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A Day on the Job: An anonymous man in everyone's ear

Jeff Arthur is likely the most famous man you never heard of. He writes those stick-to-the-brain jingles.

By JOHN REINAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 2002

JEFF ARTHUR, 51

President, Jeff Arthur Productions

Feather Sound

What do you do?

We come up with the slogans and the music to make businesses unforgettable.

In short, you're a jingle writer.

Right. But a lot of people don't know what jingles are.

So what are they?

Jingles are the catchy melodies that advertise products on TV and radio. Words put to music are 400 times more memorable than the spoken word itself.

How long have you been doing this?

About 29 years.

How did you get started?

Music has always been part of my life. I was performing off and on, and I had the opportunity to do my first jingle for a company called Just Pants. I saw it as a way to supplement my thin income as a musician.

Obviously, it became your main gig.

Yes. I was a recording artist for CBS Records and A&M Records under the name Arthur, Hurley & Gottlieb. I did the Mike Douglas Show and I played with John Lennon and Van Morrison at Philharmonic Hall in New York. But I came to a point where I did not want to be a 56-year-old folksinger playing at the truck stop. So I decided this could be a legitimate career.

What are the elements of a good jingle?

A short slogan married to the perfect melody. You can ask someone with Alzheimer's and they remember jingles. You can ask a child and they remember jingles. That's how powerful jingles are.

Let's face it, though -- it must be tough to sing something creative about a furniture store or a stick of deodorant.

You're telling me. You try writing a jingle for a nut manufacturing plant in Cleveland, which I did. The company was called King Nut. But that one actually turned out great. It's one of my favorites.

What jingles have you written that people around here might know?

I wrote "Hey, Hey, Tampa Bay," the Bucs' fight song. We also did "Make It A Blockbuster Night" for Blockbuster Video.

Any idea how many jingles you've written?

I would venture to say that we do more jingles than any single company in the country. Right now, we have about 1,600 different commercials that run every day in the United States. When people have a good jingle, they'll run it forever.

You also do music and voices for when people are on hold on the telephone.

Yes, that's the other main source of our income. This is great -- I called MCI about a problem with my bill. I heard me telling me to hold on, I'd be right with me. I didn't even remember we'd done MCI. That's when I knew we were really big.

What's your favorite thing about this job?

I think it's the freedom that I have to pretty much create what I want to create and get paid for it. And I get to work with creative people.

What's your least favorite thing?

Being unappreciated. And when there's time that's wasted.

What kind of money do you make?

I truly don't know exactly what I make. I have people to take care of that. I can tell youthat jingles cost $3,500 and up. I make enough money to live happily.

Would you say you clear six figures a year?

Six figures? Oh, yeah.

All that from a beat-up old guitar.

Amazing, isn't it? But when you read "Like A Rock" or "Coke Is It," what would it mean without the music? The words themselves aren't magical. People don't hum the announcer. Music works -- it doesn't matter what background you come from.