One Hit Wonder Greatest Hits Album

There are plenty of musicians out there that have one hit wonder songs. A one hit wonder, for those who do not know, is a song that is a hit, but it's the only hit song that the musician ever puts out. Many groups have had this happen, probably the most notable one hit wonder is "Take On Me" by Ah-Ha, from the 1980's. There is even a list of the top 100 One Hit Wonders:


Top 20 One Hit Wonders


Where am I going with all of this? Well, I'm in Best Buy the other day and I see SilverChair's Greatest Hits album. SilverChair???? They had one hit song, ONE!! Not only that, but they called the greatest hits album "Silverchair: The Best Of, Volume 1". HUH???? Is this supposed to imply that there is more to come? I sure as hell hope not.

Another one is Wilson Phillips. In 1990,Wilson Phillips released a self titled album with four top 10 hits on it. They released another album 2 years later that flopped, a pile of crap called "Shadows & Light", after which the band unceremoniously broke up. Obviously the record companies involved with Wilson Phillips must think pretty highly of them, because they have THREE GREATEST HITS ALBUMS, yep, count 'em, three!!

I actually owned a single cassette of "Hold On", arguably their best song, but even as a fan (yah, I liked them, so what, shut up) I have to admit they didn't have near enough material for one greatest hits album, much less THREE. I doubt though that they had much say in it, after all, they were broke up. Something tells me that for them, and even bands like SilverChair, a crappy band still trying to put out music, that the record label puts the greatest hits albums out whether they like it or not.

ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, and those consumers stupid enough to buy albums such as these.

Tipping The Scales With Special K!!

Isn’t it interesting when you see a commercial for a low fat product, advertising itself as a great way to lose weight? The person you see eating the product in question is always in shape, if it’s a man he is tone and muscular, if it’s a women she is thin and lean. They live in an immaculate white house with white carpeting, a white kitchen… every freaking thing is white. It would be much better if advertising was more realistic.

The commercial for Kellogg’s Special K starts, and should show a person of normal size, eating about half the box of cereal out of a large bowl, with about half a cup of sugar sprinkled in, that would be a lot more realistic. Or a Bow Flex commercial with a person who is a bit on the obese side, using the exercise equipment twice, at most three times, then showing it sit in the corner or down in the basement collecting dust… now THAT is reality.

I tend to think about food commercials though, and how you don’t see a 350 pound man happily buying a Big Mac, large fries, and Diet Coke at McDonalds in any commercial, even though this is a common scenario in real life. This brings me to the diet soda situation, that being: Why on earth do people even buy a diet soda when ordering a value meal at a fast food restaurant? Do they think the diet pop is really going to give them the edge in the war against girth? Not really, when you lost this battle of the bulge the moment you walked in the fast food doorway.

I suppose realism in advertising would create a substantial loss in appeal, even among those who are overweight, who would probably think twice about eating at a fast food joint if the people in the commercial were grossly overweight. Same goes for low fat food, where seeing a fat person eating large quantities of the low fat food would lead a person to wonder what the point of buying the food would be… “If I buy that I’ll probably do the same damn thing, screw that!!�

No one will ever use reality in advertising because reality does not appeal to the common consumer. But it would be pretty funny sometimes to see a little more reality.