They Call Me Baba Booey
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Of all the popular TV theme songs in the ’80s, only one was able to reach the top spot on the Billboard chart. What was it?
ANSWERS
Young MC and “Bust a Move.”
Huey Lewis and “I Want a New Drug.” Lewis and Parker settled out of court and the terms of the deal were confidential until 2001, when Lewis commented on the payment in an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. Parker subsequently sued Lewis for breaching confidentiality.
“You Better Run” by Pat Benatar.
“I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner.
All the Wilburys are playing on a train and when it’s Orbison’s turn to sing, the train goes through a tunnel. All you see is a rocking chair with his guitar in it and a picture of him on the wall of the train.
Husband and wife Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads.
The song is “St. Elmo’s Fire,” performed by John Parr.
Paul Carrack hit as the lead singer of Ace with “How Long” in 1975. He hit again with Squeeze on “Tempted” in 1981. Then he did it two more times with Mike + the Mechanics: once in 1985 on “Silent Running” and again in 1989 on “The Living Years.” Mike is Mike Rutherford, the lead guitarist of Genesis.
The Edge, of U2.
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are the two members of Tears for Fears. The album is called The Hurting.
Michael Sembello had to change the lyrics to the song “Maniac” for the 1983 movie Flashdance from “He’s a maniac, maniac that’s for sure / He will kill your cat and nail him to the door” to “She’s a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before.” I’m sure he’s glad he did since the song was No. 1 for two weeks in September 1983 and is one of the highest-grossing songs ever written for a film.
“Mickey” by Toni Basil.
Ratt’s video for “Round and Round” features Mr. Television himself, comedian Milton Berle.
Theme from Miami Vice, by Jan Hammer.
Howard Stern has been my boss for twenty-seven years, but he’s much more than that to me. Part dad, part big brother, and part good friend, he’s taught me so many valuable things over the years. He’s truly the King of All Media, and his accomplishments as an entertainer have been well chronicled, but it’s his achievements as a person that have had the greatest effect on me.
I was a dumb twenty-three-year-old kid living in my parents’ house when I met Howard. He was the example I learned from. Howard taught me how to treat people with respect, and as his fame grew he never lost sight of how to treat his staff. I’ve never seen him act “too big” for anyone.
Howard jokes that he tips well because he’s “Howard Stern,” but the truth is that he appreciates how hard people work and he’ll never treat anyone like they are beneath him. He taught me how to be a good dad, a good worker, and a good person. And I wouldn’t be Baba Booey, much less telling my story, if it weren’t for him.
Thanks, Voff!
To my brother Steven, who I miss every day.
To my brother Anthony, who laid the foundation for my insane music knowledge and was invaluable to helping me fill in the blanks. Thanks for listening and helping.
To super-agent Don Buchwald, who believed in me and changed my life. And to Tony Burton, who takes my call ten times a day and pushed to help me get this done.
To Richard Abate, who told me what this book should really be and then talked me into it! And to Julie Grau, for walking me through this process with a smile and keeping us all on track.
To Chad Millman. We clicked right away. This could never have been done in such a short time without your amazing work ethic.
To Fred Norris, who has treated me with respect since the day I met him.
To Robin Quivers, who is like a sister to me. The Howard Stern Show is a family, and it wouldn’t be the same without you in it.
To Jon Hein, who counseled me through this endeavor from start to finish. A great friend with great advice, and a pretty good on-air partner, too!
To Ross Zapin, my friend of twenty-plus years and a great sounding board. HOW R YA????
To Jason Kaplan, Will Murray, JD Harmeyer, Steve “No Longer an Intern” Brandano, and Tracey Millman: the best crew I’ve ever worked with.
To Richard Christy, Sal Governale, and Benji Bronk, who make me laugh every day.
To Scott Depace (yes, even Scott), Doug Goodstein, Mike Gange, Brian Phelan, and all the guys at Howard TV I’ve worked with over the years.
To Tim Sabean (the best programmer ever and all around good guy), Artie Lange, Mel Karmazin, Scott Greenstein, Tom Chiusano, Ronnie Mund, Scott Salem, Jim McClure, Jared Fox, Teddy “On the Board” Kneutter, Toni Coburn, Jeff Schick, Rob Fichtel, the Howard 100 News team, the Tapes team, Bubba, Ferrall and their respective crews, and my entire Sirius family.
To Karen Rait, Rob Cappilli, and the gang at Record World; Conan Curley, Andre Gardner, Nancy Z., Laura Lackner, Ralph Cirella, and Megan Pinto; Laura Van der Veer, Maria Braeckel, Meghan Walker, and Dan Zitt at Random House; and Ethan Wilson at the New York Mets.
And to anyone I forgot (and I’m sure that I did), I apologize. I know you’ll give me shit on the air. Instead of being pissed off, buy the book and write your name on the line below:
____________________________________________
(YOUR NAME HERE)
All photographs are courtesy of the author, with the following exceptions:
Insert
i.1 Steve Donnelly
i.1a Steve Donnelly
i.2 Howard Stern
i.3 Howard Stern
i.4 Christopher Appoldt
i.5 Ralph Cirella
GARY DELL’ABATE is the producer of The Howard Stern Show and co-hosts The Wrap-Up Show on Sirius XM Radio. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons, Jackson and Lucas, and live in Connecticut.
CHAD MILLMAN is a senior deputy editor at ESPN The Magazine and writes a column for ESPN.com that explores the culture of sports gambling. He is also the author of The Odds and The Detonators and co-author (with Chuck Liddell) of the New York Times bestseller Iceman. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and their two sons.