He certainly wasn’t the guardian of good taste, or even particularly good products, but he did kind of single handedly make the compilation album a thing, and sold half a billion of them. Now, he’s gone to that commercial time spot up up in the sky. Goofy Greats was the compilation that made me the man I am today. I love compilation records. If I know I like one band or song on a comp, but haven’t heard anyone else on it, I’ll probably grab it. I usually assume that there’s some sort of commonality between my tastes and the tastes of the person who assembled the compilation. Sometimes that happens, sometimes they were thrown together for another reason entirely. Either way, they’re almost always a fun time.
NPR story with more info on his life.
Guardian story specifically about his record business.
(Both articles have links to more of the commercials.)
He didn’t come up with the comp for the reasons I love them, but I’m glad he did it anyway. See ya, sir.
Yes, and he was absolutely amazing! 
Still have my miracle brush.
I remember longing for the Fishin Magician, even though I didn’t fish.
I tried to find info on the announcer for those ads - no luck.
Ah the kind of gifts I got from my one aunt and uncle. I appreciated the “Space Age Design!” “Funky Favorites” was my first exposure to Weird Al Yankovic.
There are two musical acts – Jim Croce and Creedence Clearwater Revival – for whom I only know about three songs in their entirety, but I’m deeply familiar with about ten more songs – but only eight seconds from each of those songs. Like, I can recall intimately eight seconds of Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” but I have never heard any more of the song in my life. All hanks to K-Tel’s incessant commercials in the early '80s.
(This would make for an interesting test. Someone with a Croce-like voice, musical instrument skills, and sound editing software could put together three entirely different versions of the song, each containing that eight-second snatch, and I’d have to guess which one is he real thing.)