A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from March 08, 2020
“Pepsi-Cola hits the spot. Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot” (jingle)

“Hit the spot” possibly originated in the military, with a shot aimed to hit a spot (or target). By the 1840s, to “hit the spot” meant something desirable, satisfying a need.
 
Food and drink can be said to “hit the spot” of one’s hunger or thirst. Cold water was said to “hit the spot” in 1871.
   
A popular soda jingle from 1939 was “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.” The jingle was created by Austen Herbert Croom‐John­son and Alan Kent, from the melody of the English hunting song “D’ye ken John Peel?”
   
“What’s the difference between a man and a margarita?”/“A margarita hits the spot every time” is a joke on a different spot—the G-spot.
 
     
The Free Dictionary
hit the spot
to be exactly what is wanted or needed That apple pie really hit the spot.
 
Wikipedia: Pepsi
Pepsi (stylized in lowercase as pepsi, formerly stylized in uppercase as PEPSI) is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo. Created and developed in 1898 and introduced as “Brad’s Drink”, it was later renamed as Pepsi-Cola on June 16, 1903.
(...)
Rise
During the Great Depression, Pepsi gained popularity following the introduction in 1936 of a 12-ounce bottle. Initially priced at 10 cents, sales were slow, but when the price was slashed to five cents, sales increased substantially. With a radio advertising campaign featuring the jingle “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you,” arranged in such a way that the jingle never ends.
 
Wikipedia: D’ye ken John Peel (song)
“D’ye ken John Peel?” – which translates to “Do you know John Peel?” – is a famous Cumberland hunting song written around 1824 by John Woodcock Graves (1795–1886) in celebration of his friend John Peel (1776–1854), an English fox hunter from the Lake District. The melody is said to be a contrafactum of a popular border rant, “Bonnie Annie.” A different version, the one that endurs today, was musically adapted in 1869 by William Metcalfe (1829–1909), the organist and choirmaster of Carlisle Cathedral. The tune etymology has a long history that has been traced back to 1695 and attributed to adaptations – one in particular, from the 20th century, the 1939 jingle, “Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot.”
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Phr. to hit (or go to or touch) the spot: to be exactly what is required, ‘to fit the bill’ (said esp. of food or drink). colloq. (chiefly U.S.).
1868 Putnam’s Mag. I. 670/1   ‘I hope that last corjul set you up?’ ‘Yes, Mr. Plunkitt, it went right to the spot.’
1897 Strand Mag. May 500/2   Then percussion or detonation was tried, and that ‘touched the spot’!
1908 ‘O. Henry’ Voice of City 235   Oh, pass the bottle.‥ That hits the spot.‥ My first drink in three months.
1923 W. Nutting Massachusetts Beautiful 241   Did ever a dish of apple dowdy go to the spot like that?
1949 F. P. Keyes Dinner at Antoine’s xvii. 268   That hot chocolate and those big chunks of roast beef certainly hit the spot.
 
19 February 1844, Boston (MA) Evening Transcript, pg. 4:
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE STANZAS SUNG AT THE TABERNACLE.
(...)
You’ve hit the spot, the theme, the time,
Just right; it’s all perfection;
The shouts the Tabernacle rent,
Spread like a blest infection.
 
14 May 1845, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, pg. 3:
“OLE BULL’S” article, “Music on the Square,” seems to have hit the spot;,,,
 
8 June 1871, Houston (TX) Daily Union, pg. 2:
The chief quality in Summer rinks is the cooling, not the stimulating. First on the list of good drinks is cold water. It always “hits the spot;” but if any mixture be desired, put into the water a slice or two of orange or lemon.
 
15 October 1881, Boston (MA) Journal, pg. 2, col. 1 ad:
Hood’s Sarsaparilla
Meets the wants of those who need a medicine to build them up, given an appetite, purify the blood, and oil up the machinery of their bodies. No article takes hold of the system and hits the spot like Hood’s Sarsaparilla
     
Newspapers.com
8 June 1911, Osawatomie (KS) Graphic, pg. 5, col. 6 ad:
Coca Cola hits the spot at Reed’s fountain.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Recipe leaflets collection
Author: Pet Milk Company.
Publisher: St. Louis, MO : Pet Milk Company, 1931-
Edition/Format:  Book : English
(...)
Easy dishes that hit the spot for 2 or 4 or 6 (n.d.)—
 
Newspapers.com
24 July 1937, Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times, Diamond Jubilee edition, pg. 2, col. 1 ad:
Yes, indeed, ice-cold Pepsi-Cola just hits the spot with its delicious flavor—and this sparkling beverage costs only five cents.
(Corvallis Soda Works.—ed.)
 
