Session Log: 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)'

Tuesday, 10.10.06: 4p - 10:30p
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Studio: Miriam Audio - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: Jesse Honig

Tracks (in order):
* Sleigh Bells
* Tambourines
* 4 acoustic guitars
* Fender Bass
* Fretless Electric Bass
* 2 Pianos
* Drums
* String Synth (unused)
* Organ
* 4 bg vox - main part
* 4 bg vox - upper harmony
* 4 bg vox - lower harmony
* 2 bg vox - bass
* Lead Vocal
* Slide Whistle solo (+)
* Melodica solo (+)
* Piano (octaves melody in outro)
* Glockenspiel
* Additional Sleigh Bells

Mix

My label is putting together a CD to send to radio stations for the holidays and asked all of us to contribute a Christmas song. OK - so they weren't going for my version of 'Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song)' (a regrettable, albeit understandable, decision) - so I chose my all-time favorite Christmas record of all-time (it's my favorite) - 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' by Darlene Love, although if we're to be fair about it, it's really by Phil Spector (by the way - guns don't necessarily make the greatest gifts).

The recording came together in one six and a half hour session with me playing all the instruments and singing all the vocals and young Jesse Honig manning the board and making sure the wall really was made of sound (and it is). The biggest thrill was getting the big octave piano part that starts at the big build towards the end of the song down, along with the big (hey, it's Phil Spector, everything is BIG) Hal Blaine drum fills in the outro - those parts still make the hair stand up on my arms when I hear the original and it's the transcendent moment that makes me love the record (although, let's face it, the whole thing is great).

You'll be hearing it soon.

(+) I KNEW when I first posted this that I was forgetting something (34 tracks didn't seem like enough to do Phil justice) - I've added the two tracks that make up the solo to the list of tracks above in the order that they occured.