I’m not on deadline. Have nothing to say. But I’m at the keyboard working because it’s the only way I can keep from playing “Timber” by Pitbull and Ke$ha over and over. The stupid pop ditty hypnotizes me. If “Timber” told me to rob a bank, I’d be shopping for wigs and sunglasses right now.
I mean, the production is grooveless and the rap segments totally unnecessary, but that melody just drills itself into your head. The first time I ever heard the song, which is currently #1 on the Billboard singles chart, was on the American Music Awards in November and I was hooked right away.
The instrument that holds the whole thing together is the harmonica. Dallas musician Paul Harrington was booked one Saturday afternoon at a jingle studio for a $1,000 flat fee and that’s the harmonica part you hear on “Timber.”
Rather than pay expensive sample fees, producers are going to the jingle factories for musicians who can sound a certain way. The only instruction Harrington received through his producer Nick Seeley from Pitbull’s team of Dr. Luke, Cirkut and Sermstyle, was to make it sound like Lee Oskar. The great War warbler from Sweden is listed as a co-writer of “Timber” because the song’s melody comes from a harp line on Oskar’s 1979 recording “San Francisco Bay.”
Harrington blew his harp to a spare backing track, with just the beat and a synthesizer playing the chord changes. It took him about 90 minutes to nail it, though he got paid for the contracted four hours at $250 per.
Paul Harrington.
As a harmonica player on jingles for the past 30 years in Dallas, Harrington is used to these kind of gigs, though the outcome blows his mind. He’s gone from commercials for McDonald’s and Chevy trucks to the top of the pop charts. “When I heard the finished track, I was knocked out,” said Harrington. “Boy, did they turn me up loud.”
Harrington’s harmonica kicks off the song and weaves through the rhythm for the entire 3:24. “It may sound like a loop, but I played that live throughout the track,” says the leader of the Paul Harrington Band, whose blues are rarely played where food isn’t served.
A native of Illinois who was greatly influenced by Paul Butterfield, Charlie McCoy and Stevie Wonder growing up, Harrington played in various bar bands in Aspen, Colo. after college. When he moved to the Metroplex in 1983, Dallas was the jingle capital of the country.
But times have gotten tough for musicians booking commercial sessions. Most of the work’s in L.A. and Nashville these days, so Harrington was delighted to book that Saturday session that brought his harmonica around the world in a big way.
So does he feel taken advantage of, earning a G for a record that’s made millions? No more than when someone buys a truck after seeing a commercial featuring his blues harmonica. “It was just another session and I did my best,” Harrington said.