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| Born Free — My cover of Born Free is another birthday present for my intimate partner, Mary, who loved this song (and its vision and feeling of freedom) as a kid. It uses a karaoke version based on Andy William's version of the song, which is more soaring and loose than Matt Munro's original version. Those more familiar with John Barry as the composer of the jazzy James Bond theme and James Bond movie songs like Goldfinger may be pleasantly surprised at the softer side to the composer that is revealed in this song.
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| I'll Never Find Another You — Recorded in 1964 by The Seekers (probably best known in the United States for their 1966 hit, Georgy Girl), I'll Never Find Another You was written and produced by Tom Springfield, brother of pop icon Dusty Springfield. With this folk-pop song, The Seekers became the first Australian band to sell over one million copies of a single, and the first to have a Top 5 hit in Australia, the UK and the United States. In 1965, The Seekers outsold The Beatles! My cover of I'll Never Find Another You — sung in my best "folk- pop" style — is a birthday gift for my wife, Mary, who grew up in Australia and loves all of the Seekers' songs.
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| Human Nature — I am by no means the only one whose favorite Michael Jackson song is Human Nature! This amazing song is from the bestselling album of all time: Michael Jackson's Thriller. Steve Porcaro (from Toto) wrote the music and the haunting lyrics of the chorus ("Why? Why? Tell 'em that it's human nature"). John Bettis wrote the rest of the lyrics, creating the song’s story. David Paich, Steve Porcaro, and Steve Lukather (all from Toto) wrote the synthesizer parts that give the song its hypnotic, ethereal aura. Michael Jackson perfectly complemented the instrumental arrangement with his airy, playful, deeply feeling singing style — and he recorded the main vocal in a single take! My version here brings a sensual quality to the singing.
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| Somewhere Out There — This beautiful ballad, from Steven Spielberg's movie, An American Tail (1986), was sung by Linda Rondstadt and James Ingram and went on to win the Grammy Award for "Song of the Year" in 1988. The song had a real powerhouse of composers: Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"), and James Horner ("My Heart Will Go On").
I'm singing the song as a duet with wonderful singer, Gloria Wind.
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| I Only Want To Be With You — A happy, upbeat, high energy dance song, and one of my favorites. Dusty Springfield's 1964 hit, I Only Want To Be With You has an incredible driving beat, and a melody that mirrors that driving beat. The original arrangement doesn't really pick up on that beat as much as the Bay City Roller's 1976 version, so I am singing to a karaoke arrangement based on the Bay City Rollers' much more energetic version, and really emphasizing the beat with my singing style. I have also significantly lowered the key, because I think the song sounds much better when sung with a low voice.
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| How Deep Is Your Love — The Bee Gees were a hugely influential pop group that had nine #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart — more than any other group in history apart from the Beatles (with 20) and the Supremes (12). Of their chart-topping hits, their biggest (spending 33 weeks on the chart) was How Deep Is Your Love, my favorite Bee Gees song, and the one I cover here. This song is the very definition of smooth! It just floats in "on a summer breeze" — with impressionistic lyrics, a soft electric piano, and unique, close-knit harmonies from the Brothers Gibb (Barry, Robin, and Maurice) that combine deep and falsetto voices into a sound that is at once magical, sensual, and soulful.
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| My Love — When Beatlemania began in 1964, it swept away all other pop music in its path, with a few exceptions. One of those was the British partnership of singer Petula Clark, and her songwriter-producer, Tony Hatch. Starting in 1964, they would release a string of high-energy hit songs, which started with Downtown, and continued with I Know a Place, Don't Sleep in the Subway, A Sign of the Times, I Couldn't Live Without Your Love, Colour My World, and more. Here is my cover of my favorite song of theirs: My Love — one of the most joyous love songs ever written.
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| The Time Of My Life — My cover (in a duet with wonderful singer, Gloria Wind) of this hugely popular song from 1987's box office hit, Dirty Dancing.
It's an epic song that won many awards, including
the 1987 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
with Vocals.
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| I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song — Jim Croce is one of my favorite singer songwriters. He wrote brash, boisterous story songs like Bad Bad Leroy Brown, which I enjoyed. But my personal favorites were his exquisitely crafted, gentle love songs that touch the heart deeply, like I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song. He died too soon in a plane crash in September, 1973. I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song was released posthumously in 1974. It's very short, and, like his life, over all too soon. And it is perhaps his sweetest song. I love the intricate, very pretty, two-guitar arrangement created by Jim Croce and his musical partner, Maury Muehleisen.
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| Right Here Waiting — Richard Marx wrote Right Here Waiting as a love letter to his wife, while he was on the road, deeply feeling the pain of missing her, after being apart for several months. It's a beautiful, heart-moving song, with an unforgettable chorus. The song was a global hit, topping charts in many countries around the world. It has always touched me, and so I really enjoyed making this cover.