Newspapers.com
14 October 1939, Muncie (IN)

, pg. 9, col. 2:
PEPSI-COLA SIGNS WITH “UNCLE DON”
Pepsi-Cola’s theme song, and the merits of the drink, are now receiving additional aircasting at 6 o’clock each evening on “Uncle Don’s” children’s program over station WOR, it was pointed out today by Walter S. Mack, Jr. president of the Pepsi-Cola Company.
(...)
A verse from the theme song follows:
 
Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot.
It’s wholesome and delicious, too,
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.

 
Pepsi-Cola’s theme song is already heard in fifteen second spot announcements over stations WOR, WINS, WHN, WNEW and WMCA.
   
Newspapers.com
14 July 1940, Lincoln (NE) Sunday Journal and Star, “Behind the Mike” by Bruce Nicoll, pg. D8, col. 4:
There’s one on KFAB at 8:55 p. m. every night that starts out slowly in four-four time “nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel” and then swings into this verse which is sung to a swing version of the old hunting song “John Peel”:
 
“Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot
Twice as much for a nickel too,
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.”
 
The trio swings off another round of “nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel” and winds up with “do-dee-da-da-da.”
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Hospitality recipes out of a Pepsi-Cola bottle : refreshing, satisfying : hits the spot!
Author: Pepsi-Cola Company.
Publisher: [Long Island City, N.Y. : Pepsi-Cola Co., ©1940]
Edition/Format:  Book : English
       
New York (NY) Times
Austen Croom‐Johnson, 54, Dies
May 18, 1964
Austen Herbert Croom‐John­son, who, with Alan Kent wrote many of radio’s most popular commercial jingles of the late nineteen‐thirties, died Saturday of a heart attack in his home. He was 54 years old and lived at 340 East 58th Street.
 
Mr. Croom‐Johnson, a tall, gay, red‐haired man, had a vital ity that matched many of the jingles he wrote. Perhaps the best‐known of the melodies he created with Mr. Kent was the Pepsi Cola jingle. Its familiar “”Pepsi Cola hits the spot“” was said to have been played on the radio more than 1.5 million times.
(...)
Mr. Croom‐Johnson once explained that the tune came to ’ him from an old hunting song he used to sing in Cumberland, in the lake district of northern England. The song was “D’ye ’Ken John Peel.” Mr. Croom I Johnson rearranged a few of I the opening notes, added some !lively instrumentation, and the ’Pepsi Cola jingle bounced out.
 
YouTube
pepsi cola hits the spot
Jan 19, 2009
wikievidently
Pepsi 1930 Advertising. Pepsi-cola Hits the Spot
     
Playground Jungle
Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot
Posted on December 12, 2009 by Adam Selzer
(...)
From Carla De Hoyos
 
Pepsi cola hits the spot
makes you throw up in a pot
Throw up til your face turns green
Drink Seven up with no caffeine.

 
From Irving H. Willis
 
Pepsi Cola is the drink
To pour down your kitchen sink
Taste like vinegar, looks like ink
Pepsi Cola, sure does stink.

 
From Robert Carr
 
Christianity hits the spot,
Twelve apostles, that’s a lot,
Jesus Christ and a virgin too,
Christianity’s the religion for you.

(...)
COMMENTS
Amy R. W. says:
January 22, 2010 at 8:17 am
Years ago, my mom told me the version that she heard as a kid:
 
Pepsi Cola hits the spot
In your stomach it will rot
Tastes like vinegar, smells like wine
Oh my God, it’s turpentine!

 
That would have been in the Charleston, SC area in the 1950’s.
 
YouTube
Retro Pepsi Radio Commercials
Sep 3, 2010
dasobst
These are two retro Pepsi-Cola radio commercials. The first one is from around 1939 and the second one around 1950. Enjoy!

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityFood/Drink • Sunday, March 08, 2020 • Permalink


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