from the Span­ish word “coger,” which is also a Span­ish slang word for sex­u­al inter­course. Schlitz seem­ing­ly cold feet, and the jin­gle nev­er reached the pub­lic. Until now.

via Amer­i­can Song­writer

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Relat­ed Con­tent 

Decon­struct­ing Steely Dan: The Band That Was More Than Just a Band

How Steely Dan Wrote “Dea­con Blues,” the Song Audio­philes Use to Test High-End Stere­os

How Steely Dan Went Through Sev­en Gui­tarists and Dozens of Hours of Tape to Get the Per­fect Gui­tar Solo on “Peg”


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Comments (5)
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  • DANIEL THALER says:

    I DON’T KNOW WHY I COULD NEVE REALLY GET INTO STEELY DAN. I THINK THEY’RE ONE OF THEE MOST PROLIFIC AMERICAN BANDS EVER. ENDLESS ALBUMS, CD’S, SONGS.……
    AND I RECOGNIZE FAGEN’S GENIUS TOO. MAYBE THEY’RE A BIT TOO JAZZY FOR ME BECAUSE I AM NOT A JAZZ PERSON. THEY DEFINITELY ARE NOT A FLAT OUT RNR BAND. I GUESS IF YOU HAD TO CALL THEM SOMETHING (WHICH YOU DON’T REALLY HAVE TO BUT WE ALL DO ANYWAY) I GUESS JAZZ/ROCK FUSION. DEFINITELY JAZZ/SOMETHING FUSION. INCREDIBLY TALENTED AND YOU CAN TELL PRETTY QUICKLY THAT IT IS A STEELY DAN SONG WHEN IT STARTS TO PLAY ON THE BOX. WHATEVER THEIR OFFICIAL GENRE, RnR HALL OF FAMER QUALITY, UNLESS THEY ARE IN ALREADY.

  • MARK SCIRROTTO. says:

    HEY I loved steely­dan I seen them athe­ist 16 time’s but I think who made the band was Don­ald Fagen excel­lent I like Beck­er 👍🏽 too its great to had seen them excel­lent 😄 😀.

  • MARK SCIRROTTO. says:

    HEY I loved steely­dan I seen them athe­ist 16 time’s but I think who made the band was Don­ald Fagen excel­lent I like Beck­er 👍🏽 too its great to had seen them excel­lent 😄 😀. OKAY JUST SUMET IT THANKS MARK SCIRROTTO CHOW. ON

  • Dharm says:

    Fagens solo work sounds just like Steely to me. Much respect for Beck­er but I faced it years ago, Don is the band. Going to see him in a few months because I bet he won’t skip abeat. Sor­ry Wal­ter, RIP bro

  • James Avdelis says:

    I bare­ly remem­ber. I was 10 years-old at the time. Incred­i­ble!!

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