The 'Restless, Restless' Story

It's been called the worse song of all time and thanks to a contest on the Howard Stern show, it has become one of the most covered songs of all time with close to 1000 cover versions. The song is called "Restless, Restless" and this is it's story.

Tom Gesimondo (co-writer of "Restless, Restless") and I first met in 1982 when we both worked for WNBC radio. Or as Howard would call it W-NNNN-BC! We initially bonded over our discovery of the massive and legendary NBC music library on the 3rd floor at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York. In the pre internet days and pre Virgin super store days, the NBC library was probably the greatest collection of music in one place. It's wasn't long before Tom and I discovered that we were musical mirror images of each other.

Who Is Don Val?

“Who is Don Val?” is a question I have been asking myself (and anyone who will listen) for the past 30 years. The problem is, I am only of two people in the world (more on that later) who even knows he exists. But as you will soon find out, Don Val may not even exist and could possibly someone by the name of Eddie Murray. Which then begs the question, “Who Is Eddie Murray?”. By now I am sure you are thoroughly confused. Join the club and welcome to an obsession I have had for three decades.  It's a confusing story because there are so little known facts. However there is one significant clue and that is a cassette tape that I have held on to over the years and cherished as much as any other material possession I have owned.

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Coming Full Circle

Today is November 21st…the 10th anniversary of the passing of DJ Wheeler. DJ would have been 28 years old this year. I’d like to think that he is, in fact, 28 years old in some parallel universe. I never met DJ but I feel like I know him by heart. I read about his passing in the local paper back in 2003. His obituary stayed with me for a long time. There were many reasons for that (some obvious and some that took awhile to reveal themselves). My son was 16 at the time and attended the same high school as DJ. So right there you can’t help put yourself (with a shudder) in his family’s position. DJ was survived by his parents (Dennis and Joanne) and two sisters (Erin and Alison). One of the reasons I had trouble shaking that dark cloud that had come over me was because I HAD been in that position many years earlier.