Los Angeles, CA (February 17, 2007) by Gary Graff
Eddie Money is going back to the future—literally.
"Wanna Go Back," due March 13 on Big Deal/Warrior Records, is the veteran rocker's first new recording in eight years and covers 13 rock and soul classics that a 15-year-old Eddie Mahoney played with his Brooklyn, N.Y., band the Grapes of Wrath. The first single, Ray Charles' "You Don't Know Me," was just released to radio, and the rest of the album features such favorites as the Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'," the Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup," Mitch Ryder's "Jenny Take a Ride" and the timely "Please Please Please"/"Oh Baby Don't You Weep" James Brown medley.
"I selected everything," says Money, who duets with his 18-year-old daughter Jesse on the Motown hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and Inez and Charlie Foxx's "Mockingbird." "These are, like, my favorite songs of all time. It was just a thrill to go back and do songs that taught me how to sing. And all of a sudden, people are interested in this album."
"Wanna Go Back"—produced by the 57-year-old singer and longtime keyboardist Randy Forrester and recorded last year with members of Tower of Power, Starship and the Gregg Allman Band—certainly comes at a fortuitous time. Thanks to Hinder's in-concert cover of Money's 1986 smash "Take Me Home Tonight," there's a buzz on the singer that he hasn't enjoyed since the very end of the '80s.
"I think there's a future here that Eddie can resurface to and get back on a plateau," says Jack Ashton of Los Angeles-based Ashton Consulting, who's signed on as a full-time adviser to Money.
The key, Ashton says, is that Money still remains an active radio presence, particularly at classic rock and AC formats. Despite the lack of any new material since 1999's "Ready Eddie," such two- and three-decade-old hits as "Take Me Home Tonight," "Two Tickets to Paradise" and "Baby Hold On" still enjoy heavy recurrent rotations with upwards of 300 or more spins per week, according to Nielsen BDS.
"These radio stations would not continue to keep playing Eddie Money in that kind of rotation unless there was heavy callout on them," Ashton notes, "which means the adult audience Eddie has is very aware of his ballads."
And, Ashton adds, it helps that "Eddie has never stopped touring." In fact, Money plays about 100 public and private shows a year, according to Forrester, who also helps to manage the singer. He's also active in charity work for the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation and other causes.
A vista of opportunities has opened for Money in the wake of Hinder's tribute. Hinder itself is considering recording "Take Me Home Tonight" on its next album and wants Money—who sang it with the band onstage in December in Los Angeles—to guest on the recording if it does. Ashton says Sirius Satellite Radio has approached Money about doing a program, while VH1 has broached the idea of him hosting a game show.
Ashton also feels the Hinder hookup could be the jumping-off point for a full-length collaboration with younger admirers, similar to Santana's last three albums. "I think there's a lot more of those bands out there that are big Eddie Money fans," Ashton says.
For now, however, the focus is on "Wanna Go Back," which Money's team hopes to break initially at AC radio. "We'll start with ["You Don't Know Me"] and see where that goes," Warrior Records chief Jim Ervin says. "If you look at the recent success of other artists like Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond that are having a resurgence right now, there's obviously a demographic interested in buying great recordings by heritage artists."
For Money, however, "Wanna Go Back" already feels like a success.
"One of the biggest thrills I had was giving the guys from the Grapes of Wrath a copy of this record," he says. "They flipped out. They couldn't believe it. These are all songs we did together, so it was just a thrill to give them a copy."