Richard Simmons made a living and earned himself considerable fame by convincing people to exercise. A formerly heavy young man, he worked at losing the weight, was successful, and began sharing his answer to success with others.
Of course, he’d already had some minor brushes with fame in uncredited roles in Fellini films such as Satyricon and The Clowns:
But the future creator of Deal-A-Meal wasn’t content to “sweat to the oldies”. Recognizing the desire for many in the 1980s to have contemporary music for their exercise routines, but not having the financial backing to license hot singles, Simmons came upon a logical, if improbable, solution.
He would make a hit single himself.
In 1982, he introduced the LP record Reach to the world, and launched the first single off of it, This Time.
The “hit” part of the single never quite happened. The world wasn’t ready for Richard Simmons singing. I would like to believe that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
As an audio palate cleanser, in a sort of apology for exposing you to that, I leave you with a Parry Gripp earworm:
Question of the night: What’s your favorite food or drink-based song?
