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Mick’s The Man

Mick’s The Man — I guess Bill Gates decided that the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" would be perfect for advertising Windows 95, since one of Windows 95’s most recognizable features is a Start button on the Task Bar. According to the Sun, an English tabloid, Microsoft contacted Mick Jagger about it, and Mick asked for a whopping $12 million for rights to use the song in Windows 95 advertising. Apparently, Mick thought that if he asked for a preposterously large amount, that Microsoft would go home empty-handed, but Microsoft’s response was "Do you want cash, or is a check all right?" So, starting this week, expect to hear the Stones’ best three chords used for peddling software. Of course, Macintosh aficionados can get some mileage out of the song’s chorus – "You make a grown man cry" – but I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader. [GD]

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