Les Jones

What Were the Lyrics to the Kern’s Bread TV Commercial?

Friday, May 9th, 2008 | East Tennessee |

Local grocery chain Food City is reviving the Kern’s line of batter-whipped bread. Kern’s was a local to Knoxville bakery that had a great TV ad in the Seventies. The ad featured a Kerns breadtruck driver who stopped at a cafe to unload his buns, get a burger, and flirt with Mavis the waitress.

Sadly, the commercial hasn’t been saved for posterity on YouTube, and I couldn’t find the lyrics anywhere. Does anyone remember them? Here’s the part I recall:

Well I picked up the check and said “Bye, now, hon”
And I left her a truckload of fresh Kern’s buns
At the something-something fill-er-up keep-on-truckin’ cafe
Yeah Kern’s is good bread

Do you remember the lyrics? Post them over at Michael Silence’s.

UPDATE: We’ve had a partial breakthrough in comments at Michael’s. Turns out the TV commercial was performed by A.J. Trucker and was a take-off on Old Home Filler-Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe by C.W. McCall of Convoy fame. I did not know that. Also it turns out that C.W. McCall existed because of an ad campaign for a different bread company:

In 1972, while working for the Omaha advertising firm of Bozell Jacobs, Bill Fries created a television campaign for the Old Home Bread brand of the Metz Baking Company. The advertisements told of the adventures of truck driver C.W. McCall, his dog Sloan, and of the truck stop that McCall frequented, The Old Home Café. Bill based the character and his environment on his own upbringing in western Iowa. The commercials were very successful. So successful, that the Des Moines Register published the air times of the commercials in the daily television listings.

Bonus: go here for a free “Old Home Filler-Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe” ringtone. How ya gonna beat a deal like that?

Tags: youtube

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