40 Fun Facts About Eddie Money

Before music, Eddie Money trained for which career that his father and grandfather had followed in New York City?

Police officer was the family trade, but Money never got past NYPD trainee: he left in 1968, saying the force would not let him grow his hair long.

Which 1960s girl-group singer came out of retirement to duet with Eddie Money on Take Me Home Tonight?

Ronnie Spector was washing dishes when Money phoned to coax her back, and the hit relaunched her career so well that she made a new solo album the next year.

Which Irish family surname did Eddie Money shorten into his stage name as a joke about always being broke?

Mahoney lost two letters to become Money after he moved to California in 1968, a sarcastic nod to his empty pockets.

In a 2012 GEICO commercial, Eddie Money sang Two Tickets to Paradise while playing the owner of what business?

A travel agency was the setting: Money serenades a family trying to book a vacation, one of several late-career turns in which he spoofed his own image.

Eddie Money's father, angry that his son chose rock music, tore posters of which guitarist from the bedroom wall?

Jimi Hendrix came down off the wall, but the teenager kept playing in rock bands, partly because it helped him get dates with cheerleaders.

Which instrument does Eddie Money play alone on an empty stage in the black-and-white Take Me Home Tonight video?

Saxophone was the instrument Money took up at junior college, inspired by rock acts such as David Bowie and Van Morrison who sometimes used it.

In 2002 Eddie Money played himself and performed his hits on which blue-collar Kevin James sitcom?

The King of Queens gave Money a guest spot because its star was a friend, and his working-class rock fitted a show about a parcel delivery driver.

Eddie Money sang the theme song for which 1996 Disney cartoon about Donald Duck and his teenage nephews?

Quack Pack aged Huey, Dewey and Louie into adolescents, and its rocking opening theme put Money's voice in front of a new audience of children.

Eddie Money said Two Tickets to Paradise imagined taking a girlfriend to California's redwoods by which cheap transport?

Greyhound bus fare was all he could afford, about 62 dollars for the pair, but she dumped him before the trip and the song stayed a fantasy.

Which 1963 girl-group hit is echoed in the chorus of Eddie Money's comeback single Take Me Home Tonight?

Be My Baby was a number two hit in 1963, and its original lead singer re-sang her famous line on Money's record 23 years later.

Which 1977 debut single, co-written with guitarist Jimmy Lyon, gave Eddie Money his first Top 40 hit?

Baby Hold On reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, a higher peak than the follow-up single that became his signature song.

Which San Francisco concert promoter discovered Eddie Money, managed him and signed him to the Wolfgang label?

Bill Graham, the promoter behind the Fillmore and Winterland, became his manager and mentor and praised Money as a natural performer.

On a 1999 episode of which sitcom did Eddie Money play the estranged first husband of Mimi Bobeck?

The Drew Carey Show revealed that Mimi had married Money early in his career and that the pair had separated without ever getting a divorce.

Rolling Stone nicknamed wisecracking Eddie Money the rock-music version of which self-deprecating stand-up comedian?

Rodney Dangerfield was the comparison because Money packed his interviews with dad jokes at his own expense and always had more fans than critical praise.

Eddie Money sang on the bridge of I'm Alright, the Caddyshack theme recorded by which soundtrack-hit specialist?

Kenny Loggins wrote and recorded the theme of the 1980 golf comedy, and Money complained decades later that he was never credited for his part.

Which illness did Eddie Money reveal on his reality show Real Money only weeks before his death in 2019?

Esophageal cancer at stage 4 was the diagnosis, and Money said he went public because hiding it from his fans would not have been honest.

Which 1982 Eddie Money single had a video starring Apollonia, two years before she appeared in Purple Rain?

Shakin' stalled at number 63 after Money slipped a rude word into the lyric, a joke that his manager said cost him a far bigger hit.

After leaving New York in 1968, Eddie Money built his career in which California college city near San Francisco?

Berkeley was where he studied with a vocal coach and became a regular in Bay Area clubs for years before landing a record deal.

Eddie Money's autobiographical stage musical was inspired by which Broadway show about the Four Seasons?

Jersey Boys showed him that hit records could carry a life story, and his own musical, named after his signature song, premiered in 2009.

Eddie Money's debut album included a cover of You've Really Got a Hold on Me, written by which Motown star?

