NEW YORK (TNA) – Think you’ve got problems? Try driving an ice cream truck.

Not only do those folks spend their days baking in the sun while peddling popsicles, but they must also do so while enduring a repetitious recording of a glockenspiel, or bells ringing “The Entertainer” or “Music Box Dancer,” for upwards of eight hours a day.

Composer Michael Hearst makes music just for ice cream trucks.

It’s enough to drive even the most dedicated ice cream man or woman to extreme depths of insanity, especially since “ice cream truck music” is a relatively ignored harmonic genre.

Luckily, ice cream vendors have a friend in New York-based composer Michael Hearst, who has created a new CD aptly titled “Songs For Ice Cream Trucks.”

The disc features 12 tunes composed especially for ice cream trucks, using chimey instruments like the glockenspiel, melodica and theremin that Hearst says carry the sustain necessary to be heard blocks away – a key component of “ice cream truck music.”

Although it’s fun to imagine Hearst was inspired to create his “ice cream truck music” opus after hearing “Pop Goes The Weasel” one too many times and vowing to make his own, the truth is decidedly less dramatic.

Instead, he simply came up with a tune that he thought sounded like “ice cream truck music,” and felt it might be fun to create others.

However, after he wrote four such songs and posted them at www.myspace.com/songsforicecreamtrucks, he discovered there was actually a market for the original songs.

“There isn’t much ‘ice cream truck music’ available,” Hearst said. “So when drivers go looking for new songs, I’m the guy that comes up online.

“I had drivers tell me the album was necessary because, as they put it, ‘You think people are sick of the same songs? Well, we’re 10 times [more] sick of them.’”

Sadly, most ice cream trucks aren’t set up for maximum sound quality – Hearst says the majority use an archaic system of music cylinders that employ prongs, like a music box.

But times are changing, and some independent drivers are hooking up CD players and iPods to their trucks’ sound systems, a trend that has Hearst optimistic he can make a difference.

Luckily, the ice cream truck drivers who contacted Hearst gave sound advice on how to ring up sales.

“They told me, ‘Be prepared. This music is going to be played on cheap speakers,’” he said. “That’s why I used high-end chimey instruments that have sustain and a built-in reverb, so they can be heard for blocks.”

It was important for Hearst that his new ice cream truck songs be catchy, but he wanted to avoid driving the sellers nuts through repetition. So he relied on musical tricks like key changes to keep them sounding fresh.

In addition, he recorded some songs in minor keys to allow for a languid, melancholy quality that goes nicely with a Sidewalk Sundae or Eskimo Pie.

The whole album is barely 30 minutes long, but Hearst says ice cream truck drivers will hear a hint of composers like Nino Rota and Kurt Weill in the songs.

“Ice cream music, like circus music, has its roots in Eastern Europe,”
Hearst said.

But there’s also a cutting-edge truck tune called “Ice Cream Yo!” that Hearst hopes will play well in urban neighborhoods.

So far, “Songs For Ice Cream Trucks” has been warmly received by critics, but Hearst isn’t planning on devoting all his time to it just yet.

“I have some fear the album will fizzle after the summer,” Hearst said. “But then again, it also works well for commercials, and parents are buying it for their kids.”

He says it’s possible the album could become a seasonal favorite, and if that happens, he jokes, he’d like to “tour” by taking an ice cream truck around the country and playing the tunes while selling frozen treats.

But even Hearst concedes that probably won’t happen.

“Do you know how expensive ice cream trucks are?” he said.

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