JILL MARICICH/Arizona Daily Wildcat The Arizona Choir practices yesterday in the Music building. The choir is one of many groups that are doing a rendition of "Bear Down Arizona" for a CD that has more than 11 versions of the UA fight song.

There are lots of ways to launch an ad campaign.

Sometimes a good song launches an ad.

But a recent Mitsubishi song has had the opposite affect for band Dirty Vegas.

The cover of the CD even has a sticker identifying the song to potential buyers as the one played in the TV commercial.

Musicians and fundraisers around the UA must have been thinking to a similar tune.

They're hoping people around Tucson and UA dig "Bear Down Arizona."

A lot.

Musicians from the Division of Music and

staff in University Advancement, which handles fundraising and public relations among other things, have teamed up to produce a CD with 11 different versions of the song "Bear Down Arizona," for possible release in the spring.

The CD was originally meant to go along with a Campaign Arizona event in Phoenix but it was canceled, and work on the CD continued because it was already far along.

So far, the different variations include a cappella, jazz, symphonic orchestra, Dixieland jazz, choir, pipe organ, opera, the marching band and the pep band.

It also contains vocal jazz, featuring Jeff Haskell, director of jazz studies and the UA Recording Studio, who orchestrated an album for Up With People! and has won three Grammies.

"It ranges from various versions, all the way to comedic, overly dramatic to symphonic," said Rex Woods, interim School of Music director.

The idea of compiling a CD full of different versions of the fight song came from University Advancement. The department decided new versions of the song would be good in radio advertising, said Nancy Guthrie, assistant vice president for

University Advancement

"We talked to Robert Cutietta, (former School of Music director who left for USC), and he thought it was great idea," Guthrie said. "We have the rights to use the music in any kind of ad, for use as background music. It might be sold at the bookstore or offered through the Alumni Association. Right now we are seeing how it would work."

The Division of Music is considering using the CD as a fundraiser for the school and a recruiting tool after it is out in spring, Woods said.

The new renditions of the old standard have been well-received so far, Woods said.

"The orchestra version just premiered at a concert and it went very well," he said.

Legendary lyrics
·'Bear Down Arizona' marks its 50th anniversary this year.
·Jack Lee wrote the song in 1952 on an airplane barf bag after seeing Bear Down Gym from an aerial perspective.
·Song premiered shortly thereafter at a pep rally downtown in the middle of Congress Street.
·The fight song was the UA's second. ÎFight! Wildcats! Fight!' came 22 years earlier.
·In the 1950s, the band played in seats near the center of the field.