I have been out riding on my comfort bike the past several weekends and the weather has been great. It is so pleasant these days that I returned to my original bike route which includes a loop downtown to Starbucks. Once I arrive in the downtown area I walk my bike along the pedestrian sidewalk and the route takes me by the competition chain coffee store catty-cornered across the street from Starbucks.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf a name that would never have cross my lips a year ago, may be gaining the upper hand on competition. Because, I noticed they have a prominently posted outdoor No Smoking Area, something Starbucks has not come to terms with. Also, I understand that The Coffee Bean has free unlimited use WiFi access to the internet. Well, that’s all I am going to say. I don’t like to kick a company when they are down. (You did hear Starbucks is closing 160 stores, right?)
This past weekend Billy Steinberg, a Palm Springs High School graduate and son of a local table grape grower, received the 313th Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, on Saturday (Oct. 18, 2008). And you will never guess where it was placed… would you believe right in front of my favorite (notwithstanding the remarks above) downtown Starbucks.
It was a very nice award ceremony (I have watched several); the assembly included friends, family and well wishers. Even his Cub Scout Den Mother from 1958 came to the podium to say a few kind words about him as a boy.
I was briefly introduced to Billy a number of years ago. My wife Carolyn was a classmate at PS High, and he spotted her standing with me in a crowd that was out in front of a Palm Desert movie theater. He came over to say hello. It took Carolyn a moment to recognize him, but there he was “Little Billy Steinberg”, as he was affectionately known by his fellow students.
I understand that Billy went to college in New York, and returned to the Valley in his mid-twenties to oversee his family’s business. Although not many people will remember him for this, but he also led a local punk band called Billy Thermal after the city in which his family’s vineyard business was based.
Thermal is also home to the Annual Jacqueline Cochran Air Show to be held on Saturday, November 1st. Last year there were over 35,000 attendees, plus yours truly with information on Riverside County employment opportunities in the Desert. If you come out this year be sure to stop by and say hi. Oops, I am starting to digress, back to the story again…
Billy Steinberg is probably best known not as a hometown boy, but as a songwriter. After Linda Ronstadt recorded his song, “How Do I Make You,” Billy went on to co-write five No. 1 singles, including the iconic “Like A Virgin" for Madonna, “True Colors” for Cyndi Lauper, “So Emotional” for Whitney Houston and “Eternal Flame” for The Bangles.
He won Grammy Awards for “Falling Into You” on Celine Dion’s multi-platinum album. He also co-wrote such top 10 hits as “I’ll Stand By You” for The Pretenders, “I Touch Myself” for The Divinyls, “I Drove All Night” for Roy Orbison, Lauper and Dion, and “In Your Room” for The Bangles. (To tell you the truth, I had to look up the Bangles. I hadn’t remembered them doing “Walk Like an Egyptian”. Their biggest single, although, was co-written by Billy, “Eternal Flame”) The list of artists and songs just goes on and on, check out the Wikipedia hyperlink to his name for details, and information on the 2007 song he wrote for American Idol runner up, Katharine McPhee.
Anyway to rap up discussion on my weekend rides, even though it is my custom to take a coffee break midpoint in the downtown loop, I am still working on getting in shape for the Desert Stahlight Ridazz Halloween Costume Kazoo-band ride on
Friday, October 31st. I wonder if any of Billy’s songs will be in the evening’s repertoire. I will let you know how that goes.