Paul Shaffer 70th Birthday Special

Musician and television personality Paul Shaffer celebrated his 70th birthday on November 28, 2019. Although he's most famous as David Letterman's bandleader and sidekick for 33 years, Shaffer has had a fascinating career in music over the years. In his early years, Shaffer co-wrote songs and/or performed with comedy legends like Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Gilda Radner. As he made more of a name for himself, he did session work with recording artists like Joan Armatrading, Scandal, and Robert Plant. Ultimately, his reputation and experience as a TV bandleader led to him to numerous gigs overseeing the music for high-profile, all-star concerts.

In this one-hour special, we sample all of these aspects to Paul Shaffer's career and talk to the man himself with a phone interview recorded in 2017.

Below is a somewhat blurry photo of the host of the special, WYEP's Mike Sauter, with Shaffer.