DONNY HATHAWAY'S 'This Christmas' came together in Chicago before the talented soul musician's life came to a sad and premature ending
Remembering 'This': Hathaway's Classic Carol
BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Sun-Times Columnist
Chicago native Donny Hathaway co-wrote and recorded "This Christmas," the greatest holiday song composed by an African American. The traditional Christmas songbook is known for the likes of Irving Berlin, Gene Autry, Burl Ives and Mel Torme. Catch my snowdrift?
Released in 1970, "This Christmas" was a significant departure. The song endures through Hathaway's sweeping tempo changes, sweet vocal range ... and warm promise
The lyrics declare:
Presents and cards are here / My world is filled with cheer and you, ohh yeah / This Christmas / And as I look around / Your eyes outshine the town, they do ...
The song is a made-in-Chicago classic. It was written at Jerry Butler's songwriters workshop, 1402 S. Michigan. Nadine McKinnor put the lyrics to Hathaway's melody.
Butler's initial response? "Nobody wants a new Christmas song and nobody wants a new 'Happy Birthday' song," he said with a hearty laugh. "Well, 'This Christmas' has become one of the biggest songs ever."
Last year, the musicians' rights group ASCAP revealed its 25 most-performed holiday songs of the five years prior, based on radio airplay data tracked by Mediaguide. "This Christmas" re-entered the list at No. 25. ("Winter Wonderland" was No. 1.)
"This Christmas" was recorded in the autumn of 1970 at Audio Finishers Studio, a brownstone on Ontario Street that was an offshoot of Universal Recording Studios, 46 E. Walton. The song was released later that year as a single for ATCO Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic.
Hathaway had signed with Atlantic in 1969 and broke through in 1970 with the epic hit single "The Ghetto, Part 1" on ATCO. In 1972, Hathaway recorded an album of duets with Roberta Flack, whom he met while studying music at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Their million-selling pop crossover hit was "Where Is the Love," co-written by Ralph MacDonald, currently a percussionist with Jimmy Buffett.
By January 1979, Hathaway was dead. He was 33 years old. His body was found outside the Essex House hotel in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide.
Oft-covered tune
Hathaway's solo work was intense, experimental and sophisticated. His final release in 1973, "Extension of a Man," included "Someday We'll All Be Free," which Spike Lee used as the closing theme of his film "Malcolm X."
But Hathaway's "This Christmas" has grown in epic proportions.
It has been covered by Christina Aguilera, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael McDonald, who titled his new Razor & Tie holiday album after the song. "That's one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs," the former Doobie Brother said from his home in Nashville, Tenn. "It has such a contemporary R&B jazz groove. We typically associate Christmas songs with church music or very languid melodies."
Read the Full Article @ The Chicago Sun-Times
Remembering 'This': Hathaway's Classic Carol
BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Sun-Times Columnist
Chicago native Donny Hathaway co-wrote and recorded "This Christmas," the greatest holiday song composed by an African American. The traditional Christmas songbook is known for the likes of Irving Berlin, Gene Autry, Burl Ives and Mel Torme. Catch my snowdrift?
Released in 1970, "This Christmas" was a significant departure. The song endures through Hathaway's sweeping tempo changes, sweet vocal range ... and warm promise
The lyrics declare:
Presents and cards are here / My world is filled with cheer and you, ohh yeah / This Christmas / And as I look around / Your eyes outshine the town, they do ...
The song is a made-in-Chicago classic. It was written at Jerry Butler's songwriters workshop, 1402 S. Michigan. Nadine McKinnor put the lyrics to Hathaway's melody.
Butler's initial response? "Nobody wants a new Christmas song and nobody wants a new 'Happy Birthday' song," he said with a hearty laugh. "Well, 'This Christmas' has become one of the biggest songs ever."
Last year, the musicians' rights group ASCAP revealed its 25 most-performed holiday songs of the five years prior, based on radio airplay data tracked by Mediaguide. "This Christmas" re-entered the list at No. 25. ("Winter Wonderland" was No. 1.)
"This Christmas" was recorded in the autumn of 1970 at Audio Finishers Studio, a brownstone on Ontario Street that was an offshoot of Universal Recording Studios, 46 E. Walton. The song was released later that year as a single for ATCO Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic.
Hathaway had signed with Atlantic in 1969 and broke through in 1970 with the epic hit single "The Ghetto, Part 1" on ATCO. In 1972, Hathaway recorded an album of duets with Roberta Flack, whom he met while studying music at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Their million-selling pop crossover hit was "Where Is the Love," co-written by Ralph MacDonald, currently a percussionist with Jimmy Buffett.
By January 1979, Hathaway was dead. He was 33 years old. His body was found outside the Essex House hotel in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide.
Oft-covered tune
Hathaway's solo work was intense, experimental and sophisticated. His final release in 1973, "Extension of a Man," included "Someday We'll All Be Free," which Spike Lee used as the closing theme of his film "Malcolm X."
But Hathaway's "This Christmas" has grown in epic proportions.
It has been covered by Christina Aguilera, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael McDonald, who titled his new Razor & Tie holiday album after the song. "That's one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs," the former Doobie Brother said from his home in Nashville, Tenn. "It has such a contemporary R&B jazz groove. We typically associate Christmas songs with church music or very languid melodies."
Read the Full Article @ The Chicago Sun-Times
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