Barry Manilow reveals how little he was paid for writing State Farm jingle

Did you know? A music legend is behind some of the most famous commercial jingles of all time.

Barry Manilow is a Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter whose career has spanned seven decades. He’s sold more than 85 million records as a solo artist, performing hits like “Copacabana (At the Copa),” “Mandy,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “I Write the Songs,” “Mandy” and “Looks Like We Made It.”

But he’s also worked in writing music and lyrics for TV and radio advertisements. He reportedly wrote the iconic Band-Aid song (“I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me“) in 1971, as well as jingles for McDonald’s (”You Deserve a Break Today”), KFC (“Finger-Lickin’ Good Day”), Dr. Pepper (“Be a Pepper”), Pepsi (“Feelin’ Free”) and even Green Bowlene toilet cleaner (“Bathroom Bowl Blues”).

In 2019, Manilow revealed how little he was paid for his longest-running ditty: “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There.” He received just $500 for the State Farm jingle in 1971, and hasn’t seen a dime since.

“You get residuals if you’re singing or talking on the commercial, but as a composer, you get a flat fee,” Manilow told the Television Academy. “It’s been going for 45 years, but nobody expected a jingle to last that long. Same thing with Band-Aid. And $500 was great for me at that point.”

While $500 in 1971 may be worth more than $4,000 when adjusted for inflation today, Manilow couldn’t help joking in 2012 that the girl who sang the original version of the State Farm song “is on her third Rolls-Royce.”

So how did he do it? Manilow said he was given the company slogans for State Farm and Band-Aid, then had to “write a catchy melody, something that will stick in listeners’ ears in 15 seconds.” Some of them became so catchy that they’re still stuck in people’s heads half a century later.

“It’s my greatest hit!” Manilow joked of the State Farm song.

State Farm Insurance: “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There”

Manilow, 82, told the Television Academy that he got his start in 1965 when he was working in the CBS mailroom and became known as the “piano-playing mail boy.” After delivering the mail and before going to night classes at the New York College of Music and Juilliard, he’d go into the television studio’s rehearsal room and play on Yamaha grand pianos.

He also performed in bars and clubs, but credits commercial jingles with really launching his career. In addition to writing tunes for brands, he “started to make some big money” as a background singer in ads, including for Stridex acne products’ “Give Your Face Something to Smile About” and “Randy Newman’s “Join the Pepsi People.”

“I learned the most about music working in the jingle industry. It was the best music college I could ever imagine,” Manilow said in 2009.

Band-Aid: “I Am Stuck on Band-Aid Brand”

Manilow’s career came full circle in 2022 when he was asked to star in a Dr. Pepper ad for the soda company’s Dark Berry flavor. He previously sang on the first-ever Dr. Pepper jingle (“The most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world”) written by Newman in 1974, but now Manilow was the face of the brand.

“I thought it was going to be the commercial that I did years ago,” Manilow told People magazine.

Not every jingle worked, however. Manilow told “Windy City Live” in 2012 that he was once turned down because an airline didn’t like the song he wrote for them.

“I wrote a really nice melody,” he said. “The melody went down, and they said, ‘You can’t go down on the end of an American Airlines song.’ So I lost that one.”

But it all worked out for Manilow, who had more than 50 hit songs including 13 No. 1 singles, plus six multi-platinum albums, a Tony Award for “Barry Manilow on Broadway,” two Emmys, and producing for fellow legends like Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Manilow also starred in the TV movie “Copacabana” (based on his own song) and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

McDonald’s: “You Deserve a Break Today”