Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Coming up, a new show where I give you 3 unbelievable rock and roll stories straight from the legends themselves in 10 minutes or less that will make you laugh, cry, or both. It’s our premier episode of Zingers including the young icon Young MC who wasn’t old enough to buy alcohol but he wrote 3 massive hits in about the time it takes to watch a movie and those 3 songs have generated many millions of dollars for him and set him him up for life generating 85% of the his total income as a musician for the rest of his life, he’s here to tell the story. Plus the 80s icon Patty Smyth, who had one of the most popular music videos in MTV history, but she detested every second of it... Having to wear heavy makeup and costumes that made her unrecognizable. It gives her anxiety just speaking about it, and she’s here to tell the story. And finally the odd new wave icon Gary Numan, who had one big hit that didn’t sound like anything on the radio, but he began to loathe it with every fiber of his being. He hates it so much he refused to play it, but one day he got his comeuppance when a legend called him out on his behavior, and he realized he was being a huge baby. Let’s get into it.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Norman Buchwald, Cliff Konstans, Steve DocPinko Cloutier, Jenny Blaxell, Jason Elliott, AArthriticGamer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
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Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder
Hey Music Junkiesl So our first story at #3 is about a man who hated his one and only hit so much that he resented it and stopped playing it in concert until a few years later when a legendary frontman called him out and made him realize he’d been a jerk. So boing back to 1980… American radio was dominated by the likes of Christoper Cross and Kenny Rogers and Olivia Newton John and Captain and Tennille, but out of nowhere a strange singer who looked more like an android with music that sounded alien hit the charts. Gary Numan hit the top 10 in America in 1980 with the sensational song Cars and sounded like it was 100 years ahead of its time... Gary Numan and his 80s synth pop masterwork sounded like it was from Mars. It was the instigator of new wave, of dark wave, of industrial music of Electonica or EDM. GARY NUMAN IS a pioneer of every genre just mentioned. He even looked and sounded like an android.
With a song that came from expressing the fear he felt as a victim of a bout of road rage. He wrote the song on a bass guitar in about 15 minutes… but as the song began to dominate radio and his life, he began to resent it. He came to a point where he stopped performing it live. He was tired of being known by many as that one-hit wonder. It took a legend to put him in his place.
At #2 we have a frontwoman who almost became the lead singer of Van Halen… Eddie Van Halen loved her voice and asked her to replace David Lee Roth when he departed in 1985, but what led Eddie to be transfixed by her voice was a song that took Patty Smyth to the top of the charts… Before she married Tennis Star John McEnroe, Patty Smyth fronted the band Scandal and had a massive hit with the 80s classic The Warrior. Written by Legendary songwriter Holly Knight, who also wrote Love is a Battlefield for Pat Benatar and Rag Doll for Aerosmith and Nick Gilder of Hot Child in the City fame. The Warrior was a revelation in 1984, going to #1 on the rock charts and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. But it was MTV where the song really ignited.
The music video was directed by David Hauh and looked like Cats on acid. The clip was incredibly strange. Instead of the band, we see a dude who looks like a reject from Thundercats dance-fighting around other costumed participants. Smyth was covered in body paint and she was directed to do the pistol fingers whenever the song would hit the Bang Bang part. But even though the video was a huge hit on MTV, Patty, for her part, detested it. After that, Patty was invited to fill David Lee Roth’s shoes with Van Halen. Can you imagine Patty Smyth fronting Van Halen? What do you think they would’ve sounded like?
Coming up, a new show where I give you 3 unbelievable rock and roll stories straight from the legends themselves in 10 minutes or less that will make you laugh, cry, or both. It’s our premier episode of Zingers including the young icon Young MC who wasn’t old enough to buy alcohol but he wrote 3 massive hits in about the time it takes to watch a movie and those 3 songs have generated many millions of dollars for him and set him him up for life generating 85% of the his total income as a musician for the rest of his life, he’s here to tell the story. Plus the 80s icon Patty Smyth, who had one of the most popular music videos in MTV history, but she detested every second of it... Having to wear heavy makeup and costumes that made her unrecognizable. It gives her anxiety just speaking about it, and she’s here to tell the story. And finally the odd new wave icon Gary Numan, who had one big hit that didn’t sound like anything on the radio, but he began to loathe it with every fiber of his being. He hates it so much he refused to play it, but one day he got his comeuppance when a legend called him out on his behavior, and he realized he was being a huge baby. Let’s get into it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Norman Buchwald, Cliff Konstans, Steve DocPinko Cloutier, Jenny Blaxell, Jason Elliott, AArthriticGamer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder
Hey Music Junkiesl So our first story at #3 is about a man who hated his one and only hit so much that he resented it and stopped playing it in concert until a few years later when a legendary frontman called him out and made him realize he’d been a jerk. So boing back to 1980… American radio was dominated by the likes of Christoper Cross and Kenny Rogers and Olivia Newton John and Captain and Tennille, but out of nowhere a strange singer who looked more like an android with music that sounded alien hit the charts. Gary Numan hit the top 10 in America in 1980 with the sensational song Cars and sounded like it was 100 years ahead of its time... Gary Numan and his 80s synth pop masterwork sounded like it was from Mars. It was the instigator of new wave, of dark wave, of industrial music of Electonica or EDM. GARY NUMAN IS a pioneer of every genre just mentioned. He even looked and sounded like an android.
With a song that came from expressing the fear he felt as a victim of a bout of road rage. He wrote the song on a bass guitar in about 15 minutes… but as the song began to dominate radio and his life, he began to resent it. He came to a point where he stopped performing it live. He was tired of being known by many as that one-hit wonder. It took a legend to put him in his place.
At #2 we have a frontwoman who almost became the lead singer of Van Halen… Eddie Van Halen loved her voice and asked her to replace David Lee Roth when he departed in 1985, but what led Eddie to be transfixed by her voice was a song that took Patty Smyth to the top of the charts… Before she married Tennis Star John McEnroe, Patty Smyth fronted the band Scandal and had a massive hit with the 80s classic The Warrior. Written by Legendary songwriter Holly Knight, who also wrote Love is a Battlefield for Pat Benatar and Rag Doll for Aerosmith and Nick Gilder of Hot Child in the City fame. The Warrior was a revelation in 1984, going to #1 on the rock charts and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. But it was MTV where the song really ignited.
The music video was directed by David Hauh and looked like Cats on acid. The clip was incredibly strange. Instead of the band, we see a dude who looks like a reject from Thundercats dance-fighting around other costumed participants. Smyth was covered in body paint and she was directed to do the pistol fingers whenever the song would hit the Bang Bang part. But even though the video was a huge hit on MTV, Patty, for her part, detested it. After that, Patty was invited to fill David Lee Roth’s shoes with Van Halen. Can you imagine Patty Smyth fronting Van Halen? What do you think they would’ve sounded like?
