Karl Miller wrote:

> I guess, for me, the notion of a "hit" equates to popularity and that
> within the context of popularity, the more popular a piece is, the better
> it is.  Does that make sense?

Not to me.  What does 'within the context of popularity' mean?  I have
often read that more of Holst's music deserved to be heard; the popularity
of The Planets is due to the fact that when a record company executive
or orchestra manager hears 'Holst' he thinks 'Planets'.  If it hadn't
been for Disney, most of us might never have heard The Sorcerer's
Appentice; the March from Prokofiev's Love for 3 Oranges is very famous
because it was used as the theme of a radio drama series about the FBI.
None of this has much to do with the relative merits of the pieces
involved.

But even Irving Berlin allegedly thought that a measure of quality was how
much money the song made. I'm probably on a losing wicket here.

Donald

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