One half of the songwriting duo who wrote the theme song for ABC TV’s Mr Squiggle is being remembered for his musical skill and ability to bring people together.<\/p>\n
Geoff Ayling died of cancer on Tuesday in Gosford Hospital at 85.<\/p>\n
Together with his wife Jenny, the two made a name for themselves as composers of memorable advertising jingles for iconic Australian products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Among the recognisable advertising tunes they wrote and produced are Take Me Away P&O, Good on You Mum, Tip Top’s the One and Berocca Gives You Back Your B-B-Bounce.<\/p>\n
Son Jeff Ayling Jnr said session musicians, including guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, worked with the Aylings and developed their skills.<\/p>\n
“A lot of those musicians would say Dad taught them everything they know, because he was teaching them to stack harmonies and training them up,” Mr Ayling Jnr said.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t just a jingle, it was our music. A huge amount of effort and talent went into it.”<\/p>\n
Geoff Ayling began writing jingles in 1967 when his father, Russ Ayling, who worked at a commercial radio station, asked Geoff and Jenny to compose something for a brand.<\/p>\n
The pair, who met in the Sydney music scene of the 1960s, could play 21 instruments between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Multi-instrumentalists Geoff and Jenny Ayling met in Sydney in the 1960s. (Supplied: Jenny Ayling)<\/p>\n
After initial success, they then started writing jingles full time before setting up WAM Studios in Marsfield in Sydney.<\/p>\n
In total, Mr Ayling Jnr said WAM Studios and his parents produced thousands of songs for brands big and small before the business wound up in the mid 2000s.<\/p>\n
“We had ads constantly running on every network. There was a point where we had more music on radio and television around Australia then any other composers,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Back in those days, everyone knew the music but no-one knew us at all. We were invisible behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
“There were some great brands, some great projects but dozens of just beautiful people and we’re all a family now.”<\/p>\n
The family had a long-running association with ABC TV’s Play School, arranging and recording nursery rhymes.<\/p>\n
“We used to get picked up from primary school to meet Mum and Dad and put vocals on tracks,” Mr Ayling Jnr said.<\/p>\n
One family recording was the second version of the Play School theme song, which aired from 1977 to to 1986.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Playschool regulars Humpty, Big Ted, Jemima and Little Ted. (ABC Television)<\/p>\n
“I’m the kid who sang, ‘There’s a bear in there,” he said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, music rights management organisation APRA AMCOS said Mr Ayling had as many as 3,500 original compositions registered in his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One half of the songwriting duo who wrote the theme song for ABC TV’s Mr Squiggle is being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[111064,64,63,111065,134,111062,111060,111061,111066,111067,111063],"class_list":{"0":"post-169856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-advertising-jingle","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-composer","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-geoff-ayling","14":"tag-mr-squiggle","15":"tag-playschool","16":"tag-playschool-theme-song","17":"tag-theres-a-bear-in-there","18":"tag-wam-studio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}