Popularity: 5% [?]

TV Pitchman Billy Mays died over the weekend. 

The man who popularized dozens of items including OxyClean and Orange Glo was 50 years old.  Here’s what is thought to be his last TV interview…done by a TV reporter who met his plane after a rough landing at the Tampa International Airport

Any Billy Mays memories?

Popularity: 2% [?]

TV Pitchman Billy Mays died over the weekend. 

The man who popularized dozens of items including OxyClean and Orange Glo was 50 years old.  Here’s what is thought to be his last TV interview…done by a TV reporter who met his plane after a rough landing at the Tampa International Airport

Any Billy Mays memories?

Popularity: 2% [?]

      Ok, that was a little too freaky. Tom and I were on the air talking about celebrities dying in 3’s. Ed McMahon and Farrah Facett had just passed away. On the air we thought outloud “who’s next?” I NEVER in a million years would have thought it would be Michael Jackson. We got word on his condition not 10 minutes after we wondered who could be next. The guy was a musical genius but like many other people with enormous talent, he was troubled. I also felt a little sad when I saw him because he really seemed like a tortured soul to me. Will all the goofyness and accusations overshadow a catalog of hit songs and his influence over popular culture for decades? I guess only time will tell. Here are some of my predictions for his legacy’s future:

-Neverland will be purchased by someone and turned into a shrine, much like Graceland.

-His album sales will skyrocket for the next few months.

-”Victims” will come out of the woodwork looking for money via books and interviews with tabloids.

-His family will turn against each other fighting over money. I know he’s supposedly broke to the tune of millions of dollars, but I can’t believe a guy THAT RICH doesn’t have money sitting in an offshore account somewhere.

-Look for his family to whore out his image and life story for a movie and broadway play.

-There will be at least two more albums of new material released. Michael has a vault full of songs that didn’t make it on his last album. Tupac is STILL putting out new music 10 years after he died.

-Look for a CGI moment at the next Grammy’s…he’ll be singing with someone thru the use of digital technology.

-His doctor will be investigated in relation to Michaels death.

-There will be sightings of MJ just like people see Elvis. The urban legand will go something like “he just didn’t want to deal with the fame and pressure anymore so he faked his death.”

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I was talking with a friend of mine who works on one of the local TV stations the night Michael Jackson died.  This guy came of age in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and he said that Michael Jackson was greater than Elvis.  I almost asked my friend if he’d been drinking.  Greater than Elvis, you say?  I don’t think so.  Michael Jackson wasn’t ever greater than Perry Como.

First, let’s leave Elvis out of this equation.  Presley was in a league of his own.  The undisputed best-selling solo artist of all time.  Period.

Let’s see how Michael Jackson stacks up against Perry Como as a solo artist, entertainer, and human being.  Perry had 14 number one songs.  Jackson only had 13. (Presley, by the way, had 14 as well).  Perry had his own TV show (The Kraft Music Hall).  Michael never did (that Saturday morning cartoon with the Jackson 5 doesn’t count).  Perry Como never dangled a baby over a balcony.  Perry Como never grabbed his crotch on stage.  Perry was never brought up on child molestation charges.   Perry never slept in an oxygen tank.  Everybody liked Perry Como.  Most people thought Michael was a freak.  I could go on, but the point’s been made.

Michael Jackson may have been great in his day, but he was no Perry Como. 

Popularity: 11% [?]