"You're walking away..."

"You're walking away

And they're talking behind you

They will never forget you

Till somebody new comes along"

From "New Kid In Town," by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther

Watching "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve Starring Ryan Seacrest as Dick Clark and Very Few Other People I Ever Heard Of," up popped Journey, a band I remember well, with a medley of their favorite tunes from the 80s.

If you closed your eyes, it was 1984 all over again; they still sound great. If you open your eyes, you might be surprised to look at the lead singer and say, "Hey now! Wha' happen' to Steve Perry?!" 

And then you would remember that Steve Perry left the band long ago, troubled by a degenerative bone condition in his hip that could not be healed by any amount of lovin', touchin', and squeezin'. The remaining members of the band went on YouTube and searched for Steve Perry sound-alikes, and came up with a guy named Arnel Pineda from the Journey cover band The Zoo, all the way down in the Philippines. 

Pineda, left; Perry, right

Pineda is a total ringer for Steve Perry, vocally, and since a lot of concert goers are almost in the next county by the time they get to their seats, it's hard to tell the difference. He has kept the band going and done well for himself.

And so have the lawyers connected with the band and its former members. There are more lawsuits connected with these people than you could imagine as they have gone their Separate Ways, all over names and copyrights and trademarks and domestic altercations and at least one "attempted corporate coup d'état," so Don't Stop Believing, there will always be work for attorneys, I tell you Faithfully. The Wheel In The Sky keeps them busy.

It was a lot different in the Golden Age of Radio. There was a situation comedy called "The Great Gildersleeve" on NBC radio in the 1940s, about the hilarity of life in small town America with the water commissioner of Springfield, USA, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. "Gildy" was a pompous, self-important blowhard who always wound up in sitcom-ish troubles with his boss, his friends, his many lady friends, his housekeeper, and the niece and nephew he was raising. Nothing is funnier than a windbag making a patootie of himself, and for weeks and weeks for years and years, a nationwide radio audience tuned in to hear his latest pratfall. (I still do, through the magic of YouTube. Join me!)

Harold Peary, the man who played Gildersleeve, was a versatile performer blessed with a marvelous speaking and singing voice. So sure was he that the success of the show was all about him that he signed a contract with rival network CBS in 1950, figuring that the show's sponsor, Kraft Foods, would follow and bring the show over with him.

But they said "No thanks" and hired Willard Waterman, another actor with stentorian tones and fewer demands and a voice that sounded egg-zackly like Peary. He replaced Peary, continuing with the show until radio sitcoms were obsolete (1958). 

CBS quickly came up with a total Gildersleeve ripoff called "Honest Harold," and put Peary in it, and honestly, it was a major flopola and was cancelled after one year. Peary wound up playing bit parts here and there. It was sad to see a guy, once on top of the radio world before TV, wind up playing a barber on one episode of "My Three Sons."

So like The Eagles sang in "New Kid In Town," sometimes it's good to remember that when there's a new kid in town, everybody loves him, don't they?