Thanks for the name-drop, Ian! I scoured your entire playlist, and completely missed it! I think I went directly from Gong, and over-scanned past Juliana to Allison Russell, and besides getting the bends (and genre shock) from submerging that quickly, I missed my name!
I've got a favorite Christmas song, Ian! And, it was written by a friend, too, and has been certainly (and sadly) buried! Stephen Michael Schwartz (recorded an RCA album in '74 at age 20, and founded a children's music trio, Parachute Express, in the early '80s) has written, as you know, 20 articles for FR&B (https://bradkyle.substack.com/t/stephen-michael-schwartz).
In the early '80s, he also wrote "Merry Christmas, Wherever You Are," which has never been recorded, but Barry Manilow sang it on a U.S. TV holiday special in 1985. Hopefully, we've got that story coming soon on FR&B. Former L.A. DJ (and he had a late '70s hit with the hideous "Disco Duck"), Rick Dees, recorded Stephen's song. Barry heard Rick's cover of Stephen's song on Rick's album, and, while Barry has yet to record it on any of his THREE Christmas albums, there is a video of him singing it on that '80s TV special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnxrjj1rgbc
Thanks for this, Brad. You missed your @ because it wasn’t there in the first edit - well, it was, but because I write first in Google Docs I forgot to change the format when posting here 😳
Thanks for the name-drop, Ian! I scoured your entire playlist, and completely missed it! I think I went directly from Gong, and over-scanned past Juliana to Allison Russell, and besides getting the bends (and genre shock) from submerging that quickly, I missed my name!
I've got a favorite Christmas song, Ian! And, it was written by a friend, too, and has been certainly (and sadly) buried! Stephen Michael Schwartz (recorded an RCA album in '74 at age 20, and founded a children's music trio, Parachute Express, in the early '80s) has written, as you know, 20 articles for FR&B (https://bradkyle.substack.com/t/stephen-michael-schwartz).
In the early '80s, he also wrote "Merry Christmas, Wherever You Are," which has never been recorded, but Barry Manilow sang it on a U.S. TV holiday special in 1985. Hopefully, we've got that story coming soon on FR&B. Former L.A. DJ (and he had a late '70s hit with the hideous "Disco Duck"), Rick Dees, recorded Stephen's song. Barry heard Rick's cover of Stephen's song on Rick's album, and, while Barry has yet to record it on any of his THREE Christmas albums, there is a video of him singing it on that '80s TV special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnxrjj1rgbc
Thanks for this, Brad. You missed your @ because it wasn’t there in the first edit - well, it was, but because I write first in Google Docs I forgot to change the format when posting here 😳
•The Waitresses- Christmas Wrapping
•Otis Redding- Merry Christmas, Baby
•Kacey Musgraves- Ribbons And Bows
•The Cleaners From Venus- Grammy Little Christmas
Thanks Kevin!
A couple of Christmas song recommendations: "The Birth of Jesus" by John Michael Talbot and "Hey Lord" by Suicide.
Thanks Matt!