(blogged by Howie Klein)

Tomorrow, there are a lot of birthdays to celebrate: Ariel Sharon, Lee Atwater, Ralph Nader, Elizabeth Taylor, and Chelsea Clinton not to mention rockers Steve Harley, Eddie Gray (of Tommy James & Shondells), Paul Humphreys (OMD), Josh Groban, Adrian Smith (of Iron Maiden) and... Journey's guitarist Neal Schon.

I used to live in San Francisco; I was a dj there. And did I hate Journey! And I was kind of outspoken about it on the air sometimes always. I'm sure they were happy when I moved away to L.A.

So one day I'm sitting in my office at Reprise, going over some boring paperwork and 4 faces appear in my door. "Can we sing you a song?" (Before 9/11 anyone could just wander in, more or less.) "Sure," I said, happy to put down the paperwork. They sang me a Journey song. I loved it. I signed them on the spot and we made a record-- two, actually, one in English and one in Spanish-- and I probably helped put some money in Neal Schon's pocket. I bet he didn't like this version; the little girls sure did. This is Nu Flavor, in their Crooks and Liars debut.

For tonight's contest, look at the list of birthday celebrants. Tell us a rock'n'roll story about two non-musicians on the list and win a 2-disc set THE ESSENTIAL HERBIE HANCOCK (21 tracks spanning a brilliant 40 year career). Send to: downwithtyranny@aol.com