The well-known song from "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," rewritten and repurposed for a Neuhoff meatpacking industrial show, 1965. Crazy, but actually sounds good, thanks to the talent of the Dallas crew.

I Believe In You - Neuhoff version

A rewrite of "How to Succeed" from the hit Broadway musical, here aimed at 7-Eleven store managers. Quite well done by a Dallas crew. The same music track and slightly tweaked lyrics were used for the Neuhoff meatpacking show a couple years later.

How To Succeed in 1963 By Really Trying

How To Succeed (7-Eleven)

A charmingly weird track from the ultra-rare, uncredited 1964 GE Air Conditioning/Heating show. The premise is that the singer is a woman from Trinidad who's somehow ended in freezing cold Alaska, but thanks to the GE furnace line her "blue days" are now "heavenly BTU days"!

Furnace Calypso

The title track/meeting theme song from Mead Johnson's December 1977 sales and marketing convention. This rare record is uncredited other than "The Broadway Revue" (or "Review," depending on whether you're reading the label or the back cover). Most of the rest of the tracks are pop and Broadway covers.

We Begin With You

A charming example of one of the nuttiest industrial musical sub-genres: the executive introduction song.  From "The Sound of Selling," the souvenir album of A.B. Dick Company's 1962 Pacemaker meeting, with music by John McCarthy.  

"Here's Larry Aikens"

From the 1966 album "Music to Dispense With," which contained songs about paper cups and vending, and which was distributed only to vending industry VIP's by the Container Division of the Scott Paper Company.

"There Are Cups" by Allan Sherman, for Scott Paper

Another loopy triumph from the 1966 one-sided lp Allan Sherman recorded for the Container Division of Scott Paper, for distribution only to vending industry VIP's.

"Scott Cups" by Allan Sherman

A country flavored show produced in Iowa and performed in Florida in late 1977 for Massey-Ferguson tractor dealers.  Music by Sue Tucker Oatts.

"World Of Winners" -- Massey-Ferguson, 1977

This mysterious track on a 7" record appears to date from the early to mid 60's and was produced by the Jam Handy Organization.  Perhaps it was intended to be mood-setting music played as Chevy salesmen trooped into a conference room for a sales meeting.  I did not alter or loop this track in any way.  That's really what it's like for four minutes and four seconds!

There's A Fever In The Air

This 1976 souvenir album features the talents of America's Singing Poet, Steve DePass.  A charmingly mellow corporate meeting tune with a Bermudan flavor, for high-achieving members of IBM's European sales force.

Partners In Success

Once upon a time, when American industry ruled the earth, business and Broadway had a baby. This mutant offspring, glimpsed only at conventions and sales meetings, was the industrial musical. Think Broadway show, except the audience is managers and salesmen, and the songs are about how great it is to be working at the company.

Through the rare souvenir record albums presented in EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS, an alternate show-biz universe emerges: a universe in which musical theater can be about selling silicone products, or typewriters, or insurance, or bathtubs. Some of these improbable shows were hilariously lame. Some were pretty good. And some were flat-out fantastic.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS tells the story of industrial musicals for the first time, complete with eye-popping album covers, rhymes for words like invoice and compressor, and war stories from the people who were there. It’s a surprising slice of Americana that will make you laugh, make you shake your head in wonderment, and make you want to get out there and sell something.

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