Dead Page: Thomas Dawes-- With Band Cyrkle and "Plop. Plop, Fizz Fizz"

THOMAS DAWES 1943-2007

Rock Musician (Cyrkle) Who Made Ads Sing

"Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, oh what a _____ __ __"

Thomas Dawes, a rock musician and composer who wrote some of the greatest ad jingles for 7 Up and Alka Seltzer, died October 13th in Manhattan at age 64 of a stroke.

He was born July 25, 1943 in Albany, NY.

While studying at Lafayette College, he founded a group along with guitarist Dan Dannemann, called the Rhondells who could best be classified as a "frat" band and by 1963 were touring the clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. During a temporary band breakup, Dawes toured with Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley wrote him the song that became the Cyrkle's first hit, "Red Rubber Ball."

They were discovered by lawyer Nat Weiss, who was a partner of Brian Epstein of the Beatles. According to Ginny, John Lennon suggested the Cyrkle's name and unique spelling.

They opened for the Beatles in 1966 and itwas quite a change going from playing for 200 people to 70,000. The group had the first opportunity to record Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)" but turned it down. It became a top twenty hit for Harper's Bizarre in 1967. The group's last big hit was "Turn Down Day" which went to #16 in August of 1966.

When Dawes left the Cyrkle, he turned to jingle writing and wrote 30-40 in the 70s and 80s. He wrote the "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz" song for Alka-Seltzer, "Our L'eggs Fit Your Legs" for L'eggs, and "We're American Airlines, Doing What We Do Best" for American Airlines.

His wife, Ginny Reddington Dawes, was also in the ad business. They later wrote the "Coke Is It" campaign for Coca-Cola.

Also, in the mid-70s, Dawes worked with Foghat and produced two of their albums.

Now this is one interesting life. I have the Cyrkle's two top twenty 45s and am a fan of their music. I used to have a favorite mon and pop record store in Crystal Lake, Illinois, called Full Cyrkle, but unfortunately they closed it.

In case you're wondering about the blanks at the top of the story, but I know you older folks will know it, "Relief It Is."

New York Times News Service