This story in the Sunday New York Times about the hardships of freelance classical musicians notes that one of their problems is a downturn in the market for advertising jingles.

I once interviewed a veteran jingle writer — a fascinating guy. (You can read the interview here.) He told me that words set to music are 400 times more memorable than the same words without music. He also told me that old people who can’t remember what they had for lunch can remember jingles from their childhoods, 60-70-80 years ago.

And he’s right, isn’t he? When I mentioned this around the office, people immediately started chiming in with jingles they remembered. And I’m not talking about massively promoted national jingles, like “You deserve a break today.” People were remembering little local jingles they heard on their hometown radio and TV stations.

When I was about five years old, we were living in Plymouth, and I can remember hearing a jingle on the car radio for homebuilder Vern Donnay, a pioneer developer of postwar Twin Cities suburbs:

“Vern Donnay, Vern Donnay/Better living in every way.”

Twin Cities Federal had this long-running jingle:

“Think happy today/Why think about yesterday?/Be better off next year than you are now/Let Twin Cities Federal show you how.”

What jingles can you remember? Here are a few YouTube clips that might spark your memories.

The Northwestern Bank Weatherball:

Slinky:

My Buddy: