BENS was one of the original jingle production companies creating commercial and radio IDs for stations around the woruld. The BENS company dates back to the early 1950s.
After failing as a Merseybeat tribute band (the group was way ahead of its time) Ben Eden founded BENS - which stands for 'Ben Eden Nmusic Services' (sounds rubbish now, but made sense at the time).
Other BENS staffers included Fuel Fox who was a writer and arranger for BENS in the 1960s and later famous for a jazz hit "Flaked Out with Crunchy Whiskers" and Stella Fart whose windy vocals were heard on many BENS packages in the 1960s.
There were many custom packages produced and a total of 49 numbered series were made. Covers were designed for many of the demo boxes sent out to radio stations.
Series
# |
Name | Year |
Remarks | |
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1 |
1956 |
The start of BENS began back in 1955 when Ben Eden hummed a tune while working in a recording studio. It was used for the next 36 years as the advertising jingle for McBrannagan's Pasties. The royalty payments were used to start up BENS. | |
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2 |
Start | 1957 |
An indescribable package that was a major flop for BENS, mainly due to the lack of any demo being produced. |
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3 |
Musicology | 1957 |
Could have been a big hit for BENS, but someone recorded over the master tape with a V/O session for tinned soup. |
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4 |
Ready to go! | 1957 |
A series of jazz inspired jingles. Not such a wise move for BENS, as there were only 2 jazz stations broadcasting at the time. The other station didn't like them. |
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5 |
Sauce-tasty-tastic | Heinz were BENS first big commercial client, and a range of commercial jingles were made for their newest range of sauces. They were re-sung for many other clients, and became inexplicably popular with furniture companies. | |
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6 |
1958 |
Generic package that only needed a ukalalie to customize it for a station. | |
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7 |
Mojo a go-go | 1958 |
Pop with jazz influences. Although the concept seemed to fit in with many of the wacky hybrid packages being made around this time, this was...too wacky. |
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8 |
Candenza | 1958 |
A package using full concert orchestra. Sadly, someone forgot to actually record the tracks to tape, so the package was only ever performed once - live. |
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9 |
The Cartridge Series | 1958 |
The first 8-track recording method utilized 8 separate cartridge recorders recording one mono track each, which were then played back simultaneously. The success of the re-sings depended heavily on all 4 engineers pressing 'play' at the same time, which wasn't easy, as many of them were drunks. |
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10 |
Style Us | 1959 |
Using speeded up instruments and strange sound effects this elaborate package was indeed stylish and was one of the biggest sellers for '59. |
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11 |
Chicken and Egg | 1959 |
Which came first? BENS did! This series was terrible. |
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12 |
Dial Volume | 1959 |
'BENS Loud Technology' was applied to singers and instruments to make this series of jingles appear louder on the air than everything else. Originally recorded for K-TITS 66. |
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13 |
Telephone Tunes | 1959 |
A series of jingles for request shows, whose tracks each became louder and more frantic to drown out the caller and segue into music. |
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14 |
Boss Summer | 1960 |
The boss jocks played more BENS jingles! A package containing many acapellas. |
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15 |
Innovox | 1960 |
Innovative sounds were created by making the singers perform into trash cans with microphones at the bottom. Sadly, most of the words were inaudible and the package was promptly canned itself! |
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15A |
Fantastic | 1960 |
Programme controller Bob Rendell wanted to make the listeners the stars. The package consisted of talk-up ramps that had generic vox-pops of 'listeners' saying why they liked the station. |
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16 |
Magnetron | 1961 |
'...acts like a magnet for your listeners' so the demo told us. The melody line was catchy, but hard to customise for stations. |
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16A |
Kanns | 1961 |
An odd package with Swiss influences after BENS founder Ben Eden's recent skiing holiday. |
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17 |
Rack of Gold | 1961 |
Oldies radio had arrived. Before its time. Many ideas were recycled in later series with different orchestration. |
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18 |
Split News | 1961 |
Some very brassy news beds for the new news station, KNEWS 'Newsy News' (99 for news). |
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19 |
For You and Yours | 1962 |
Jodie Tigers was on-board and made his first big impression as a composer with this package. |
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20 |
Monitor '62 | 1962 |
A continuation of the 'music monitor' logo from '61, recorded originally for WANK. |
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21 |
Mix-a-pellas | 1962 |
Esentially a mix of shotguns and acapellas that were designed to mould into the start of songs. |
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22 |
Digitronics | 1962 |
The slogan 'Coming up strong from behind' was short-lived when the PD's wife complained! Originally recorded for KOCK. |
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23 |
Heavy Gold | 1962 |
Rock package with the big 7 voice group sound. Stella Fart soloed on several cuts. |
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24 |
Tower of Power | 1962 |
K-EAR FM ordered so many re-dos that this package sounded dated when the demo was eventually released. |
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25 |
Spectrum | 1963 |
