The United Airlines is fundamentally intertwined with George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue. It’s hard to imagine that when Continental Airlines management took over they considered dropping the song which the airline has used since the 1980s. United was the first commercial brand ever to license it, for an annual fee of $300,000 at the time.
The Gershwin piece wasn’t just used on board and in commercials but also a version was recorded for the ‘trippy tunnel’ connecting United concourses at Chicago O’Hare.
But United didn’t always use this song. Just before United adopted Rhapsody, Brian Eno created ‘Music for Airports’ offering his take on the environmental sound of muzak. And that’s just the sound that United used to use as well.
Here’s a 47 minute mix of what United reportedly used as background music in the 1960s from Friendly Skies and Flight Of The Phoenix to Halfway to Paradise (the game United played until 2015 on Hawaii flights was Halfway to Hawaii).
(HT: Paul H.)
Ironically Rhapsody in Blue is now in the public domain and UA could use it without charge.
Hi Gary—we still play “Halfway to Hawaii.”
I think they should use the original Airport movie theme scored by Alfred Newman but probably depressing for those who remember the Golden Age of flying or a few cuts from Flightplan, James Horner, maybe more in line with current insanity.