“I’m sure you recognise this lovely melody as ‘Stranger in Paradise.’ But did you know that the original theme is from the ‘Polovtsian Dance No. 2’ by Borodin?”

There’s probably no one who was born in the United States, who is over the age of 45, who has not seen this television commercial. But did anyone actually buy the product? Bonus points if you bought it on 8-track.

According to Wikipedia, it was the longest-running nationally-seen commercial in U.S. television history, airing for 13 years, from 1971 to 1984. So basically the entire span of my development.

That’s not John Williams, the film composer, by the way, but John Williams, the actor, who worked with Hitchcock (“Dial M for Murder,” “To Catch a Thief”) and Billy Wilder (“Sabrina,” “Witness for the Prosecution”), and briefly as the other Mr. French on “Family Affair.”

“So many of the melodies of well-known popular songs were actually written by the great masters… like THESE familiar themes…”

I hope Mr. Williams made a mint in royalties. He died in 1983 at the age of 80.