How old is the Menards jingle?
According to a blog post from St. Louis’s Riverfront Times, the infamous, banjo-centric ‘You’ll save big money at Menards’ jingle has been in play – and unchanged – since the early 1980s. The author combed the net and made a few phone calls to track down any tidbits of info he could on the tune, finding only a few shreds of history on what some (I) consider the mother of Midwestern ad jingles. From the post:
Irish Saxe Studios, Appleton, Wisconsin's jingle mothership, is the likely spot of the Menards jingle event horizon. [But first,] in 1972, Eau Claire WAXX/WAYY station manager and friend to Menard Bob Holtan wrote the lyrics over some stock music, selling it to Menard on the cheap.
The track was used for about a decade [before] composer Mitch Irish rearranged it in 1982. Irish, who is also known for the music from Troma Studio's cult classic The Capture of Bigfoot (directed by former Reform Party candidate for governor of Wisconsin Bill Rebane), recorded this new version at Irish Saxe, known today as Saxe Productions.
So there you go – more than you probably used to know. And now, this:
Update! We've learned that the blog post mentioned above was actually originaly published by City Pages – and they've also run a follow up interview with the woman who sang the Menard's jingle. Check it out!
