Frankie Goes To Hollywood Took Me To The Boss

Okay - I love Frankie - always have - always will. Halle Pinzone, my best pal when I was 11 years old, and I worshipped Frankie right after the meetings for our Leave It To Beaver fan club adjourned. I am *not* kidding. We'd spin a copy of the double disc'd Welcome To The Pleasuredome I borrowed from my older teenage neighbor who I'm quite sure reveled in the notion that he'd loaned a record with more homo erotic references than you could shake a stick at to a couple of young girls. We, of course, had no clue we were listening to men who preferred, well men, we were in love with the Frankies.

But the really funny thing is I have Frankie to thank for my somewhat reluctant yet undeniable love of Bruce Springsteen. The infamous 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome' contains a cover of The Boss's Born To Run and when I finally got over Springsteen's icon status and realized what an amazing and thoughtful writer and performer he is it was the Frankie cover that led me down the path to The River and Nebraska.