Today we say goodbye to BENNY MARDONES, who died yesterday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73 years old. And we also pay tribute to his legacy . . . which is actually a little unsettling.
Benny had one hit song, called "Into the Night". It came out in 1980, when Benny was 33 years old. The lyrics make it sound like a love song, but it starts out like this:
"She's just sixteen years old, leave her alone, they say / Separated by fools who don't know what love is yet."
Now, Benny has said that the song was inspired by his PLATONIC relationship with a teenage neighbor of his whose father had left her. But that doesn't explain the video, which starts out with 33-year-old Benny getting JOCK-BLOCKED at the girl's front door by her dad . . . then going around to the side of her house and staring at her through her bedroom window.
And it gets WORSE from there . . .
He spends the next 90 seconds or so pouring his heart out to her on the phone. But he's on a payphone . . . because for all we know this creep is homeless, or maybe he lives with his mom and she's currently exchanging recipes with her sister or something.
Then he just can't take it anymore. He goes back to her house, climbs through her window, unrolls a MAGIC CARPET, and takes her for a ride. I will say I always loved the song, then I saw the video and...... NO NO NOOOOOOOO!