Cop Turned ROCKER Eddie Money Got 60s LEGEND Out Of Retirement For This 80s HIT | Professor of Rock

coming up a rare interview with a rocker who passed away a few years back about his biggest hit it was a really important song from 1986 because it brought a rock and roll hall of famer out of retirement by interpolating the chorus of her 1963 hit do a new rock song all together while introducing it to a whole new generation while at the same time helping this new york rocker make a huge comeback the interview and the amazing story is next on professor of rock hey music junkies professor of rock always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time if you love the music of the rock and roll era you're going to want to explore this channel subscribe below right now to get the stories of the great songs of the decades from the legends now if you're a bona fide music junkie take a look at our new merch at professorofrock.com if you click right up here where i'm pointing that will take you there also for even more content can check out our patreon link that's above as well now eddie money the money man he was a true rock and roller he started following a rich family heritage to become a cop but he heard that big beat sound on his way to joining new york's finest and became one of new york's finest in iraq and pop you know if you use baseball as an analogy for rock and roll you know in new york terms eddie money he was like the thurman munson of music with over 40 years of service on the rock stage his swagger his passion they were apparent night after night after night he passed away a few years back and he's been sorely missed i was so fortunate to get to sit down with him for a couple hours some time ago and amongst other things talk about his biggest hit the timeless 1986 classic take me home tonight [Music] with the incomparable ronnie specter singing the chorus of her 1963 number two hit be my baby right after eddie rips out just like ronnie's saying [Music] take me home tonight was written by mike leeson and peter vell of course the track also gave credit to jeff berry ellie grenwich and phil spector for using the chorus to be my baby [Applause] be my baby is one of the most influential songs in the history of recorded music you know this wall of sound production i mean it knocked brian wilson of the beach boys sideways silly it inspired him to create don't worry baby it inspired the boss bruce springsteen when he was working on the production and born to run inspired billy joel you know his track say goodbye to hollywood [Music] which coincidentally ronnie spector cut with the e street band [Applause] [Music] [Applause] actually eddie mentions billy joel in this interview as they ran in the same circles in new york when take me home then i blasted up the charts it gave eddie money and an enormous comeback you know after blazing onto the scene in the late 1970s with his first two hits baby hold on [Music] two tickets to paradise [Music] he told me about his rise in the interview but as he made his way through the charts with those first few hits and then had another big hit with think i'm in love in 82 just played on mtv a lot with a great video that would prove to be his last top 40 hit for years his 1983 album was the party it wasn't a huge seller it stalled at number 67 on the album chart after three consecutive top 40 showings on the charts he had five consecutive stiffs on the charts after i think i'm in love would take me home tonight though not only did eddie start his big comeback but it became the biggest hit song of his entire career when it comes to the money man for me it's really personal eddie money means a lot to me you know in 1986 i was 10 years old and that late summer and fall take me home tonight and eddie's album can't hold back it was the surefire soundtrack of that time for me my dad bought the album the day it was released and the moment he popped the tape into the tape deck in his ford pickup i'd venture to say that the cassette wasn't ejected for a good two months after uh i knew every song by heart you know we both sing these songs at the top of our lungs i remember we stopped at this really cool little gas station by our house it was called b and j's market had a lot of comic books garbage spell kids i got to pick out a pop i always got this cream soda that the label looked like it was a beer i always had some loose change burning a hole in my pocket in those days so i buy these little boxes of cheap candy like red hots alexander the grape lemonheads johnny appleseeds i also like i said bought loads of garbage pill kids i bought mad magazine comic books spider-ham that was a great summer and fall there are just certain albums that are released in your childhood where you remember every single song by heart it's different for all of us can't hold back was one of those albums for me i mean songs like i want to go back [Music] endless nights [Music] one love [Music] and of course take me home tonight what a rock and roll education i received that at that time in my life it was you know my introduction to the brill building to the ronettes to the 60s i mean i'd heard music before that but uh i was listening to the american top 40 countdown with casey kasem and he'd tell his stories and my dad would tell his stories on top of that dig up his old 45s and records and he'd tell me about the ronits and the beach boys and the beatles and all that music that came before that inspired eddie and his music it was the beginning of rock and roll urban legends that i still remember today i mean my dad would pass on rock myths about eddie money that he was a cop and then he decided to be a rocker all of a sudden which is not true he also heard that eddie was married to ronnie spector also not true i found out it was hearsay a rumor but it motivated me to track down the stories behind the song it started my love of that that's exactly where it started for me really that little cassette tape that my dad bought at a drugstore in our little town was my window to the world more importantly it's a bond i share with my dad that i'll treasure forever and i have to tell you that i take a piece of that in every interview that i do and that's the power of eddie's music whether it's the possibilities imagined and two tickets to paradise or the aching plea of baby hold on the straight-ahead rock of walk-on water [Music] for the optimistic dreaming of i want to be a rock and roll star from his first album [Music] now what follows is me getting the real story of eddie money the cop the story of take me home tonight and i want to go back i feel these songs are magic they're time capsules that when played take us back to life's sweetest memories like driving around a small town with your father and every time i hear eddie's music i want to go back and do it all over for you it's going to be a different uh songs different artists but uh eddie money passed away on september 13 2019 almost one month to the day after my dad they're about the same age when i interviewed eddie it was pretty special as i got to relay all of this to him how his music created a father and son bond that lasted for so long actually eddie wrote a special note to my dad as i had him autographed the exact copy of the gasset that my dad wore out so long ago i remember just a few months ago i was in the grocery store with my boys and i want to go back came on over the the speakers overhead [Music] about 20 seconds later i was just bawling my eyes out i miss my dad every single day and the music reminds me i'm so grateful that i have the music to remember so let's get into the interview and i do want to thank our sponsors zeni eyewear they helped to make our mission of keeping the music alive possible at zeni.com you can choose from their latest frames all styles all colors and you can add features like you'll definitely want to add blue blocks with they protect your eyes from digital blue light go to zenny.com today here's eddie with the story i want to start out and go back to the very beginning what was it for you that kicked open the door to your mind and made you want to pursue music do you remember the moment well actually you know i went to uh you know i grew up listening to chiffon she's so fine [Music] the four tops and even before the beatles i mean you know rock and roll radio was alive wmms in new york so i grew up with a lot of really great rock and roll and uh i was always singing it you know when i was a kid i was singing songs like you know uh i went lenny welch you never really leave my happy home or you know if you want to be happy for the rest of your life gary us bonds i mean it was such great music on the radio and uh i just always had in my blood i was always a singer you know and then when i started high school my dad was a cop my mother worked at a bank there was five kids we didn't have a lot of money so i had to be the lead singer because i didn't have any money for drums or guitars or anything like that so i automatically knew that i was the lead singer well you were going to the police academy and you were singing the rock and roll bands at night take us back to that well you know i went on the police department my brother was in vietnam at the time my mother was going crazy and i was going to college for a while but i wasn't really into the college thing and i joined the police department great bunch of guys but i couldn't i wasn't really into being a cop you know it was very regimental i didn't really want to wear a uniform for 20 years of my life i said i should have went to the marine corps like my brother and got it over with i just was a little too military for me and the band had moved out to california my rock and roll band high school the grapes around so i just you know i packed my bags up quite the police bomb and moved out to california and that ban didn't last then i went up to san francisco and started by myself all over again and you were recognized for your talents by a certain bill graham one of the great legends bill grant was a great guy you know tell me that story take his back well i remember bill graham i mean the first time i actually saw led zeppelin they did two nights in in san francisco they opened up a group called country joe on the fish and you know bill graham used to have a buddy there from heart to queen to everybody in the world played at winterland i saw jimi hendrix there played twice it was an amazing amazing play and he turned out to be a great guy and then i went up getting a record deal for him because he wanted to do something for the people that worked for him in the office so he started his own label when i was distributed at columbia and i was the first artist you know the quote that i remember reading that he said eddie money's got it all he's got the voice he he writes he's a natural performer and that has to make it very enough him to say that but then again he was making 20 for his fan for the people in the office no bill was a great guy you actually thought he actually walked out of russia he was a russian jew yeah with 500 kids and 250 of them died on the way to paris and his sister was in oshawa she's still at the tattoos on her arms you know he had a very tough childhood then he moved to new york and he turned out to be a fantastic rock and roll promoter and a great manager you know [Music] i want to go in depth on this record because this is one of my favorite records i know every song i mean i told you how i was driving around and truck with my dad and i remember seeing the video on mtv take me home tonight right yeah that was a big video great video oh yeah one of the great music videos in mtv history i would have to say so and you know if they still play the phone everybody goes home at night the last last call all the clubs all over america they played take me over tonight which is amazing it's real you know my generation the last song of the night to this day is pretty cool oh yeah you know well for my generation i mean it was literally our introduction to ronnie and the man sure when i was listening to my dad saying you hear this be my little baby that's a song my baby did he play a female and yeah and he played it for me and that's how i i mean that taught me something to take me home tonight by the way it really is tonight we met i knew i needed you so but you know that that's better feel the hunger it's a hunger i mean it's a better tool i said we should get ronnie ronnie expected to do this i looked around and i got called a thousand people i finally got a number from somebody i called her up and she recognized my voice because of two tickets paradise and she was clinking and clanking and said ronnie what are you doing ronnie she said what's up she's i'm sorry i am doing the dishes i got