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Millions of Wiggles
Written by Jimmy
As part of my Asian trip I travelled to Perth. My goodness, Perth is beautiful. I had to give a speech in a beautiful room, where the view for those poor suffering listeners was looking down on the Swan River. This is what they looked at while listening to me drone… a major reasons to be deaf but retain your sight:
Speaking of the benefits of being deaf, the big news item while I was in Perth was that some of the founding members of The Wiggles were retiring. The Wiggles you ask? Well, first, here are The Wiggles singing their big hit, Hot Potatoe:
Oh my. But this is the interesting part. First, this video has over 21 million hits. The population of Australia is slightly over that, meaning this video registers a score of 100%, in terms of hits/population, which seems a relevant measure. Now, this video could only appeal to Australians, so 22 million is right denominator. This would put the video right up there with the top 10 videos of all time. But that’s not all. The Wiggles Franchise is valued in the double digit millions. The founders kept control over everything, including all character names, brands, merchadise, etc.. Articles are written about the ‘lessons of the Wiggles for business.’
So don’t dismiss these guys. Well, the BIG NEWS was that a couple of them were retiring and they were bringing in new blood and…gulp a woman wiggle. Women wiggles? Really?
Reminds me a bit of Paul Hardcastle and his song 19. He kept control of everything – wrote it, produced it, distributed it – and it was only the number 1 song of 1985 beating out Michael Jackson. He did well. I met him on vacation, when his daughter starting to playing with mine in the pool. He recorded the initial sampling (probably the first sampling ever, although folks differ) directly off his TV. He did all the production. He borrowed money from his father in law to cut some copies of it and took it around himself to radio stations to get airplay. Here it is: