Idolator emeritus Jess Harvell forwarded me the news of a teeny slice of the performance royalties for the late Jermaine Stewart’s 1986 anti-sex, pro-cherry-wine screed “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” being up for auction with the subject line “Finally, Idolator can have the theme song it’s always deserved.” (Although maybe he was referring to Gym Class Heroes’ Patrick Stump-featuring, Stewart-interpolating “Clothes Off!,” which also will have a similar part of itself on the auction block next month? Regardless.) Anyway, with a minimum bid of $1,000 (plus fees), I don’t think that either track’s theme-song status is going to be elevated to anything more than “honorary.” But it’s still a good enough excuse to post embeds of both tracks, and a note about the math involved in the transaction. More »
I still love this morning’s story about the product-placement deal that was struck between Autograph and Paper-Mate 25 years ago, mainly because it took so long for the obvious-in-hindsight synergy to be noticed by this observer. “With the name Autograph, it’s logical for us to be advertising a pen,” lead singer Steve Plunkett told the Los Angeles Times when the deal was dissected. “It would only be weird and out of place if we were advertising something like a vacuum cleaner or a roach spray.” But what if other videos of the era did work with less, um, glamorous products? Six vintage clips that we can now look at as perfect except for their insufficient monetization, after the jump. Feel free to add your own suggestions–and hey, given the impending doom that car companies are seeing, perhaps some current musicians might want to think about getting “creative” with their own endorsements? More »
