“I should have bought it when I saw it at Mardens.”
That jingle has lived in the brains of generations of Mainers who hopefully never had to ruefully mutter those words after a trip to the bargain store.
The man behind the iconic Marden’s jingle, Ed Boucher, died this week at age 79, according to the Sun Journal.
Boucher, who underwent cancer surgery more than a decade ago, had a lifelong passion for music, both in front of the microphone and behind a mixing board
He made his first record in 1961 with his band the Royal Knights in a small Lewiston studio. When they eventually got a chance to record in a professional studio in Boston, Boucher knew was destined to be in the recording business, according to the Sun Journal.
Boucher later opened his own studio on Lisbon Street in Lewiston, giving local artists a chance to record their music.
The most successful song Boucher ever recorded was Nick Knowlton and the band Katfish’s 1975 cover of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” which landed at No. 52 on the Billboard charts, the Sun Journal reported.
Beyond the world of rock ‘n’ roll, Boucher also made his mark with commercial jingles, including for Country Kitchen, Northern Mattress and Furniture Co., the Sausage Kitchen and the Lewiston Maineiacs, according to the Sun Journal.
Of course, Boucher’s most famous jingle was the one he composed for Marden’s, which he penned in the 1980s.
The recording business took a hit in the 1990s, and Boucher left the industry for a job at L.L. Bean. But he couldn’t stay away for long, and he eventually set up a smaller home studio where he continued his pursuit for a monster hit.
