“I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, I want by baby back, baby back, baby back…Chili’s baby back ribs….”
When it comes to jingles, it’s pretty safe to say Chili’s Grill & Bar came out with one of the catchiest promo tunes of all time back in the day. The famous commercial song — which made us all hungry for baby back ribs — was first introduced in 1986 and ran through the 1990s. Though it was briefly used in 2015 for Chili’s 40th anniversary, it's been awhile since our TVs and computers were jamming out to the familiar tune.
But now, the earworm is coming back ... with some updated lyrics that has us scratching our heads.
You may have heard the new song already featured in the chain restaurant’s most recent commercials. In a statement released to TODAY Food, Steve Provost, chief marketing and innovation officer of Chili’s explained that the reintroduction of the jingle is part of the brand's effort to go back to its roots.
“We admit that as a brand, we lost our way a bit and needed to take a step back to successfully move forward, which for us, included going back to our roots and revisiting our iconic jingle that was once on everyone’s lips,” he said. The restaurant also recently cut the menu from 125 items to 75 to focus on food items the restaurant is best known for like burgers and fajitas.
The new song, which tries to explain the company’s decision to cut its menu, forgoes the catchy "baby back, baby back, baby back..." for more complicated lyrics: "Our ribs are bigger, the whole menu is better. So we changed the song to be bigger than ribs..."
Reaction has been pretty quiet on social media so far but it is bringing nostalgia to some:
Other's aren't as thrilled.
At the very least, we bet Michael Scott is excited...
“We didn’t just want to revive the original jingle,” Provost added. “We wanted to break out of the casual dining ‘sea-of-sameness’ rut and let our guests know that Chili’s 'is back, baby' and better at what we’ve always done best — serving quality burgers, ribs and fajitas, washed down with a cold margarita.”
Only time will tell if the new song is catch enough to bring customers back, baby back, baby back...