I loved the group The Raspberries growing up. Great power pop music. My favorite songs of theirs are “Go All The Way”, “Overnight Sensation” and “Tonight” and that’s just to name a few. Eric Carmen, was their lead singer and main songwriter. When the group disbanded he went on to a very successful solo career, …
In 1988, I was fortunate to have two Top-Ten songs on the Billboard charts: Tell It to My Heart and Prove Your Love, both sung by Taylor Dayne. At the time, I was a staff songwriter with Warner Chappell Music Publishing, but my contract was up and the top brass, looking to sign me up …
In 2001, I received a call from a friend who said, “Do you know that you’re latest book “Every Pitcher Tells A Story” was mentioned in Barron’s magazine?” Barron’s Magazine is the financial magazine that every investor reads religiously on Sundays, so I immediately wondered what I was doing in it. I bought a copy …
My third book on baseball had just come out (“Something to Write Home About,” Crown Books, 2003). One of the contributors (via, a handwritten letter) was Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon. I wanted to give him the finished, just-released book, personally. Somehow, I was invited to his apartment on Wilshire …
Timing is so much in life. It certainly was in recounting the very first time a song of mine was recorded by a major artist. I was working in the tape room at the venerable music publishing company, Chappell Music, splicing the latest songs sent to the company by its vast stable of songwriters, (which …
In the fall of 1994, I went to my first baseball memorabilia show in San Francisco. One of the reasons that I was compelled to go was that Mickey Mantle would be signing autographs. I loved “The Mick” growing up, even though he was at the end of his stellar career. Despite this fact, I …
My first album, Instant Pleasure, came out in 2004. I was booked to play a song from the album — “It’s Still Love”— live on a new show on new ESPN show called “Cold Pizza”. It was their version of “Good Morning America”. Just before I went on, and they announced me, the hosts, Jay …
In the summer of 2004, I was at LAX, about 40 minutes from boarding a plane to Paris when I spotted the actor Peter Fonda. I remembered reading something he had said that inspired John Lennon to write one of my favorite songs, She Said, She Said from the Revolver album (1966). I approached him and asked …
For years when I lived in New York City, I did The New York Times crossword puzzle everyday (except Sundays!). Some days were harder than others, but I always seemed to “conquer” most of them. One day, my mother Joan called me one particular day to ask if I had seen the puzzle that day. …
In July, 2006, I was asked write political and cultural articles for The Huffington Post. One of the first pieces I wrote, entitled “Why I Left the Left”, was picked up by Realclearpolitics.com as well and caught the eye of the Undersecretary of Commerce, Frank Lavin. The day the article appeared, Frank wrote me an …