Industry watch Toolkit

IT Anthems: Philips was my first love

Transcribed by Peter Judge ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 25 Oct 2002 19:11 BST

Frankly, this anthem is so bizarre we have our doubts about it. Our anonymous informant says "I'm not really sure how serious they were in making this", and he is not kidding.

What we have is a massive, faithful reproduction of John Miles' 1976 classic "Music", which runs to nearly six minutes. There is, of course, one small change. Each time the word "Music" appears, it is replaced with the word "Philips".

Which leaves us wondering: why? Was this ever used as an actual anthem in front of Philips staff? Or customers?

The only clues we have are the file itself, which gives us the album title as "the Best of Philips Marketing". It also credits the artists as Miles and his bass player Bob Marshall, but we doubt they were involved directly in this version.

One alternative theory is that this had nothing to do with the company, but was performed by a ZDNet reader, to honour his favourite cross-headed screwdriver.

Lyrics Audio

Philips was my first love
And it will be my last
Philips is my future,
And it will ever last

To live without my Philips
Would be impossible to do
Making all things better
My Philips pulls me through

(carefully reproduced hard rock segment)

Philips was my first love
And it will be my last
Philips is my future,
And it will ever last...

And it will ever last...

And it will ever laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast

(portentous orchestral sgement.)

(By the way, has anyone else noticed the similarity between parts of this tune and the them to Blake's Seven?)

Philips was my first love
And it will be my last
Philips is my future,
And it will ever last.

To live without my Philips
Would be impossible to do
Making all things better
My Philips pulls me through