How to Become a Jingle Writer

People ask me all the time...well truthfully, I've had at least two people who have asked me, "How do you become a jingle writer?" To which I reply, "When you figure it out, let me know."

I don't think one chooses jingle writing as a "calling" like say, a priest may hear the call of God to the ministry. It all began for me in college at Towson University in Baltimore. A musician friend of mine wrote a jingle for a pest control company and sold it. I guess I just thought to myself, "That's a great to way to make a buck." So I was able to write a sell a car jingle and, "Poof!" I became the jingle man.

A real turning point for me in my jingle career was when my wife and I were living over a local candy store. Mrs. Wockenfuss (of Wockenfuss Candies) asked me to write a jingle for their store. So I wrote this little ditty...

There's a special place I remember,
Where my daddy and I would go.
He would buy me a bag of candy,
And the people there watched me grow.
That little store has grown a lot,
And now I've got my own family,
And Wockenfuss Homemade Candy,
Brings the kid out of me.

I'll have to post an mp3 of this gem. It is still being played in the Baltimore/Washington market after thirty-one years.

(to be cont'd)