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Songsmith · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. There's a lot that goes into
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  Speaker 1: making a hit song. It needs to launch at the
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  Speaker 1: right time, with the right promotional team behind it, and
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  Speaker 1: it has to be performed by the right musician. Dolly Parton,
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  Speaker 1: for example, wrote her number one hit Joelene the same
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  Speaker 1: day she wrote another well known tune in nine, but
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  Speaker 1: despite that other song also hitting number one, it wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: become the classic it is today for another or twenty years.
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  Speaker 1: I Will Always Love You wasn't a sensation until after
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  Speaker 1: it was reimagined by the late Great Whitney Houston. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it's pretty common for one musician to write a song
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  Speaker 1: for another to sing it instead. It's how some get
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  Speaker 1: their start before they break out on their own. Others
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  Speaker 1: climbed the ladder to startdom by writing catchy jingles for
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  Speaker 1: TV and radio commercials. There are many roads that lead
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  Speaker 1: to a bright career in the entertainment industry. Just look
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  Speaker 1: at Barry Pincas. Pincas was born in Brooklyn, New York,
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  Speaker 1: in ninety three. He called the neighborhood of Williamsburg his
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  Speaker 1: childhood home before enrolling at the City College of New York.
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  Speaker 1: His stay there didn't last long, though, Barry was destined
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  Speaker 1: for bigger things and soon switched to the New York
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  Speaker 1: College of Music to obtain his degree. To make ends meet,
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  Speaker 1: while he was still in school, he worked for CBS,
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  Speaker 1: where he started making industry connections. When he was twenty
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  Speaker 1: one years old, a CBS director named bro Herod asked
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  Speaker 1: Pinkas for some help. The network was putting on a
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  Speaker 1: musical adaptation of a play called The Drunkard, a work
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  Speaker 1: of temperance propaganda that was popular during the mid eighteen hundreds.
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  Speaker 1: Herod asked Pinkas to whip up a few songs for
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  Speaker 1: the show, nothing too big. Instead, the up and coming
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  Speaker 1: songwriter composed a whole score. Herod was so impressed he
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  Speaker 1: used it for the off Broadway production that ran for
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  Speaker 1: almost a decade. Over the years, Pinkas took on various
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  Speaker 1: jobs as a pianist, and songwriter, eventually getting a gig
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  Speaker 1: that would allow him to reach audiences all over the country.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't uncommon for Americans to get his melodies stuck
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  Speaker 1: in their heads thanks to the ad breaks in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of their favorite shows. Ever get stuck on band
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  Speaker 1: aid brand, well, you can thank Mr Pinkas. Do you
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  Speaker 1: consider your insurance company like a good neighbor? His nine
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  Speaker 1: note jingle is still used by State Farm to this day.
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  Speaker 1: From KFC to stride X, you couldn't go along without
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  Speaker 1: hearing one of pinkas famous tunes being pumped through your
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  Speaker 1: television speakers, and for some ads where he didn't write
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  Speaker 1: the song, he provided the vocals instead. He recorded commercials
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  Speaker 1: for McDonald's and there You Deserve a Break Today campaign,
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  Speaker 1: as well as Pepsi's Pepsi Generation ads. But he didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to spend the rest of his life selling fast
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  Speaker 1: food and band aids. Pincas wanted a full blown music career,
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  Speaker 1: which he kicked off with a small act of his
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  Speaker 1: own in the early seventies. Singer and actress Bett Midler
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  Speaker 1: saw him one night and hired him to be her
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  Speaker 1: pianist at one of her upcoming performances. It went well,
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  Speaker 1: so well, in fact, that it led to a producer
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  Speaker 1: role for Pinkas on Midler's first and second albums. On
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  Speaker 1: top of his producing duties, he remained steadfast in his
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  Speaker 1: desire to write hit pop songs. Unfortunately, they weren't becoming
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  Speaker 1: hits because of him. His song Could It Be Magic
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  Speaker 1: became a best seller for disco queen Donna Summer. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: when Pinkas finally broke through on the Billboard charts, it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't with a song of his own at all. The
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  Speaker 1: track called Brandy had been written by Scott English and
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  Speaker 1: Richard Kerr in nineteen seventy one. Legendary record executive Live
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  Speaker 1: Davis suggested that Pinkas recorded in nineteen seventy four, at
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  Speaker 1: which time the artist changed its name so as not
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  Speaker 1: to get it confused with a similarly titled hit from
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  Speaker 1: a few years earlier. The new track, now called Mandy,
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  Speaker 1: went on to the top of the charts and earned
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  Speaker 1: Pinkas his first gold single. However, he didn't go by
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  Speaker 1: Pinks now he had adopted his mother's maiden name Manilo.
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  Speaker 1: Over the next several decades, Barry Manilow rose from catchy
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  Speaker 1: jingle writer to arena filling superstar with hit songs like
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  Speaker 1: looks Like We Made It and I Write the Songs,
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  Speaker 1: and funny enough, many of Manilo's hits weren't actually written
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  Speaker 1: by him at all. Looks Like We Made It was
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  Speaker 1: originally by Will Jennings and Brandy co writer Richard Kerr.
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  Speaker 1: Songwriters Charles Fox and Norn Gimbal penned nineteen seventy Eight's
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  Speaker 1: Ready to Take a Chance Again and I Write the
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  Speaker 1: Songs was written by Beach Boys member Bruce Johnston in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. It became a number one single for
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  Speaker 1: Manilo one year later. Barry Manilow may not have written
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  Speaker 1: all of his own hits, but his music has stood
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  Speaker 1: the test of time nonetheless. And if you're not near
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  Speaker 1: a CD player or radio and you want to hear
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  Speaker 1: one of his songs, just turn on the television and
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  Speaker 1: wait for a commercial break. Traditions can be sacred. Ending
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  Speaker 1: a ritual that has gone on for years, even decades
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  Speaker 1: can be a traumatic experience for those who have come
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  Speaker 1: to expect the comfort of its performance each time. It
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  Speaker 1: might be something a departed relative had started before their death,
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  Speaker 1: or something to ensure good luck before a major event
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  Speaker 1: for the students of a major military academy in eighty six,
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  Speaker 1: the loss of their annual Christmas tradition wasn't just a problem,
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  Speaker 1: It was caused for a riot. It all started on
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  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve of that year. The cadets at the U. S.
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  Speaker 1: Military Academy, also known as West Point were in their
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  Speaker 1: barracks celebrating the holiday. Though they were not singing carols
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  Speaker 1: or sitting down to a quiet Turkey dinner. They were
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  Speaker 1: staging a mutiny. The academy's superintendent, Colonel Fair, had a
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  Speaker 1: feeling that there was bound to be commotion that night,
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  Speaker 1: so he assigned Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock and Lieutenant William A.
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  Speaker 1: Thornton to watch over the North barracks. All was quiet
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  Speaker 1: for much of the evening, with Hitchcock and Thornton heading
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  Speaker 1: to bed around midnight. A few hours later, Hitchcock was
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  Speaker 1: stirred from his slumber by a commotion coming from a
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  Speaker 1: few floors up. He climbed the stairs, only to find
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  Speaker 1: a group of cadets throwing a massive party. Sometime later,
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  Speaker 1: another cadet ran in to warn everyone that Hitchcock was coming.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't know the man had already arrived. Hitchcock instructed
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  Speaker 1: the cadet to go back to his room, which he
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  Speaker 1: did without incident. That cadet's name future President of the Confederacy,
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  Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis. Hitchcock ordered the rest of the boys to
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  Speaker 1: return to their rooms before he marched back downstairs, but
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  Speaker 1: soon heard another group of rambunctious young men gallivanti nearby.
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  Speaker 1: Two were hidden under a blankets hoping not to get caught,
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  Speaker 1: while another had covered his face with the hat. Hitchcock
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  Speaker 1: tried to get the cadet to remove the hat from
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  Speaker 1: his face to ascertain his identity, but the man refused. Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: the captain left to find back up while the students
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  Speaker 1: rallied together, one of them shouting, get your dirks and
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  Speaker 1: bayonets and pistols. If you have them before this night
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  Speaker 1: is over, Hitchcock will be dead. And they weren't joking.
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  Speaker 1: The cadets hurled wooden sticks at Hitchcock's door and shattered
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  Speaker 1: his windows with rocks. They paraded up and down the
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  Speaker 1: hallways bayonets and muskets, ready for action. One cadet fired
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  Speaker 1: a pistol at the captain but missed when another bumped
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  Speaker 1: into him. Throwing off his aim. But Hitchcock managed to
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  Speaker 1: find someone who wasn't part of the riot and told
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  Speaker 1: him to bring reinforcements, which the man mistook to mean
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  Speaker 1: bombardiers or are hillery forces. As a result, they armed
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  Speaker 1: themselves despite never being under any kind of threat. They
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  Speaker 1: broke dishes, furniture and other items in the barracks and
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  Speaker 1: an effort to defend against foes that were never actually coming.
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  Speaker 1: By the time the cadets had sobered up and realized
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  Speaker 1: what they were doing, Commandant Worth showed up to bring
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  Speaker 1: an end to the riot once and for all. The
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  Speaker 1: North Barracks were in shambles. Pieces of crockery lay strewn
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  Speaker 1: on the floor, banisters had been ripped away from staircases,
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  Speaker 1: windows had been broken, and furniture had been smashed to bits.
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  Speaker 1: In the end, nobody died, but two officers were injured.
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  Speaker 1: And then there were the hangovers. You see, the riot
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  Speaker 1: hadn't been started from displeasure among the cadets or anger
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  Speaker 1: towards Hitchcock. It was because of a drink, because of eggnog.
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  Speaker 1: Several months earlier, Colonel Fair had instituted a new rule
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  Speaker 1: at West Point, no alcohol on the premises. Apparently, at
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  Speaker 1: that year's Independence Day celebration, the cadets had gotten drunk
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  Speaker 1: and carried combanant worth away on their shoulders. After their
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  Speaker 1: disgraceful conduct, Colonel Fayer banned all alcoholic beverages from being
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  Speaker 1: consumed or stored at the academy. However, the students weren't
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  Speaker 1: going to let their Christmas tradition just die because of
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  Speaker 1: one silly rule. Instead, they crossed the Hudson River and
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  Speaker 1: procured gallons of booze from a local tavern, which they
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  Speaker 1: consumed in glasses of homemade eggnog back in their barracks.
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  Speaker 1: What transpired resulted in the court martialing of nineteen cadets
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  Speaker 1: and one soldier, Jefferson Davis, and twenty one others were
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  Speaker 1: placed under house arrest on December. Of the nineteen who
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  Speaker 1: were court martialed, only eight were pardoned for their participation
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  Speaker 1: in the eggnog riot of eighteen six and five actually
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  Speaker 1: graduated from the academy afterward, and honestly, who knew that
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  Speaker 1: West Point was such a party school. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on podcasts, or learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,