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The Crayon Rainbow single LINKS            
  ABOUT THIS SONG length: 3 min 54 sec music and lyrics: Chris Tong vocals: Chris Tong musical arrangement: Chris Tong ISRC: QZTBA2227922 UPC: 197508404536 instruments: piano, strings, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums, synthesizers, toy piano Written in the style of a Broadway musical song when I was 23, The Crayon Rainbow In My Heart celebrates how children move one's heart to joy so easily. On the day this song recalls, I was not in the best of spirits. A young friend of mine noticed, and went to work. A little while later, she brought me a gift: a crayon drawing showing a rainbow wrapped around my heart. She said it would help me feel better — and it did! Then she said she would also do something else for me — and she went out on the green grass of the backyard and did a mad, whirling, happy dance that completely lifted my spirits. To thank her, I then sat down at the piano and wrote this song for her, which she loved. LYRICS [VERSES] Yesterday feels like a dream. Dreams fell apart so fast, ripped at the seams. Then between the seams that you drew apart, you wrapped your crayon rainbow round my heart. Let colors in I never knew. Look at those sunny greens you made of my blues! Now the blues are gone — I've got a new start. . . cause you wrapped your crayon rainbow round my heart. [CHORUS] And I remember a sunny day. . . I heard a robin sing — I was watching you play. And you were dancing alone. . . a mad kind of dance filled with whimsy and chance lifting me whirling right off the ground. Aahhh. . . [VERSE] And now, my friend, look in my eyes. . . See all the love inside, the memory highs. You dance your joy. You smile with your art. And you wrap your crayon rainbow round my heart. [CHORUS] And I remember a sunny day. . . I heard a robin sing — I was watching you play. And you were dancing alone. . . a mad kind of dance filled with whimsy and chance lifting me whirling right off the ground. Aahhh. . . [VERSE] And now, my friend, look in my eyes. . . See all the love inside, the memory highs. You dance your joy. You smile with your art. And you wrap your crayon rainbow round my heart feels like a spinning wheel that turns, and spins its magic, singing: you're the crayon rainbow in my heart.
ADDITIONAL NOTES STORY / LYRICS In a sense, you could say the central movement of the song's story is from "You wrapped your crayon rainbow round my heart" to the final line, "You're the crayon rainbow in my heart": she has touched and healed his heart so much that she now has a lasting place in his heart. Other things I find interesting about the story/lyrics:
MUSIC "Musical theater" style. I mentioned how I wrote this song in the style of a song from a Broadway musical. Singing in a "musical theater" style is a special kind of dramatic singing: sometimes belting out the voice, often articulating words in interesting ways, and altogether bringing a character to life in a "larger than life" manner. So as an example of intentionally interesting articulation, notice how I sing the line, "you made of my blues" ("yuh made of my buh-lues"): Like many songs from musical theater, Crayon Rainbow has many lines that end in long sustained notes, that require an almost operatic control of the voice to sing well and in an interesting way, without either the voice wavering or the voice sounding like it's shouting. For example, each of the following four lines end in notes that need to be held: And I And that is true for many of the lines in this song. Altogether, Crayon Rainbow is a real challenge for the singer! The classical, "waltz time" section. In the section of the song that describes my young friend's dancing: a mad kind of dance Use of the toy piano. Because this is a song about and for a child, I wanted to use a toy piano in the chorus. I've always loved toy pianos, and played one when I was very young:
Toy pianos have been used only rarely in pop/rock music. A couple of memorable examples are Neil Diamond's Shilo (1967), a song about his childhood: and Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze (1972): I wanted to use a toy piano as the main instrument at the start of the chorus. The challenge is that the instrument has a rather shrill sound by itself. You can hear that in Shilo, where the toy piano is played by itself. The only reason that works is because it's only played for a short time. The way Seals and Crofts get it to work is they make another instrument (I think it's a clarinet) primary, "hiding" some of that toy piano shrillness underneath. The way I managed to make the toy piano in Crayon Rainbow the primary instrument for an extended period of time was to blend its sound with that of a regular piano: it's still recognizable as a toy piano, but the sound is sweeter (the vocal harmonies help too): Progression of pianos in the chorus. One thing I intended in the chorus was for the "piano sound" to go through a very distinct progression, from toy piano, to jazz piano, to classical piano. I've removed the lead vocals so you can hear that progression more clearly: From soft to loud. The waltz section ends very quietly. It is then followed by the verse, which is much louder and more energetic. It would be too jarring to have the softness immediately followed by the loudness. So what I do instead is start the verse off at a lower volume, and then gradually increase the level until it reaches full volume at the line, "the memory highs". The increase in volume is so subtle that you probably wouldn't notice it unless you were listening for it. "Spinning wheel" music and words. As a "show tune", I wanted the song to end on a big finish. So instead of just ending with the line: And you wrap I draw out the line, repeating the melody three times (with new words each time) before finally finishing with the line, "you're the crayon rainbow in my heart". I refer to a "spinning wheel" in the lyrics, and the three-time repeat itself reminds me of a spinning wheel: And you wrap With each repetition, the music is also building. The bass accompanies the first time. Then the electric guitar is added on the next repetition. Finally, the piano is added on the final repetition. A Harry Nilsson cameo. The last thing I did in arranging this song was to consider how I could make the very end of the song more interesting. As I was thinking about that, I suddenly heard in my head a harmony line sung in a voice that reminded me of Harry Nilsson's. And so that's how the song closes, with a dreamy, "far away" feeling. COVER ART The cover art is based on several of the lines in the song.
The central "heart" image is based on the two phrases, "You wrapped your crayon rainbow round my heart" and "You're the crayon rainbow in my heart". I initially considered a literal rainbow around a heart:
or a heart with rainbow stripes:
but the image I went with is a much more interesting, beautiful, and alive rendition of the same idea:
The images of the girl, the sun, and the robin are based on the lines:
And I remember a sunny day. . . The artwork is done in a "crayon" style, reflecting the song title. |
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