Well, autumn is dumping leaves all over my path, and since I am trying to avoid the sweeping up it is probably a good time to catch up on what has been happening.

I have a nice little handful to play you today, from a variety of fun-minded creative that allowed me to take life perhaps a little less seriously! Jingles included a "Annie get your gun" style jingle for a horse rug cleaning company, a seventies kitch number for a phone repairman, something definitely jazzy for a furniture company, a 70s American soap treatment for an energy advert and then some large vocal treatments for a Funeral service and a bathroom company.

A jingle for a Funeral service? Yes indeed, that was a challenge! Read on...

Right, first up lets go Seventies. I normally just get told, "Come up with something." But in this case I was given a very tight brief including lyrics. Getting that tight, 1970s detective sound was pure fun, and even the singer got into the mood with large purple hat and dodgy fur coat. Okay, she just sang it, but it was fun! Call the Phone Doctor!

East Point are a rug cleaning service. But not any old rug, we are talking horse rugs! The temptation to just go and do a horsey thing was irresistible. Kim Chandler doubted her ability to hit that Doris Day sound, but I knew otherwise, and she did it first time. However, the backing vocal lyric of Oooooh, Clip-Clop, was causing fits of giggles, especially from me. In fact, I still giggle when I listen to it. Sometimes "daft" is the best policy in advertising.

Atlantic Bathrooms and Kitchens wanted to emphasise their classiness, and quite right too. We felt that a call to action was required as well, getting the idea across that if you want a new bathroom, you should get down to Atlantic and do it now. But we did not want this to sound cheesy, so we went for a lot of singing, multi-tracking like crazy. It worked, too!

Staying on a slightly serious theme, we were asked to write something for a Funeral Service. Now, I have to admit it tool me nearly a week to get all the obvious jokes out of my head so I could give this the sensitivity it deserved. I was helped by the fact that the owners are trying to get across that they are prepared to give a funeral any spin you like rather than just make it the morbid affair a funeral can often be. So, while being sensitive, I also put in there a hint of celebration. I hope this works for the company; I like their philosophy.

Back to silly and Energy Wyse are an energy company dealing with boilers and so on. They like a light touch to their commercials which, to make a long story short, took me to the world of 1960s radio soaps in the US. So that is what I composed. I like this sort of thing.

Finally for this little group, I got to sing one. Large old blues men are bit few and far between, so I tend to get these as I kind of default to this sort of character more naturally than is probably good to admit. The Pine Workshoppe have previously concentrated on the unusual spelling of their name. But I felt that did not say anything about their company, especially as they also do Oak and other woods. What they do is make beautiful hand made wooden furniture for you home, and that, I felt, is what we should spin. "My Wonderful Furniture" quickly became a web address, and I built the whole jingle round the idea. We will probably come up with some alternative lyrics over time to build the character a little and give the ads a nice, solid consistent feel. Music is good at branding, even mad jazz numbers like this one.