Eddie Money - Eddie Money (2016) [CD-Rip]

Edward Joseph Mahoney, a Brooklyn-born second-generation cop who eventually ditched his badge and gun to pursue his rock star dreams as Eddie Money — struck gold right off the bat with his 1977 self-titled debut album.

The record's leadoff single, "Baby Hold On," was actually its biggest hit, but the follow-up single "Two Tickets to Paradise," was a sort of spiritual cousin to Bruce Springsteen‘s "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." It's written from the perspective of a young guy who's desperately trying to convince his girlfriend to ignore her disapproving parents and come away with him "on a trip so far away from here." With its smooth production, urgent uptempo chorus, and insistent melodic hook, "Tickets" was a natural for late '70s FM radio — where it found an immediate home, eventually working its way all the way up to No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Although Money might have written "Two Tickets to Paradise" to convince a specific girl to leave town with him, its title became shorthand for that end-of-the-work-week feeling you get when you've fulfilled all of your responsibilities to the Man and you're free to relax without obligations for a little while — like, say, at at an Eddie Money concert, where "Tickets" has remained a constant fixture of the set list for more than 30 years.