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| I Want To Hold Your Hand — I Want To Hold Your Hand is the sister song to She Loves You (see below). First, She Loves You topped the charts in the UK on September 14, 1963. Then I Want To Hold Your Hand topped the charts in the United States on February 1, 1964. Together, these two remarkable songs formed the 1-2 punch that launched Beatlemania around the world. As Rolling Stone Magazine put it: "It's no insult to the Beatles to say they never topped this song because nobody else has either. . . It's the most joyous three minutes in the history of human noise." I had a blast singing it! |
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| Scarborough Fair — Scarborough Fair is a traditional folk ballad, whose lyrics date back to at least 1670. The version sung here (based on Simon and Garfunkel's wonderful 1966 version, done in a Renaissance style) is a gorgeous choral piece, that combines conventional harmonies with voices sung in counterpoint. The song's lyrics have a well-known mythic subject: the impossible task. A man tells his former lover that she can return to him only if she can perform three impossible tasks for him. I've reworked the lyrics so that the descriptions of these three impossible tasks are interleaved with descriptions of other "impossible tasks", starting with famous ones drawn from mythology and fantasy, and ending with some real "impossible tasks" that currently challenge us. Because the voices overlap, I strongly recommend reading the lyrics as you listen, to be able to most fully take in this new version of a classic song. Enjoy! |
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If You Could Read My Mind — Gordon Lightfoot passed on May 1, 2023. This cover of my favorite song of his, If You Could Read My Mind (which I made on May 2, 2023), is a tribute to all the beautiful songs he wrote and the many hearts he touched through his music.
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Together Forever — TIME TO DANCE! My cover of Rick Astley's other huge hit song, Together Forever, from 1987. Full of joy (and with a super catchy chorus), it's one
of my favorite dance songs.
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| Play Me — Play Me is that rare song that is contemplative: gentle, serene, soothing, beautiful and joyful. Whenever I listen to it or sing it, it leaves me in a peaceful state. A number of Neil Diamond's early songs (I Am... I Said, Holly Holy) had a spiritual quality to them. Those are my favorites among his many wonderful songs, and Play Me is one of them. It also is a waltz (in 3/4 time) and I love waltzes! So I had to sing this song.
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Sway — My cover of the sensual Latin pop standard, Sway (¿Quién será?), first made popular by Dean Martin in 1954. I'm using a karaoke arrangement based on Michael Bublé's 2003 version of the song. This was a special request from from Mary, my "dance partner" in life.
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The Windmills Of Your Mind — My cover of one of my favorite songs from the 1960's, a unique and truly haunting song: The Windmills of Your Mind. I'm singing to a karaoke orchestral version of the song, based on a cover by Tina Arena. I've also made major changes to the lyrics, mainly to draw out the song's spiritual themes.
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The Power Of Love — My first foray into singing "power pop / blue-eyed soul" is this cover of The Power of Love, the huge 1985 hit by Huey Lewis and the News. It was written for the soundtrack of the blockbuster film, Back to the Future. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1986 Academy Awards. It has a fantastic synthesizer hook driving the song, its melodies are soul grooves, and its lyrics deliver a generous dose of wisdom as well (about love as a veritable Force of God, that you may feel "with a little help from above") — a real delight to sing!
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I'd Really Love To See You Tonight — My cover of England Dan & John Ford Coley's song, I'd Really Love To See You Tonight, from 1976, a song that influenced some of the early songs I wrote.
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Annie's Song — One of my very favorite songs. . . My cover of John Denver's beautiful, heartfelt love song and prayer, Annie's Song. I've composed a new choral arrangement for the Instrumental Bridge. This song has a spiritual significance for me, and I sing it in the manner of a prayer.
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| She Loves You — If I had to describe The Beatles' She Loves You in a single word it would be: EXCITING! It is probably one of the most exciting songs ever crafted — from the explosive opening (with Ringo's drum roll), to musical bursts, explosions, and surprises throughout, to sudden stops, to shifts between minor and major keys, to constant shifts in speed, and use of the blues scale here and there. . . the song is nothing if not dramatic (including the story in the lyrics) and a non-stop flow of raw energy throughout its brief journey of a litle over two minutes. So it has been a sheer delight for me to do this cover of one of my favorite songs.
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| Make It With You — My cover of one of my favorite songs, Make It With You, from the popular 1970's soft rock band, Bread. The songwriter, David Gates, has written many beautiful songs, but this is his sweetest. I first heard it on September 10, 1970, so it's only taken me half a century to learn how to sing it well! |
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| Who Loves You —
There are many pop songs with great harmonies. . . Songs from the Beatles (Because), the Beach Boys (God Only Knows), the Everly Brothers (All I Have To Do Is Dream), Simon and Garfunkel (Scarborough Fair), and The Bee Gees (How Deep Is Your Love) all spring to mind. But my all-time favorite "great harmonies" song has to be Who Loves You, from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, because the harmonies (as stand-alone vocals, or accompanied by and doubled by the corresponding piano chords) are just so pretty, and the disco arrangement energizes the (mostly 4-part) harmonies into a great dance song (which is unusual for a song with great harmonies). As a singer, re-creating those gorgeous, high-energy harmonies was very enjoyable! |
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| Fields of Gold — Sting has written many great, often powerful songs. But Fields of Gold is perhaps his most beautiful song. In a 2018 interview at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Paul McCartney said that Fields of Gold was a song he wished he'd written himself. In my version, I've arranged and sung the song in the manner of a chant — with the intent that, by the end of the song, you've been transported into a different state altogether. I've also added a new verse and a choral accompaniment for the latter part of the song. |
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| Longer — My cover of one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, Longer, by Dan Fogelberg. |
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| On the Wings of Love — My cover of this beautiful, uplifting love song, often chosen as a wedding song because of the purity and strength of its message, and the feeling in Jeffrey Osborne's voice. |
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