Christmas 2013 Part 1 1) It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 2) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 3) Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
christmas
Story behind the song
Merry Christmas,
This year’s CD was a long process, I started writing and recording the second week of September and just finished it 2 weeks before Christmas. I actually started about a month earlier than normal to avoid the last minute scramble, so much for that plan.
This year’s guests have really lifted my music to a whole other level. Special thanks to Grace Beckett, her vocals allowed me to record John Lennon’s Christmas song which is way too high for me to sing. She also lent her vocals to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. She is actually the first person to record here at my studio; all of the other people that have recorded with me in the past were done over the internet at their own studio.
A big Thank You goes out to Ben Charisima from Ontario, Canada for recording mandolin and accordion on “Christmas Don’t Be Late”. I met him on a songwriters website after he posted a cover version of the late Willie P. Bennett’s “Standin By The Highway”. His mandolin playing really brought a bluegrass feel to “Christmas Don’t Be Late”, which I was going to leave of this year’s CD because it wasn’t that good and sounded incomplete. I sent him a copy of what I had and what he sent back blew me away. Ben and I have a few songs we are working on together and hope to have them done early next year.
The Songs for 2013:
1) “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” written by Meredith Wilson in 1951, he is best known for writing for Broadway, his most famous being “The Music Man”. I recorded acoustic guitar, piano, bass and organ, the flute solo is a digital sample played with my musical keyboard. This song goes out to The Bedard’s, my sister Kathy and my nieces have been singing this at Christmas for years, well at least they sing the opening lines. In the song the lyrics refer to a 5 and 10 store which back in the 50’s was a nickel and dime store, these days it would be a $5 and $10 store.
2) “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil Spector in 1963. The original song sung by Darlene Love was part of Phil Spector’s Christmas album, when he was a ground breaking record producer with his wall of sound and before he became a convicted murderer. My version is closer to the way U2 recorded it in 1987.
3) “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” written by John Lennon in 1971. I recorded this song before in 1988 when I was recording direct to cassette tape. The chorus of the song is way too high for me to sing but Thanks to Grace, I think we pulled this one off.