Brain Cells on Parade

I want to preface this by saying that I have not changed any of the names in this story; this is how I heard it, so I’m just passing it along.

There was a songwriter whose career wasn’t going nearly as well as he’d hoped. He hadn’t been “discovered” and he had no hit songs under his belt. As a last resort, he decided to try one of those recording companies that accepts submissions from songwriters. Within days of sending off his song, he got a phone call from the company president.

“Hey, we love your song, man!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! In fact, we want to record it.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah! I think we can get Clapton to play guitar on it.”
“Wow! Eric Clapton?”
“Well no… It’s actually my brother-in-law, Stu Clapton. He’s not all that good but he works cheap and he’s willing to do it. Oh, and I think we can get McCartney on bass.”
“Wow! Paul McCartney?”
“Uh no… It’s my other brother-in-law, Ken McCartney. He’s not the greatest bass player, but he’s available. Oh, and I think we can get Manilow on lead vocal.”
“Wow! Barry Manilow?”
“Yep!”