Mike Clifford to meet Ed Sullivan who was so impressed with Mike’s poise and stage presence that he booked him for his TV debut, the first of three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Mike Clifford's first taste of success came at age 18 when "Bombay" became a hit in Venezuela. He appeared on the state owned Venevision in his own TV special. However, Clifford's recordings for Columbia received little buyer’s attention, and in July 1962, Clifford signed with United Artists Records. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller produced several songs for Clifford, including his biggest hit "Close To Cathy", written by Earl
Mike and the Mad Dog that intensity, that bravado, that fierce individual personality to our show, and that's what I thought made it so good." George Vecsey of "The New York Times" once described Russo's voice as "a bizarre mixture of Jerry Lewis, Archie Bunker and Daffy Duck." His voice has also been described as "Donald Duck on steroids." Both Francesa and Russo credited Imus for making the pairing possible. Russo said, "Imus was very, very, very, "very" important to the development of FAN... He solved a lot of problems for the company." Francesa said, "Without Imus, there's no "Mike and the Mad Dog", there's