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thoughts???
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McDonald's sells ³Smile²with its Summer Music Event 2003.
HAWTHORNE, CA. (February 1, 2003) - Where can today's 'big kids' find the rare, previously unreleased Beach Boys Smile album? McDonald's of course!
This summer, the fast-food restaurant in planning a launch of Smile
HitClips, mini portable players for specially coded singles of the famous Œlost¹ album.
Mike Love announced the promotion at a recent press conference with
McDonald¹s corporate leaders. Love boasted, ³I¹ve had a master plan for the
release of Smile and I was waiting for the right time. Besides, what is more
American than hamburgers, french-fries, milk shakes and the Beach Boys?² One
reporter asked if he had to get the permission of Brian Wilson, who wrote
the Smile material along with Van Dyke Parks. Love replied, ³I¹ve recently
acquired ALL of the rights to the Smile songs, due to a legal snafu dating
from 1968. It seems that when our former manager, Murray, sold the Beach
Boys song catalogue in 1968, he neglected to include the Smile tracks,
signing them over to me. He was probably trying to spite Brian.²
The touring members of the Beach Boys, including Love and Bruce Johnston,
plan on performing Smile in its entirety during their summer 2002 tour. Each
venue will also have a temporary McDonald¹s restaurant, fully stocked with
Smile HitClips. ³I¹m also planning a live album, a DVD and a TV special on
the Smile album, ³ Love told reporters.
Due to the popularity of its previous HitClips campaign for kids and teens,
McDonald's is now marketing to those post-teenage Œbig kids¹ that like
classic rock Œn roll. HitClips is an incredible new music system that gives
the user the chance to collect hit single music samples in a micro sized
chip - no bigger than a postage stamp. Each HitClips Micro Music Player
plays one Micro Music Clip at a time; one clip is included with the purchase
of a HitClips player. Easily transportable, the HitClips Micro Music Players
attach onto clothing and have one earbud that fits snugly in the ear.
McDonald's is offering the new Œadult¹ HitClips Micro Music Players as part
of the biggest music event of the summer of 2002. Customers receive one
Micro Music Clip from the unreleased Beach Boys Smile album with the
purchase of a HitClips Micro Music Player.
(Click on thumbnail to view full size prototype)The Smile HitClips will be available beginning June 11, while supplies last,
at participating U.S. McDonald's restaurants. Each week will feature a new
Smile song. McDonald's customers may buy the HitClips for $4.99 each with
the purchase of any regularly priced menu item.
Other HitClips items available soon where toys are sold include the Who¹s
Lifehouse and Syd Barrett¹s Third Album from 1974.
McDonald's is the world's largest global food service retailer, with more
than 27,000 restaurants serving more than 43 million people each day in 119
countries. Approximately 85 percent of McDonald's U.S. restaurants are owned
and operated by independent franchisees.
''We wanted to find a way to get this rare music to the older crowd, and we
think we've found a fun way to do that,'' says Marc Rosenberg, Tiger's vice
president of communications. ''These days, older music fans are buying
bootlegs at an unprecedented number, and this toy is something that they
could buy for a lot less money!''
Each HitClip contains up to 5 minutes of music that can be played on a Micro
Player , a Rockin' Micro Boombox or an alarm clock . The Micro Player, which
can be attached to backpacks or T-shirts, has no volume control. It works as
a headset with one earpiece.
In the summer of 2000, the toys created some buzz when they were introduced
in a McDonald's promotion. But it wasn't until they announced the unreleased
Smile album would be featured in upcoming HitClips that the demand for
HitClips began to hit unprecedented levels.
''We¹ve had advance orders of 50,000,'' says Tom Alfonsi, senior vice
president of merchandising for KB Toys. ''It is just the right product at
the right time. Up until now, Capitol has not found a way to market Smile.''
― steve k (stevek10), Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:00 (twenty-three years ago)
eight years pass...
So let's revive this thread, since I know a lot of us got the Smile Sessions for Christmas time. Frankly my heart sunk a little when I tore open the wrapping - I've never owned, let alone been given, a £115 piece of music before, and I was worried it was too grand a gift to receive. This feeling didn't last long though, and it dawned on me that if anyone was supposed to own this, it should probably be me. Since then I've basically given up on any new music and dived headlong into these recordings. Anyone would think it's madness to actually sit and listen to a whole discsworth of Heroes and Villains outtakes, but it's fascinating hearing all these little sounds and instruments being queued, changed, flipped, compared, exchanged, scrubbed and maintained. I particularly love the really weird bits - everyone knows about the workshop session, but what about the Talking Horns and the Bag of Tricks?
Geek out over the box here! :-)
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Thursday, 5 January 2012 16:57 (fourteen years ago)
nine years pass...