Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Eddie Money (real name: Mahoney) tried becoming a police officer like his father and brother. It didn't take ("it was a little too militant for me"), so Eddie took off for San Francisco and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he met a sorority girl (Alpha Pi), and fell in love.
She was well-off and well-heeled; Eddie was working his way through college as a receiving clerk at JCPenney while playing in bands on weekends. "Her mother would do everything in the world to get her away from me on the weekends so she could meet a nice young doctor or lawyer or CPA," Money said in an interview with Frank Jenks. "I wrote 'Two Tickets To Paradise' about taking a bus ride to the California redwoods. I had been up there going to court in Arcadia, which is in northern California, for something I was holding that wasn't mine... but we won't get into that. I wanted to take her on a bus ride up to the redwoods. 'Two Tickets To Paradise' could be anywhere: could be Hawaii, could be anywhere. It's a state of mind."
Money never did get to take this girl to paradise. She dumped him before he could.
Six credits shy of graduation, Money dropped out of school when he got a deal with the promoter Bill Graham, who became his manager and got him a record deal with Columbia. With Bruce Botnick producing, he recorded his self-titled debut album, which was released in 1977. The first single was "
Baby Hold On," which became a hit in the summer of 1978. "Two Tickets To Paradise" was his next single; it went to #22 US in September and became one of Money's most enduring songs, soundtracking many getaways and excursions.
Money grew up listening to groups like The Rascals and Dion & The Belmonts. One thing he learned about songwriting was that words didn't have to rhyme exactly - they just had to come close and sound right. When he hit on "paradise" as a close-enough rhyme for "tonight," he knew he had a winner.
Money performed this and "Baby Hold On" when he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, March 18, 1978.
In 2012, Money appeared in a Geico commercial where he plays a very enthusiastic travel agent, singing "Two Tickets To Paradise" to a family whose trip isn't for another month. The tagline: Geico makes you "happier than Eddie Money running a travel agency."
Money wrote and starred in a jukebox musical about his life called Two Tickets To Paradise that played at the Kodak Center in Rochester, New York in February 2018.
This has been used in these movies:
The Beach Bum (2019)
Good Kill (2014)
Grown Ups (2010)
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Balls of Fury (2007)
Sideways (2004)
And in these TV shows:
Hawaii Five-0 ("Ua helele'i ka hoku" - 2015)
Cold Case ("Roller Girl" - 2008)
The Office ("A Benihana Christmas" - 2006): sung by Michael Scott as he flashes two tickets to Jamaica.
King of the Hill ("Enrique-cilable Differences" - 2005)
The Simpsons ("Homer Loves Flanders" - 1994)
This was used on The King Of Queens in the season 4 episode "Eddie Money." It plays while Doug and Deacon attempt to spend all the money they won gambling. Money also guest stars in the episode when Doug hires him to play a private show in his living room.
