PLAYS POP BALLADS

Except for the first song, these were the first songs I attempted to record. I was learning as I was going along and I wish I could redo them to make them sound better now that my recording abilities have improved. The first song however, I did a few years later and it turned out quite a bit better. I think you will hear the improvement in the recording quality. Not that the others are "bad."

Always On Your Side by Sheryl Crow is a nice ballad. I made this arrangement to sound exactly like her original solo recording, not the duet version with Sting. Three Times a Lady by Lionel Ritchie when he was with The Commodores. He said he wrote this for his wife, mother and grandmother, thus the "three times a lady" reference. The Carpenters huge hit, We've Only Just Begun. I play this on the flugelhorn. Very tricky fingerings in the chorus. That little ad lib ditty at the very end I just made that up on the spot as I was recording. By the way, I also improvised a shorter little ditty at the end of Three times a Lady. You just never know what you might capture while recording. You Are So Beautiful by Joe Cocker, I play this on a flugelhorn and also a trumpet. It features some soaring high work on the trumpet. Billy Joel's She's Got A Way is just me "naked and alone" on the trumpet with nothing but a piano accompaniment for support. I deviated from Joel's version however, but substituting an electric piano for the acoustic piano. This song had some really tricky fingerings, especially in the chorus. All By Myself by Eric Carmen begins gently but ends up as a powerhouse of a song, as does Whitney's Houston's version of the song by Dolly Parton, I will Always Love You.

There are quite a few other ballads I have on my "to do" list, perhaps there will be part 2 of these syrupy, sappy love tunes.