For The Record: 50 Years in the Music Biz

I Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

How did I end up in the music business?

It was 1956. I was eighteen, about to be married, and I had no job, financial future, or college education. I was left in a quandary! One day, much to my surprise, my father's boss, Dinah Shore, called me into her office at NBC Television. It was a small office, nothing fancy. I’d known Dinah since I was a baby. She taught me to swim and ride a bike. She was like my second mom.

“Barry, what are you going to do with your life now that you’re going to be a husband and breadwinner?”

“I have no idea.”

As we chatted, she came up with a plan. She personally called the Chevy plant, then located on Van Nuys Blvd in Van Nuys, California and asked them if they had a job for her music director’s son. Dinah was the “voice” of Chevrolet. “See the USA in your Chevrolet” went the jingle. Chevrolet sponsored her TV show, and Dinah had many friends in the Chevy/GM family, especially around the L.A. area.

They told Dinah that most of the jobs in their plant were for people with experience in building automobiles. This particular plant was a major facility. It was just 11 years after the end of World War II. During the war, metal was used for tanks, guns and planes, so with the end of the war, the car business was booming. 

After she hung up the phone she said, “Okay, Barry. You start at their plant in Van Nuys on Monday. You’ll work on the loading dock. They say you’re supposed to have experience in car building to work there, but they’re doing me a favor. Don’t mess up.”

I had never considered working in a car production facility, but it could be fun. What could go wrong?

Several days later, I arrived at the plant for my first day of work. I was given an orientation session, where I learned about how cars were moved around their massive lot. I learned they kept around 2,000 cars ready for transit, sending them mostly to the western states—Arizona, Washington and Oregon. They had a rail line that went directly into this facility, as well as large trucks that took cars shorter distances.

Just a few days into my job, a large train pulled into the unloading dock area. This train was coming from GM’s new plant in Kentucky, where they were building the newest of the new, one of the most exciting cars ever built—the Corvette. The Corvette was so special, they built an entire plant just for that car. Made of plastic, Corvettes were supposed to be very fast! And pretty!

Chevy sent the Corvettes from Kentucky to the Van Nuys plant where they were fitted with the bells and whistles—radios, brakes, windshield wipers.

Before I knew what was happening, I was on the dock. We got an order for car number 1234. I was to open the door, start the engine, pull out of the spot and drive it to the train ramp.

Outside in the lot there were rows and rows of vehicles, stretched seemingly for miles—trucks for the navy yards in San Diego and Oakland and lots of new Chevys. I finally located the car and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a beautiful “little red Corvette,” (As "Prince" would eventually say!) I saw on the ticket that the new owner, a San Diego man, had waited eight months for this car.

I'd never driven one before. This was exciting ... wow! I opened the door and turned the key in the ignition. It even sounded different than any car I’d ever driven with its throaty, predatory rumble. I put it in reverse, slowly backed out of the space and looked ahead. There were no other cars in my row. I stepped on the gas and in 1.2 seconds I was going 80 miles an hour. By the time I realized I was going way too fast, the loading dock wall loomed right in front of me! I slammed my foot on the brake, and this lightning fast car went right into the wall of the loading dock at 50 miles an hour ... at least!

I had a slight cut on my arm, but the car didn’t do so well. It had to be sent back to Kentucky to be completely rebuilt. After careful examination of the event, the bosses at the Chevy plant thought I was way too green and young for this kind of responsibility! My future at the Chevy plant was over.

I found myself back in Dinah’s office. She was not happy about this outcome at all.

“Well, Barry, what are you going to do now?”

“Well, Dinah, I don't really know,” I said honestly.

She exhaled, obviously frustrated with me. “Well, would you like to take my records around to the radio stations and ask the DJ’s to play them?”

“Wow, Dinah! That sounds like fun! Do you need a college education or a degree to do such a job?”

“Truthfully Barry, she said, "you could be dumb as a rope and be in the record business!"

A career was born.

Cover art by the very talented @musesinspire (Trinity Hanrahan)