Toys R Us jingle writer reminisces

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - For toy lovers young and old, it is the end of an era.

This week Toys R Us announced that it filed for bankruptcy. There's no official closing date yet, but the company is slowly starting the process of shutting down all 735 of its U.S. stores. That means future generations will never turn on the TV and hear the famous jingle "I Don't Wanna Grow Up, I'm a Toys R Us Kid."

"I played it for the client and the client loved it and they tested it with 5-year-olds who gave it a thumbs up," Linda Kaplan Thaler said. "And lo and behold, I find out I have written a national jingle for Toys R Us."

We met with Thaler at her home on the Upper East Side. She wrote the music and lyrics for the Toys R Us jingle while working at an ad agency in 1982. Soon after, she met her husband, Fred, who arranged many others versions of the song throughout the years.

"I never imagined that this little ditty that I wrote 35 years later would be arguably one of the longest-running jingles in American history," Thaler said. "It has been a surprise and a thrill for me and I'm so sorry to see the store closing."