On Dr. Demento's Retirement
June 1, 2025
Just in case you haven’t seen the news, on this week’s show Dr. Demento announced he was retiring this year. This week’s show would be the last “regular” show and for the next couple of months he will be doing retrospective shows, culminating in a Top 40 all time countdown in October. I’m sad he’s retiring, but I’m happy about a few things. One, he’s going out on his terms. Two, he’s giving the show a proper ending. And three, he’s giving us a heads up that it’s coming.
I have always been into funny music ever since I was a little kid. I remember my father playing “Beep Beep” by The Playmates for me. That and “The Battle of New Orleans” became early favorites. Then my mother found one of her old Allan Sherman albums and played that for me and I literally fell off the couch onto the floor laughing when “Grow Mrs. Goldfarb” came on.
It might have been that same year, as Christmas was approaching, that my mother was walking around the house singing “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” None of us believed her when she told us it was a real song. So the next time we went to the mall my mother asked a clerk in a record store if he could find it. He did. It was one of the tracks on Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume 6: Christmas which had just come out. We bought the cassette and listened to it on the way home in the car, laughing the entire way. Also, we never doubted my mother again.
That Christmas my father bought my mother the entire box set on vinyl. I don’t even know if she ever listened to it but I sure did. Repeatedly. I still have that box set. It’s in terrible condition because it has been well loved over the years and then survived a flood, but I still have it.
That was how I learned who Dr. Demento was. I spent hours scouring radio stations hoping to find the show but I never did. The Doctor had been on in New York City but they dropped him the year before I went looking. So I asked my parents if we could join The Demento Society and they said sure, so I started getting the newsletter. In the newsletter was a phone number you could call to find out where the show could be heard in your area and I confirmed there were no stations by me in Connecticut that were airing it. There was one in Rhode Island but it was out of range.
There was also an ad, of sorts, in the newsletter that said “The Funny Five Wants You!” Dr. Demento had an open submissions policy, which was unheard of for a radio show, let alone a nationally syndicated one. But he had discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic, Barnes and Barnes, and several others, so it worked out for him. The ad said you didn’t have to go into a studio, and where to send your tapes, and my eyes lit up. I had recently started writing my own songs and now there was a chance I could get some airplay!
I didn’t know what the laws were regarding parodies at the time so I never sent him “Infection,” but after we finished a few more songs I sent him a tape with three absolutely terrible songs on it. A few weeks later I got a rejection letter back. 13 year old me was incredibly disappointed, but then my father read the letter and said “Do you realize what a big deal this is? This is a national DJ who took the time to personally respond to you!” I read the letter again and saw that it was full of constructive criticism about my songs. He said I had some good ideas, but that the performers needed to emote more and the recording quality needed to improve. I decided to take his advice and do what I could to improve my music.
I sent him several more tapes over the next few years and each one came with a polite, constructive rejection, until one in late 1989 about a song that he said was “a masterpiece.” He said he wanted to play it but he needed a better recording of it. So I got Dave and Scott back together and we re-recorded the song, and this time, instead of sending him a copy of the tape, we sent him the original master tape. “I’m Bored” was played on the live show on March 11, 1990, and then on the syndicated show on April 15, 1990.
A few weeks later I received a record pressing of that show in the mail from Dr. Demento. So even though I couldn’t hear myself on the radio at the time I was able to listen to the show. Listening to that record in my basement was the first time I ever got to hear the show. I still have that record as well.
I’ve been going ever since, constantly trying to improve my writing and recording quality. Over time I got more and more airplay on the show until I got my first #1 hit on the Funny Five when “South Park Junkie” hit #1 on April 5, 1998 and ended up the 4th most requested song of the year. I can’t tell you how excited I was. It was surreal.
In 2002 the great Luke Ski invited me to do co-vocals on “Peter Parker” and that ended up being the most requested song of the year. Then I had the #1 song of the year with Worm Quartet in 2005, and then in 2007 I had the #1, #2, and #4 songs of the year, and I was guest vocalist on song #5. (No one else in the history of the show has ever done that.) I had a few more hits over the years, and then in 2019 had the #1 song again with “Spider Verses.”
“Weird Al” Yankovic has had five #1 songs of the year. So has Luke Ski. I have had three. In the 55 year history of the show I had the most requested song of the year three times. Three and a half if you count “Peter Parker.”
I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying this because my life would be A LOT different if The Dr. Demento Show didn’t exist, or if he hadn’t taken the time to write me that letter. Pretty much everything I’ve done creatively over the past 40 years has been funny music related, and that’s all because of him. Most of my best friends are people I’ve met through comedy music. Many of my favorite memories are things that happened as a direct result of him or his show, several of which were with him.
I am so happy The Dr. Demento Show exists. I am proud to have been a part of it. And I’m honored to call Barry a friend. I wish him the best in his retirement, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming retrospective shows (selfishly hoping he’ll play a couple of my songs one last time along the way).
