In September 2019, two of America’s most distinctive rock singers died within two days of each other.
Ric Ocasek, leader of The Cars, had been as hip as they come, a new-wave icon and innovator. Eddie Money, by contrast, had never really been fashionable at any point in his long career, even when he was racking up million-selling hits at his peak in the 70s and 80s.
He was one of the best of his generation, with a voice as soulful as it was gritty, but the songs he sang, mixing rock’n’roll, pop and R&B, were unpretentious and unashamedly mainstream. He was, as Rolling Stone stated with no little affection, “the patron saint of uncool”.
Born Edward Joseph Mahoney in Brooklyn, New York on March 21, 1949, he started singing in a number of local bands in his teens, and also briefly trained in the city’s police department, where his father and brother were officers. Then in the late 60s he relocated to San Francisco and shortened his surname to Money – ironic, he later said, given how little he had of it.
Eventually, after years of hard graft on the Bay Area club scene, legendary promoter Bill Graham led him to sign with Columbia Records. His self-titled debut album, released in 1977, remains his biggest seller: double-platinum in the US, with two hit singles – Baby Hold On and Two Tickets To Paradise – that have remained on radio playlists ever since.
More great records followed, platinum albums in 1979’s Life For The Taking and 1982’s No Control, the latter featuring another of his signature songs, Shakin’.
While his taste for the rock’n’roll lifestyle proved damaging (an accidental drug overdose left him with a permanent limp), he had his two biggest hits in the late 80s, with Take Me Home Tonight, featuring ex-Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector, and Walk On Water.
In the last 30 years of his life he toured on and off and made just four albums. Sober since 2003, he died aged 70 after heart valve surgery and treatment for cancer.
In the days that followed, his songs were performed on stage by friends and fans including REO Speedwagon and Bryan Adams. Dave Grohl, another famous fan, once had Baby Hold On as his cellphone ringtone. For Grohl and others like him – connoisseurs of classic American rock – Eddie Money, patron saint of uncool, was the real deal.
