| Someday, I wrote after watching the news one day. It sat around for a few months because I didn't know who I was going to get to sing it. Curtis McClain was usually my 1st choice for songs, but we were constantly at each other's throats while touring for Move Your Body, and I didn't want to do him any favors.
A promoter named Billy Prest had taken really good care of us while touring the East Coast and asked me if could write a song for his singer, Ce Ce Rogers. He gave me a cassette of Ce Ce singing and I gave it a quick listen and told him I'd do it. I just "happened" to have Someday lying around and gave it to Billy. Made me look like a genius coming up with a song so fast instead of the screwup I actually was.
Billy immediately flew Ce Ce to Chicago to sing the leads. I had the music all recorded when he got into the studio. Billy had specifically instructed Ce Ce to not play keyboards around me, because he didn't want me to get intimidated. Ce Ce was a Berkley grad and an awesome keyboard player. Ce Ce is also a born showoff and absolutely the most competitive person I've ever met in my life, and of course within the 1st minute of him getting in the studio he found a grand piano and was playing so great he could have intimidated Rachmaninov.
Didn't phase me a bit and I told him when he was done to get in the vocal booth and sing.
I recorded Ce Ce's warm up and told him to go back to his hotel. It was absolutely phenomenal. Ce Ce panicked and asked to re sing it. I said no at 1st, then finally gave in, but my mind was made up. I told Steve Frisk, the engineer to record him while I went to Macdonalds. When I came back, Ce Ce seemed a bit more satisfied with the second vocal. I took it home and listened to it, but the second vocal seemed a bit contrived compared to the 1st.
My next trip to the east coast, I let Merlin Bobb at Atlantic hear it and he signed it immediately. He also played it on the radio the night he got it.
Ce Ce panicked again and asked Billy and Atlantic to send him to Chicago to sing it one more time. Ce Ce flew to Chicago and re sang it, but this time I had Merlin backing me up that the original vocal sounded better and that's what went on the record.
Ce Ce Rogers is absolutely, positively the greatest live performer I've ever seen in my life, period. No artist should ever follow his performance, I've seen singers totally destroyed after watching him sing. I've seen him sing to an audience of 3 and had them all standing with their hands in the air and screaming at the top of their lungs.
Anyway, he greatly helped record sales and what went down on record was a performance in the studio, not a production. It was an honor just to be a part of that session and watching him let loose like he did. |