For reasons I don’t care to get into, I was singing Leslie Gore’s modest ’60s hit, “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” (best known to Simpsons fans as the “chase music” Chief Wiggum and Homer play in the squad car as they chase Marge and Ruth Powers in the classic episode, “Marge on the Lam”), and as usual when I get a random song in my head, I wanted to crank up the audio clip of it from the iTunes Store for the amusement (or annoyance) of everyone within earshot.
As I was listening to the clip, I noticed something odd. The CD it’s currently available on is from the 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection series, easily identified by its distinctive black-white-and-gray cover designs. I believe these originally featured artists from the A&M label, but eventually expanded to include other artists currently distributed by various labels under the (very large) blanket of Universal Music Group.
And that, I guess, is how ’60s bubblegum pop like Leslie Gore (originally released on Mercury, I believe) ends up being distributed by the same label as Ghostface Killah.
