I was (and still am) an avid fan of The Richard Smallwood Singers, so of course I was geeked, one day back in the late 90's, to find out Vision would be recording a Christmas album, and I'd be singing a duet with the incomparable Darlene Simmons.
(For a long time, I was sure she was Chaka Khan's little sister-- or clone--or something.)
I wasn't feeling my best that day at the studio, but I didn't dare say anything. My throat was a little sore, and I could swear I'd developed a strange lisp...lol
I loved “Oh What A Night” the first time I heard it. Once we were both comfortable with our parts, the session seemed to fly by.
I wasn't sure if I'd done my best, but Richard was okay with it, so I figured, what did I know?
Maybe it was just nerves.
Not long after I’d arrived home from the studio, my phone rang.
Richard said that he and his manager were listening back to the instrumental and choir tracks.
He'd asked Roger to let him hear what Darlene and I had done.
He said that music could be heard just fine on the track, but there were no lead vocals.
He said he told him to turn up the volume, and waited as Roger was pushing buttons, turning and shifting knobs on the board, but our tracks had mysteriously vanished.
We would have to go back and re-record.
I was actually happy to get a do-over.
If I'm, not mistaken, we went back the following day.
Darlene's
kids were at the studio this time.
Richard had ordered food for everyone, and we could see him through the glass of the booth.
It was like a scene from “Daddy Daycare”
He was dividing up french fries, opening ketchup
packets, and directing us at the same time.
It looked like he had 8
arms.
There was the great maestro— searching bags, unwrapping straws, wiping spills, and making sure the kids were sitting close enough to the table.
The sight was hilarious, but he was multitasking very well.
He had his hands full, but he heard every little thing we did.
We thought we were done, when he suddenly looked up from pouring juice, and said, "Hey! You know what?”
Darlene and I shook our heads. “Oh, Lord! He’s thinking!”
We’d seen that face before, and it was always accompanied by, “It’s easy”, or “It’s not that high!”
“I want you all to sing this: "Oh, oh whaaaat a niiiii--i--ight, okay?"
He taught us the parts, then said, "Darlene, you take the top".
We laughed about that, as if there was any question about which of the two of us would be tackling the high notes.
When we were done, we joined Richard, Roger and the kids.
Just as we were about to listen, Darlene's daughter Cyera said, "Uncle Richard, I know a song!"
He said, "You do baby? Are you gonna sing it?"
We all expected her to sing her version of "Oh, What a Night", or another Smallwood song.
A serious look came over her little face.
She closed her eyes, bobbed her head, began tapping one foot really hard on the floor, to give herself a beat, and commenced singing ALL of the lyrics to Kirk Franklin's "Stomp".
We laughed and clapped for little Cyera, and then listened to the tracks to see if there was anything we needed to fix.
Once again, Richard said he was pleased.
This time, our vocals didn't disappear. Take a listen...: )
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