The New Seekers – I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing

“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” – Single by The New Seekers from the album We’d Like to Teach the World to Sing
B-side “Boom Town”
Released November 1971
Label Philips (Germany), Polydor (UK), Elektra (USA/Canada)
Songwriters Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Bill Backer and Billy Davis
Producer David Mackay
Charted No.1 in UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Japan
Nr.2 in Norway
No.3 in Canada, Sweden
No.7 in US,
No.24 in West Germany

“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” is a pop song (originally known as “True Love and Apple Pie”) by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley.

The lyrics were rewritten by the songwriters—together with US advertising executive Bill Backer and US songwriter Billy Davis—as a jingle for The Coca-Cola Company’s advertising agency, McCann Erickson, to become “Buy the World a Coke” in the 1971 “Hilltop” television commercial for Coca-Cola and sung by the Hillside Singers. “Buy the World a Coke” was produced by Billy Davis and portrayed a positive message of hope and love, featuring a multicultural collection of teenagers on top of a hill appearing to sing the song.

The New Seekers later recorded the song and sold 96,000 copies of their record in one day, eventually selling 12 million total. “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” climbed to #1 in the UK, #3 in Canada and #7 in the US in 1971 and 1972. The song became a gold record in the US and has also sold over a million copies in the UK. The Coca-Cola Company waived royalties to the song and instead donated $80,000 in payments to UNICEF. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 93 song for 1972.

By the time this was released as a full song, the melody was very much associated with Coke, so it amounted to free advertising. Most of the commercial is about honey bees, turtle doves and love anyway, so removing the Coke references didn’t disrupt the song. The lines:

I’d like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company

Were altered to:

I’d like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company

The Coca-Cola commercial featuring this song was used as the final scene in the concluding episode of the television series Mad Men, which was broadcast on May 17, 2015. The showing of the famous ad implied that the series protagonist Don Draper had pulled himself out of his downward spiral and was responsible for producing the famous advertising campaign.

The New Seekers
Eve Graham (vocals)
Lyn Paul (vocals)
Marty Kristian (vocals, guitar)
Peter Doyle (vocals, guitar)
Paul Layton (vocals, bass)