Medford’s Own Piano Man

Teen Wins $5,000 in Radio Contest with Song Parody

Medford’s Michael Maloney, center with WROR’s Loren Owens, Wally Brine, and Hank Morse, also a Medford resident. Maloney recently won the radio station’s “Townie Tune” contest. Photo courtesy WROR.

– Allison Goldsberry

According to WROR, Medford High School senior Michael Maloney is the best in the state when it comes to putting poking fun at his hometown to music.

The teen recently bested 80 other “townie tunes” in a radio contest with his parody of the Beatles song “The Long and Winding Road.”

The song parody, “The Long and Winding Road to Medford,” earned Maloney $5,000 and a trip to WROR’s Boston studio.

Maloney, whose many musical talents span from singing to drums to the violin to the piano, said he wrote the song in just one weekend. He then recorded himself singing and playing the piano and sent it along to the radio station.

“If you play the piano and you’re a Beatles’ fan, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ is one of the ones you have to know,” said Maloney.

Maloney did not have to look far for inspiration. From Medford’s curiously high number of Dunkin Donuts to its famous residents, nothing was safe from a little good-natured musical ribbing.

“I thought it would be good to give facts and try to make it funny,” said Maloney.

Here are just a few gems from the song, which pokes fun at the city as well as highlighting its unique features:

“We’ve got a bad mall. It’s one story tall. It’s called the Meadow Glenn. I don’t remember when it had more than seven stores.”

“It may sound absurd, we’re the home town to Michael Bloomberg.”

“Many times I want to see our high school football team win, but they always get defeated by the team from Malden.”

“We’re home to Maria Menounos, she now lives on the West Coast.”

“We’ve got houses from the Revolution, we made a Guiness Book of World Records contribution.”

Listen the Maloney’s entire song here.

Soon the musical teen will head to WROR’s studios to record the song with Tom Doyle. The tune will join other townie jingles on a CD to be sold throughout New England.

And as for that $5,000, Maloney plans to save most of it for college, where he will study music and medicine.

Below, Maloney performs the song for InsideMedford.com: