Hello everyone! Ready or not, the Christmas holidays are upon us. I thought I would take this time leading up to Christmas day to talk about the last CD Daryl and I created together … THE SECRET OF CHRISTMAS.
I loved making this CD for many reasons, but most of all because it was the most relaxed, comfortable, fun and creative time I ever had as a singer and songwriter working on a CD with Daryl. Absolutely no drama!!!! For some reason, Daryl was perfectly happy turning over the arranging and producing of most of the tracks to me. I had the most wonderful time sitting at my Yamaha Conservatory Grand Piano in our winter home near Palm Springs, writing out music and vocal arrangements for “my” songs, and working with Daryl on the songs he arranged and produced.
There were a couple of times we “cross pollinated” on some of the tracks, and, if you listen to them all, I am pretty sure you can tell which ones were all or mostly my work, and which ones were uniquely Daryl’s.
I don’t think Daryl was particularly interested in the more “traditional” Christmas songs we recorded, so he left them to me. Daryl has always gone waaaay out there in his musical ideas and productions … and throws in a lot of his own special brand of dry humor into his work.
This first song from the CD is an example of my songwriting. I got the idea for "Christmas In California" years ago while I was watching the Christmas Boat Parade in Newport Harbor, California. It struck me that in California you could find warm breezes, palm trees and beautiful flowers abounding on Christmas Day, but you could also head up to Big Bear or Lake Tahoe to ski and play in the snow. The first line of the lyric just popped into my head: “Christmas in California may not be like the ones you know / When you look around you may not see snow.” Now that I live in Florida, my sister Jane has been trying to get me to change the title to "Christmas In Florida", and urging me to try to sell it to Disney!!!!! HAH! She is my biggest promoter!.
Now, for an example of Daryl’s unique style, listen to his version of "Here Comes Santa Claus". He features the “muskrats” in the arrangement. I believe Daryl has always thought of himself as a kind of contemporary Spike Jones. If you don’t know who Spike Jones was, check him out on YouTube!
In my next post, I will feature two or three more songs from THE SECRET OF CHRISTMAS. Hopefully they will help you get into the Holiday spirit!