With the then talk of futuristic computers in everyone's home resounded across the country, the Spectrum package was created and included lots of odd 'computer generated' noises (actually performed by Blackie Titmouse with a kazoo). |
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25D |
Rack o' Trax | 1963 |
A new 8 track studio had been created for BENS, and this series used it, adding a special sound effect they called a 'twiszle'. |
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26 |
Tip Top | 1963 |
The cream of the crop, this was Tip Top. Critics described it as 'directionless', 'out of tune' and 'a load of old cobblers'. Others, however, were less kind. |
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26D |
Charge up | 1964 |
The 'D' stood for battery company Duracell, who were sponsoring the entirity of KTOP's output at the time. The sponsorship helped pay for another package from BENS. |
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27 |
Get Set | 1964 |
A starting pistol used to create an interesting realistic effect caused several accidents in markets where the package was on air, as vehicle drivers listening to the radio ducked for cover. |
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28 |
Quality Cume | 1964 |
A classy package for Canadian station CRAP's then new MOR format. |
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29 |
Listen to us | 1965 |
A strange package recorded for Crunchy Radio's Happy Fun-Time Breakfast Club in Europe. |
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30 |
No Flipping | 1965 |
A 'house band' set of IDs influenced by the early days of radio. |
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30U |
Lovin' | 1965 |
While John and Yoko were having a bed-in (4 years in the future), BENS created Lovin', a soft hits package for a syndicated radio show. No-one knows what the 'U' stood for. |
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31 |
You're right on time | 1966 |
Party style 'grid' jingles for new year celebrations that were only intended for a week's on air use. |
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32 |
We Like That | 1966 |
Beautiful music formats weren't deprived of BENS jingles, and in '66 this huge package of 59 cuts was produced for the massive WARSE in Buttockville. |
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33 |
It's Always Kewl | 1967 |
Early 'grunge' style package for more alternative stations. Cut 18 was a sports bed to introduce results and was so brash that numerous stations received complaints about it. |
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34 |
Light Rays | 1967 |
Recorded in the dark to inspire the session musicians, the instrumental mix-outs revealed a few bum notes that went unnoticed during the recording sessions. |
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35 |
Drive In | 1968 |
Mysteriously, the artwork for this series featured the number '49' which was also the number of the last series that BENS ever made. |
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36 |
Suck My Hits | 1969 |
The Germans always wanted something a bit wacky, and BENS always obliges. |
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37 |
Yoko Homo | 1969 |
A spelling mistake on the demo script and packaging made this series strangely popular with 'alternative' stations in San Francisco. |
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38 |
Rocket Radio | 1969 |
As man walked on the moon for the first time, the BENS singers were singing about "one giant station" and "the stepper jocks". |
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39 |
Freshwater Revival | 1970 |
Rock series. The package first aired on K-ROTCH in Denver and was a marked change to the traditional BENS sound. |
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40 |
The Colored Caravette | 1970 |
The concept was that a psychedelic caravette would drive through each jingle, adding a party-like atmosphere. In reality, it sounded a bit like a tractor and only a couple of farming information stations ever syndicated the package. |
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41 |
Music Radio 24 Custom | 1971 |
Available in two versions, either the "G" singers or the "C" singers, named after the quality of their singing ('good' and 'crap'). |
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42 |
Yellow | 1971 |
The Beatles were supposidly influenced by this package when they recorded their 'White' Album. But of course BENS would have needed to have invented a time machine, as this series was released three years after the Beatles released that album. |
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43 |
Request-a-thon! | 1972 |
Originally called "Big 50" because listenership increased by 50% on the first station that used this package. It was later re-named "Big 43", "Large 20" and "It's 6" before the less number-specific title it eventually ended up with. |
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44 |
Things are Great | 1973 |
But they weren't. The company was in financial trouble and needed help. |
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45 |
It's gonna be alright | 1975 |
But it isn't. After a barter agreement with Mafia FM turned sour, BENS was up the duff without kneecaps. |
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46 |
This had better work | 1976 |
One of the final attempts at creating a new direction for BENS. All tracks were performed backwards and the tape reversed. It was awful. |
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47 |
Oh Christ what are we going to do now? | 1976 |
BENS was starting to get desperate and were using instrumental records and master copies of jingles from other companies including Salt Banner, EM Productions, Country 21 and a strange company called PLAMS. |
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48 |
We're in the shit | 1977 |
Yes. Yes they were. This package didn't help matters either. |
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49 |
Phuck it | 1977 |
Created for WARGH! in Asia, this package sold very well, but it couldn't save BENS. The company suspended operations in May of this year. |
This photo of the BENS singers was sent out to clients in 1970. They hadn't
got their act together early enough for a Christmas card, so the message only
referred to the new year.
This site is in no way
related to PAMS of Dallas
and their Numbered
Series list. Certainly not.
Comments appreciated to bens at kost dot co dot uk. Don't spam me or I'll stick
my finger up your left nostril.