Early rockers with a message

Wednesday, June 4th 2008, 4:00 AM

It's a familiar musical compliment to say someone sings so well that he or she would sound good singing the phone book.

Okay. How about singing the Schaeffer beer song?

Or a jingle for Beech-Nut gum?

Or a one-minute song about Ban roll-on deodorant?

Well, some of our finest vocalists tackle all those tunes and more in a pair of compilation CDs called "Rock n' Roll Commercials of the 1950s" and "Rock n' Roll Commercials of the 1960s," put out by Lady Goose Productions at PO Box 1522, Inverness, Florida 34451.

Between the two CDs they contain 125 vintage spots, mostly made for radio with some television.

Two of the cuts on the '50s CDs are Civil Defense public service productions that run more than 10 minutes. Bill Haley and his Comets are in one, Rick Nelson in the other, and they both read Civil Defense plugs while the host spins a couple of their records.

Being commercials, however, most of the tracks run a minute or less. You don't like one, it'll be over in a blink.

There is an implicit statement about commercialism in here somewhere, and the question of whether artists compromise themselves by tying their music to a corporation, asked frequently in recent years, was being asked in some corners then.

Pete Seeger left the Weavers in part because he disagreed with their decision to sing a cigarette commercial. The others said the group, which had been blacklisted for years, needed the money. Seeger said they didn't need it that badly.

But it's also true that many of these performers -- Lena Horne for Schaeffer Beer, Nat King Cole for Swiss Colony Wine ' were coming out of an era when performers were routinely tied to a sponsor.

Dinah Shore was as well known for singing "See the U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet," which also can be heard here, as she was for her top-10 hits.

Money from commercials was also a more significant part of artists' income in the days before one big hit record could make someone rich.

By the '60s, that was changing and there was more concern that an artist who was tied to a sponsor ran the risk of having his or her work compromised by the association.??

So it feels more jarring to hear the Who sing for the drink Great Shakes than it felt to hear Ray Charles sing a Coke ad a few years earlier.

But most people won't react to these ads with philosophical ruminations. They'll just enjoy them. In a spot for Southern Maid Donuts, Johnny Cash says, "Dunk 'em and slurp 'em ' man, they're fine!" What's not to like?

Buddy Holly could barely have been old enough to order an Olympia Beer when he sang spots promoting it, and the March of Dimes was such a major force that even Elvis didn't turn down the request that he do a 1957 promotional spot.

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