EASY LISTENING POP COVER SONGS AND INSTRUMENTAL TRACKS of HITS from the ‘ 70s and ’80s

And the Taxi listing read:

EASY LISTENING POP COVER SONGS AND INSTRUMENTAL TRACKS of HITS from the ‘ 70s and ’80s, a la Rick Astley, The Carpenters, Helen Reddy, etc., are needed by the President and CEO of a new publishing company to supply music for Film and TV placements, Video Games, Toy products, Hallmark music cards and more! This gentleman was the head of the library division of a Major music publisher and is now branching out on his own, so you are definitely in good hands. He is specifically looking for new arrangements and NOT copies or sound-alikes. He suggested picking a particular artist or band and then combining it with other artist/band styles, therefore making it somewhat familiar to the ear while creating a new and unique sound. He also said if the original was sung by a male, try it with a female lead or try something like taking a song with full instrumentation and doing it acoustic. Overall, you have the liberty to make a new arrangement and to make it interesting, just keep the original song recognizable. The one thing he was adamant about is making sure that you DO NOT ALTER THE LYRICS in any way. Some suggested songs to cover are “Together Forever” by Rick Astley to “Top of the World” by The Carpenters and “I Am Woman” by Helen Reddy. They are open to hearing other songs but really want to hear these ones as well. Please don’t send in covers of anything too obscure, it should definitely be a “popular” song that was on the charts. Vocal and instrumental presentation must be top-notch! Broadcast quality needed (excellent sounding home demos are okay). Please submit one to three songs and/or instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS ONLY – NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI – and must be received no later than Wednesday, August 5, 2009.

Why did I not just bounce right past it?  I don’t do Easy Listening, I don’t even know if I could tell you who Easy Listening from the 70′s was.  The Carpenters?  Helen Reddy, for crying out loud!  But then there’s my wife.  Somewhere between knowing every 80′s hair band and metal song in the US, Canada and Western Europe she has some fondness for the cheese of the 70′s, a la Easy Listening.  So I pasted this one into an email and asked her if she wanted to work on a listing.  I figured like usual she’d get excited, never do anything with it, and at least I’d be continuing the effort in getting her involved.  Instead she actually went and did some looking and came back with a song from England Dan and John Ford Coley.  WTF?

I went off and listened to this particular tune and decided it probably fit the listing fine.  I’ve never done a new arrangement to an old tune, though I don’t think they want anything too radical here.  I guess it’s more like doing a backing track with some poetic license, which shouldn’t take too long.  The hardest part will be getting some different sounding vocals to the song out of her, but I think she gets what the listing expects.

So, I sat down and figured out how to play said song, laid out a scratch track with some acoustic, bass and a basic drum and my scratch vocal to give an idea of some different things that can happen.  If we get it done it may not get through the gauntlet, there’s no critique on this one, but every one that gets sent back is one more out of the way on the path to success!  I’ll post it if/when we get it done…we have about 9 days which could be easy to get done or impossible depending on what life throws our way.

And that’s what we’re doing in the studio this week!

—————————————

Follow up:  We actually got it done, just in the nick of time.  Yes, reality tried like heck to squash another song effort, but we just went balls to the walls and made something happen.  Crazy, I know!

Get your polyester suits on and think way back…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Popularity: 5% [?]