Here’s a closer look at the Skylark Custom, Buick’s classy mid-sized offering for 1969.
Airplanes are familiar set props in automobile marketing: They project glamour and adventure, engineering and performance. In this Buick campaign, the aircraft is a Boeing-Stearman Model 75 biplane, a World War II-era trainer, and this one happens to be equipped with a smoke machine for skywriting. So now that they have our attention, they’re going to tell us all about the 1969 Skylark Custom.
For ’69, Buick was offering a complete range of vehicles on the General Motors A-body midsize platform: Special, Skylark, Sportwagon, and Gran Sports in multiple variations. The Skylark Custom was the upmarket trim level in the Skylark line, offering a dressier interior, a more elaborate grille, and a standard 350 cubic-inch V8 with 230 hp. The base price was $3,009, around $300 more than a Chevelle Malibu V8, a close GM corporate cousin built on the same A-body intermediate package. For their extra 300 bucks over the Malibu, Skylark Custom buyers got a larger V8, more dramatic styling, and the prestige of the Buick name.
Buick developed a number of memorable slogans over the years, including “When better automobiles are built, Buick will build them” in 1935. By ’69, the division was several years into an equally effective catchphrase that originated with a 1965 jingle: “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?” If you grew up in the ’60s, you’re probably humming the tune now. Here, the phrase (minus the melody) serves as the sendoff message. Video below.
Bill Mitchell’s batmobile tendencies are evident here in the rear end treatment.
That catchy tune was performed by Linda November, and she did over 20,000 commercial jingles in her time. While the Buick commercials were a hit, she is best known for the Meow Mix commercials. I believe that song was used until 1966, when in ’67, the motto became, “when better cars are built, Buick will build them”. They used the “Wouldn’t you really rather” into the 80s, but was clearly dated by then.
Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and what’s-her-name all looked pretty tough driving a ’69 Skylark Custom in the movie 9 to 5.
Back in the stone age during my teenage street racing days, any Buick GS usually meant trouble. We Mopar guys always joked GS stood for Girl Scout…
A clarification about the jingle, as there’s some misinformation on the web. Linda did perform the jingle in commercials for the 1968 model year, but not the original 1965-MY version (Ms. November didn’t start singing jingles until 1967.)
A YT video of a woman singing the 1965 radio spot shows a blue-eyed blonde who sounds and looks nothing like the sultry-voiced, dark-eyed Ms. November. Unfortunately, a commenter read LN’s Wikipedia page and jumped to a wrong conclusion.
Because I know how much you all care… (eye roll).
When I was a kid, one of my aunts bought a new 1971 Skylark in blue w/black top and black interior. I didn’t know much about cars back then, but I did know that her Skylark was a beautiful car.
And 55 years later Pontiac and Oldsmobile are gone, Chevrolet only makes trucks, and Buicks are built in China.
My first car, hand me down in 1972, and it was a total POS. The camshaft lobes rounded off at 60K miles; one of the back doors didn’t fit, and the hood paint oxidized in two years. GM’s quality control was at its nadir.
$300 dollars in 1969 equated to almost $2900.00 quite a bit over a small V8 Malibu (though I would have paid up for the Buick 😉
oh, and it would drown out in 6 inches of water, too