Funny what a difference a year makes.
Back in February 2007, I was putting together a piece for Bullz-Eye called “The Best Albums You’ve Never, Ever Heard (Well, Probably Not, Anyway),” and on my personal short list on possible inductees was Carly Hennessy’s Ultimate High, released by MCA Records in 2001. As it happens, however, the album never ended up making it into the final piece, mostly because Carly never got around to filling out the short Q&A that everyone else had done, and it would’ve looked lopsided without it. I followed up about a week after my initial request, and she responded, “I will do it tonight. Sorry, I had family in town, and I have been so busy with them that I didn’t have time.” Fair enough, but as the deadline for the piece approached, I still hadn’t gotten her responses, and since I didn’t want to be a nag, I saw no need to follow up a second time.
In retrospect, perhaps I should have. Now, Carly Hennessy is known as Carly Smithson, and she’s one of the final 12 contestants on the current season of “American Idol.”
There’s something ironic about the fact that I was first inspired to purchase my copy of Ultimate High because of an article which originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal (but appears here via a posting on Matt Goyer’s blog) which spoke of how few copies of the album had been bought. It’s a painful yet fascinating read, but certain facts really leap out at you, including…
* MCA paid for her living expenses for two years.
* They also gave her a blue convertible Volkswagen Golf to drive around in.
* They sent a surprise limo to take Carly and her friends to a Blink-182 rock concert to celebrate her 18th birthday.
…but what it really boils down to is this: the label spent $2.2 million to make and market the album – including $250,000 on a video that showed her dancing in a disco and jumping around with her pals in their sleepwear – but, after three months, it had sold precisely 378 copies.
Yikes.
