Meet Gus Hillstrom, the man behind P.E.I.'s iconic commercial jingles
Cody MacKay | CBC News | Posted: December 3, 2017 4:39 PM | Last Updated: December 3, 2017
Gus and Good Company's show runs Tuesday nights at the Milton Community Hall until Dec. 26
From Owls Hollow and Island Petroleum to the Frosty Treat and Doiron's Garden Centre, Gus Hillstrom has written dozens of familiar advertising jingles over his career.
As an Islander, you've likely heard a tune or two of his over the last few decades, but in case you haven't there's always his new show Gus and Good Company, featuring the iconic sing-a-long commercial tunes he's created over the years.
Nobody says "here's Gus Hillstrom, his new jingle" —Gus Hillstrom
Gus and Good Company runs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m at the Milton Community Hall until Dec. 26. Audience participation is not only permitted, it's encouraged.
Keeping it 'like a nursery rhyme' does the trick
When it comes to piecing together a good jingle, Hillstrom says there's one hard and fast rule: "It has to be simple and singable."
"A lot of the jingles I've worked on, I would literally sing them thousands of times before we even got to the studio to record them so it made them very singable," he told Mainstreet P.E.I.
"Keeping them almost like a nursery rhyme is sort of the trick to it"
Hillstrom wrote some of his jingles while working in private radio but many were written while working in CBC P.E.I.'s advertising department.
One of his more famous tunes was made for Doiron's Garden Centre in Charlottetown:
Beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees
Peat moss, fertilizer seeds
When you're thinking gardening
Doiron's Garden Centre!
He's always been the man behind the music, but when he tells people who he is, they look confused.
"Jingles are anonymous … if Lennie Gallant plays a song on the radio, they announce 'here's Lennie Gallant playing Peter's Dream' but nobody says 'here's Gus Hillstrom, his new jingle,'" he laughed.
That's part of the reason he's started the show. It allows him to meet and sing with people who love the familiar tunes.
Admission to all his shows is free but food donations are encouraged.
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