Ice cream van tune

Subject: Ice cream van tune
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:14 PM

Why is it that the only tune played by ice cream vans is Popeye the Sailorman???

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:32 PM

Not around here - each van has its own.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:37 PM

Greensleeves

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: fat B****rd
Date: 20 May 12 - 02:57 PM

When I was a lad in the 50s the Sunday afternoon Midland Counties van played the March Militaire. At least that's what my Dad told me.
I don't hear many ice cream vans these days. Are they still around much in the UK ?

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 May 12 - 05:03 PM

Our local one does Yankee Doodle.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Ann N
Date: 20 May 12 - 05:23 PM

Ours uses Teddy Bear's Picnic :)

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Nancy King
Date: 20 May 12 - 06:04 PM

Both the one that comes around here and the one at my place in Maine use the same damn tune, the name of which eludes me at the moment. I'll think of it at midnight or so. VERY familiar, and I'm thoroughly sick of it. Back in the olden days, when I was a kid, they just rang a bell -- much better than the canned music.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Nancy King
Date: 20 May 12 - 07:47 PM

Ah yes -- Joplin's The Entertainer. Didn't even have to wait till midnight....

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Susan of DT
Date: 20 May 12 - 08:31 PM

Turkey in Straw here

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: gnomad
Date: 20 May 12 - 08:40 PM

Another Greensleeves here.

More to the point why do they keep driving around after they've sold out?

Well that's what my Dad said, 'The music is to tell you it's no point going to the van 'cos they've sold out.'

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 20 May 12 - 09:45 PM

Around here, ice cream trucks also have different songs.
When I was a child, the van that vended in my neighborhood was very old-fashioned (even then) with a wooden body painted bright yellow with red trim. There was no tune. The driver pulled on a cord that rang a bell. We started salivating whenever we heard, "Ding-ding. Ding-ding." I don't seem able to make a link to the photo by itself, but if you click here http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=palagis+ice+cream+photos&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 you will see some newer behicles with the old ones. Click on the fourth image.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 20 May 12 - 10:28 PM

It's mostly to avoid royalty payments for copyright material or performances. "Greensleeves" is about as out-of-copyright as you can get; commission some poor out-of work muso to record the piece for you for a one-off payment (or free ice-cream), and you own the performance copyright, so no further expense for multiple plays.

If you haven't seen the Bill Forsyth film "Comfort & Joy" (1984), distantly and humorously based on Glasgow's "Ice Cream Wars" (circa 1982) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars it's worth a look - maybe not best viewed on YouTube Comfort and Joy - Part 1 of 9 (following parts can be found in the links to the right of the page) but it's scarce and expensive on eBay and Amazon.

Ross

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 May 12 - 10:37 PM

Those are neat, CL! The one that drive's round our neighbourhood plays a decent rendition of Little Red Wing. Here's a fun home recording of someone's grandma honky-tonkying it on the piano. Of course there are better versions on UTube.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Effsee
Date: 20 May 12 - 10:41 PM

When I was 10 months old, the youngest of 7, the family moved to a council estate house in Dundee, Scotland. In ensuing months the ice-cream van used to visit regularly...the vendor used a whistle...apparently when I heard that whistle, I used to rush to the front window, which was higher than I was, and cry "Basta, Basta!", Much to my mother's chagrin, being a good RC mother!















She shouldn't have told me the vendors name was Bastianelli!

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 12 - 10:48 PM

They swap out the tinny tunes here - The Entertainer, Turkey in the Straw, and the one that I know as "Do Your Ears Hang Low."

SRS

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: EBarnacle
Date: 20 May 12 - 11:59 PM

One of the few advantages of living in a low child density area is that I have not been harassed by Arkansas Traveller or any of the other bastardized sounds which pass for advertising music from the ice cream trucks. The people I really feel sorry for are the poor SOB's who drive the trucks day in and day out. I suspect they go home twitching at night.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 21 May 12 - 03:15 AM

Friend of mine used to tell her children it was the time for bed music but I don't know if they also got ice cream

Gerry

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 21 May 12 - 04:33 AM

You are presumably aware that ice cream men water down their ice cream ??