a couple of kids now married and i said whoa but she got the bug back and she came out and did that video with all the smoke and the garage door coming up yeah and she got that rock and roll bug back and then she started going back on the road again [Music] she sings the rest of she's out this thing all the time well she uh thanked you the your induction in the rock and eddie money take me home tonight i don't want to let you go well she's always been a sweetheart she knew the beatles really well too you know john lennon and you know she's kind of insanely snuck those guys out yeah when they were staying at the plaza and they couldn't get any rest of relaxation because the press and everything she snuck them over to brooklyn for a couple of days and they had a wonderful time the video yeah i got to tell you this when i would see the video as a kid that's what made me want to grow up my hair right you know because you had the long hair in there and i wanted to learn how to play the saxophone because you have that moment in there you're picking up the skin yeah that's right and that along with like i said along with the baker street and clarence clemons and those are the three three moments that for our generation we're like what man we got to learn how to play with sacks yeah saxons have a lot of fun i just love playing the whole one i got seven homes my my seven saxophone's wife was so pissed off why do you spend some money on all this ones you've only got one mouth nominee for a grammy and uh i should have won man always surprised me never the broad well also an interesting fact is that scott litt mixed the song right and he did all those great produced all those rem albums automatic for the people yeah he did a great job on it too yeah i never met the guy and i thought he overcharged me but he didn't go through the job on the track you know well also the covers i mean it's been covered by hinder and glee is that pretty cool yeah it was really cool but i mean when hindi covered it was really amazing they're big they're from oklahoma city i think and they were big eddie money fans and they came out and i got one of their videos and they were really nice kids [Music] well then of course the movie came out that they named take me off tonight and that one actor i thought was a genius the fat kid and anna ferris and chris pratt that's where they met man did you know that that's where they met and they got married and they got kids chris pratt's a guy from guardians of the galaxy in jurassic world he's like one of the biggest box office stars but they met during that movie it was named after your song and they're married yeah oh my god [Music] i want to go back another phenomenal song it's funny because a lot of people don't realize that billy satellite was the first one to cut the song [Music] and then gregor ollie from journey [Music] but the difference is you go back and listen to those songs your version's like 10 times better than those and the reason is is because of vocal man you like you attack that song yeah really monty byron is a good buddy of mine from bakersfield we're still very good friends and i've always loved the song on the saxophone partners huge difference [Applause] it was another great video i mean hanging out on friday night the first slow dance hoping that i get it right oh yeah that's how i grew up [Music] you know when i grew up you know the closest you ever got to a chick was at a high school dance you know without the father looking over your shoulder you know i grew up in the 60s nobody got laid [Music] and you think about the memories that you had like i think about my dad driving around the truck i want to go back to this i want to go back and do it all over again but you can't go back i know [Music] another kevin james man grown-ups too he loves that too he loves all goodbye he knows every lyric that i'll get by such a great song [Music] having somebody like kevin james would be a big getting money from him well chubby checkers is the beginning money these are people i really love or neil young calling me by my first name things like that or ringo stark going to meetings at wrinkle scott what a great guy there's certain people that you meet that you really really great people well you know love a boy you know mike reno great guy you know well see what i love is you've still got that passion man after 40 years you still want to find kids i'll do anything to get out of the house [Laughter] man well i got to tell you man it has been an absolute pleasure thank you adam i hope people don't fall asleep this interview because i wasn't that exciting but it was great talking to you out of my mind no it was i appreciate you caught oh you got a wedding ring on huh smallest handcuff in the world smallest handcuff in the world no i got it i love my wife as much as you love yours yeah i gotta you gotta love you great lady you know the last thing that eddie money said to me as i was leaving the interview i remember he said uh tell your old man thank you for introducing you to my music and of course i did tell my dad about that but thinking back on that moment right now i mean it's come full circle my dad eddie's music that summer and fall that sparked me wanting to know every story of every song being able to connect all that it's such a blessing thank you so much eddie [Music] leave us a comment about this eddie money song this wonderful 80s album if you enjoyed this video we do invite you to subscribe below right now so you never miss our daily dose of rock and pop history make sure to check out our new merch at professorrock.com and check out our patreon page help us keep the music alive until next time records and the truth my friends see you soon [Music] you

Channel: Professor of Rock

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Keywords: lyrics explained, professor of rock, professor rock, 80s iconic songs, iconic 80s songs, iconic 80s singer, 80s, 80s vinyl, 80s classic rock, 80s story, 80s stories, 80s music, music, album, vinyl, vinyl hits, music history, video essay, professor of rock eddie money, eddie money, take me home tonight, eddie money story, story of eddie money, two tickets to paradise, eddie money interview, billboard breakdown, eddie money death, classic rock, cop, retirement, legend

Id: lb1nMPrY_Qw

Length: 20min 3sec (1203 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021