Smokey Robinson wrote it in a New York hotel room in 1962 for the Miracles, and Money's rock version became the third single from his debut.

Which platinum 1986 album revived Eddie Money's career with Take Me Home Tonight and the single Endless Nights?

Can't Hold Back ended a three-year slump that had followed a flop album, and it went platinum a year after its release.

Which 1982 Eddie Money hit had an early MTV video that cast the singer as a Dracula-style vampire?

Think I'm in Love reached number 16, his first Top 40 hit in several years, and its spoof of old horror films became an early MTV favourite.

Which 1988 single, written by a former Sammy Hagar keyboardist, became Eddie Money's last Top 10 hit?

Walk on Water climbed to number nine, and its guitar solo reunited Money with Jimmy Lyon, the co-writer of his earliest hits.

Eddie Money's 1982 album No Control includes a tribute song to which Saturday Night Live star who died that year?

John Belushi died in March 1982, three months before the album came out, and Money subtitled the track a song for John B.

Eddie Money recorded I Will Be Strong for which 1987 Sylvester Stallone film about a trucker who arm-wrestles?

Over the Top put Money on a soundtrack beside Sammy Hagar, and in some overseas versions of the film he sings a second song as well.

Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight lost the 1987 Grammy for male rock vocal to which Robert Palmer hit?

Addicted to Love took the award in February 1987, but the nomination still capped the comeback that the single had given Money.

Eddie Money was inducted in 2008 into the music hall of fame of which New York region where he grew up?

Long Island claimed the boy who went to high school in Levittown, and he once said that paradise for him would be a trip back there.

As a teenager Eddie Money performed in a rock band named after which John Steinbeck novel?

The Grapes of Wrath was one of his teenage groups, and by then he had already been singing on street corners since the age of eleven.

Eddie Money's 1984 church wedding to Margo Lee Walker, crashed by screaming teenage fans, fell on which holiday?

Valentine's Day 1984 was also the day Elton John married, so the two rock weddings shared the next morning's news columns.

Eddie Money opened the concert season for over 20 years at Pine Knob, an amphitheater northwest of which US city?

Detroit made his season opener a rite of summer, and Money joked that the amphitheater was his kingdom and he was the prince of rock.

Which Eddie Money hit of 1987 was a cover of a song first released by the band Billy Satellite?

I Wanna Go Back had stalled at number 78 for its writers, yet Money's version reached number 14 with a video of him revisiting a high school.

Which 1989 Eddie Money single was first recorded by Jennifer Holliday for a Summer Olympics album?

Peace in Our Time was written by two English songwriters, and Money's version, one of three new tracks on a greatest-hits album, climbed to number 11.

In which Netflix comedy starring Michael Douglas did Eddie Money play a tax-troubled version of himself in 2018?

The Kominsky Method had him fronting a casino tribute act to his own songs under the name Freddie Money so that he could pay off the IRS.

Real Money, the 2018 reality series about Eddie Money and his family, aired on which cable network?

AXS TV commissioned the series after Money turned up on an Oprah where-are-they-now special, and three of his five children played in his band on screen.

An overdose in the early 1980s left Eddie Money unable to walk for months by damaging which nerve in his leg?

Sciatic nerve damage in his left leg left Money with a permanent limp, but he recovered to make the platinum 1982 album No Control.

Which major record label released Eddie Money's studio albums from his 1977 debut through Right Here in 1991?

Columbia kept him on its roster through a slump in the mid-1980s but restricted his creative control until his comeback hit.

Eddie Money's first two albums were produced by Bruce Botnick, best known for his work with which Los Angeles band?

The Doors relied on Botnick as engineer from their first album and later as co-producer, years before he steered Money's double-platinum debut.

The rhythm section on Eddie Money's debut album, Lonnie Turner and Gary Mallaber, came from which hitmaking group?

Steve Miller Band veterans gave the newcomer a seasoned backing group, joined on the sessions by the star session player Tom Scott.

In California Eddie Money studied with Judy Davis, a vocal coach who also trained Barbra Streisand and which crooner?

Frank Sinatra shared a teacher with the future rocker, who took his lessons while performing with local groups around San Francisco Bay.

Before his record deal, the perennially broke Eddie Money supported himself in California by selling which fashion item?

Bell-bottom jeans paid his rent, and he recalled members of the Hells Angels trying to rip off the store where he worked.