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 May 12 - 04:42 AM

thread.cfm?threadid=122389

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:52 AM

I must sound like Methuselah, but I remember an Italian gentleman who rode a special bicycle/cart thing, decorated in pink, yellow and white. He wore a long white apron and shouted "Okey pokey pokey!" (No idea what this meant) He sold cornets which he filled from a metal tub on the front of his vehicle. He even had a curled moustache like someone from an opera! He rang a handbell to announce his arrival.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:56 AM

When I was a kid the music was akin to a snake charmer's flute - but we knew the ice cream was more expensive than anywhere else, so I think most of the time Mom sent us to the corner store for popsicles or ice cream bars.

I agree with EBarnacle - I've always wondered how the stand the incredible monotony of listening to the same phrase over and over. They must dream about it at night.

SRS

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 May 12 - 08:43 PM

The ice cream wagon that went past our house just a few minutes ago sort of sounded more like a roach coach (lunch wagon).

It was blaring "La Cucaracha." (isn't that "little cockroach?")

John

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Darowyn
Date: 22 May 12 - 04:22 AM

When we lived in Malvern, the local ice cream van used to play "The Peanut Vendor"
Ice cream vans clearly may contain nuts!
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 12 - 05:02 AM

I was about 9 or 10 when the town dairy decided to abandon "home delivery" of milk, and of course a brief flurry of nostalgia appeared in the local newspapers. (The newspapers actually reported local news then, strange as it might seem now.)

One report quoted a milkman who insisted that the story was absolutely true that one time when he "called in sick" the substitute stopped by to ask about "how do I know which houses to deliver to" and he told him "don't worry, the horse knows."

And it did.

But of course they didn't play music. I think waking people up in the morning hours when they ran the routes would have caused some complaints, and cranking a "Victrola" (the only name most people knew for "a thing that played music") to make any kind of noise would have been a little tough.

John

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 May 12 - 07:12 AM

John, you've evoked the memory I have of the horse-drawn milkfloat which came every day round our way. The horse knew where to stop, and the milkman left him to walk on down the road on his own. It was from Dalton's Farm. My sister and I used during the school holidays to take a carrot out for this horse. What the milkman didn't know was that we often used to scramble onto his back when he was put in his field after work. He took no notice at all when we were both sitting on him, he just kept munching the grass and wouldn't even walk about. Very annoying!

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: clueless don
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:33 AM

The "Ice Cream Man" from my childhood was the Good Humor truck. They didn't have a tune - they rang bells. Later on, there was a soft ice cream van called "Mister Softie". As I recall, they had their own tune. There were even lyrics (heard on commercials), something like "The Creamiest, Dreamiest soft ice cream is found from Mister Softie ...". Or something like that.

Don

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 May 12 - 10:09 AM

"The creamiest, dreamiest soft ice cream is made by Mr. Softee;
S - o - f - t - double E, Mister Softee"

The emphasis, especially in the early days was that it was made fresh, right there on the truck.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: greg stephens
Date: 22 May 12 - 10:49 AM

The one in Stoke plays the Harry Lime Theme, and has done for ten years I would think.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Snuffy
Date: 22 May 12 - 12:12 PM

When I was a kid in the fifties our local ice cream van played the Merry Widow waltz.

The one that's just gone by plays O Sole Mio. Or is that It's Now Or Never? or even Just One Cornetto?

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 22 May 12 - 05:57 PM

John in Kansa, Eliza, there was a lovely fiction children's story in one of the readers I used to teach. It was about a milkman who gradually became blind but was able to keep working because his horse knew where to stop. I can't remember its title, nor can I remember if there was any explanation about what the milkman did if a customer left a note changing the order. Maybe he was supposed to be illiterate and had always shown the notes to someone else to read. I've always imagined that he was supposed to know where everything was stored in the wagon, how many steps from the road each house was, etc. I think the story ended with the horse being too old to work and the milkman then having to retire. None of his employers or coworkers were supposed to have realized he was blind until then.

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 12 - 07:50 PM

For a while, even after the milkman and his horse came around, I wondered about whether the horse actually knew which houses "always wanted a delivery," or knew that the milkman only delivered where there were empty bottles on the front porch and just stopped whenever there were some empties put out.

(If you forgot to put the bottles out, you didn't get any milk that day, at least in our area.)

Either way, it might appear that the horse "understood the system" at least as well as the milkmen did, and maybe a little better(?).

John

Subject: RE: Ice cream van tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Jun 12 - 11:38 AM

An ice cream van has just pulled up outside my house playing the tune for "Isn't It Grand, Boys" ("always remember, the longer you live, the sooner you're bloody well dead").