Ann Hampton Callaway's The Hope of Christmas arrives in stores today. We spoke to the multi-talented composer about working with lyricist William Schermerhorn, getting into the holiday mood at odd times of the year, and how she might bring one of the most beloved TV shows of all time to the Great White Way.
Why a Christmas album now?
I was invited by lyricist William Schermerhorn who had been writing holiday songs throughout the years. We have a longstanding friendship artistically and personally, so when he told me what he wanted to do and that he wanted me to be the only vocalist I was intrigued by the idea of doing a Christmas album with new songs, because there are so many Christmas albums with the same songs over and over again, and this one had something special about it because there were so many fresh ideas. I also happen to be a very sentimental person when it comes to the holidays, so it was a wonderful adventure.
Was making the song selection easy?
We did have to leave out a bunch of songs, but having an excess of good material is always a nice choice. I got together with Bill and our wonderful producer Marty Ashby and we basically sang through everything in a meeting and recorded the sing throughs, we then listened as a team, and part of the process was picking songs we could do in a fresh way, I also chose songs I connected to, and because it’s a jazz album certain songs lent themselves to jazz arrangements. It was a very thoughtful process, I love working with Marty Ashby because he is a very patient artist who takes his time to make things come alive.
Most Christmas music tends to be quite melancholic but the album has many bossa nova arrangements which make for “happier” songs.
I agree, there’s fun songs, there’s humor and I happen to be madly in love with Brazilian music, so I knew I wanted my song “Fly with the Angels” to be bossa nova, and it was Marty’s idea to turn “What Good is Being Cranky (When it’s Christmas Time)” into bossa nova, which is one of my favorite cuts on the album.
What are some of your favorite musical memories of Christmas?
I grew up in a very musical family, my mother continues to be a pianist and a voice teacher, my sister was shy but has an amazing voice, my dad was a journalist but had a great love of jazz and he loved to sing, so we had traditions, we would sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” around the piano, we always sing the “Hallelujah” chorus which is very demanding. There was a lot of carolling in the house, my mother would read us The Night Before Christmas and we had a hilarious tradition about what we’d do during that reading. I still leave out cookies and eggnog for Santa Claus, in the morning it’s not Christmas officially until we play the first cut of Robert Shaw’s Christmas album, The Many Moods of Christmas, we put that on and call my mom, or my sister. These traditions are a beautiful thing to have.
It must also be exciting to think some day your Christmas music will be part of someone’s traditions.
I recorded another Christmas album which was produced by Barbra Streisand’s producer and I had decorated the studio with all kinds of Christmas things, lights, air freshener and I had the copy of The Night Before Christmas that my mother read in the room. I’ve been a guest artist on many holiday concerts and albums and I was very flattered when Stephen Holden in The New York Times dubbed me “the voice of Christmas”.
I read in the album notes that you recorded this album in February, time by which many people are fed up with Christmas, because stores try to extend the holidays for months nowadays. Was it easy for you to get in the Christmas mood?
Yes, I really believe in the title of our album, the message that we wanted the album to have is the idea of the emotional beauty of Christmas, a time when people really do think about peace, and the importance of love and compassion for others, extending good will wherever you go. These are such great things we shouldn’t only save for Christmas time, so that spirit and the message we wanted to share with people, was the underlying inspiration for the album, and that’s something that matters to me immensely. I spend a lot of time thinking about peace and brotherhood, and every time music can inspire me to find that is a great time. It was February but I was ready to roll. Usually Christmas albums are recorded in the heat of summer, so at least we had snow, when I recorded my first Christmas album I was in LA and its was 107 degrees outside.
You wrote the lyrics for “The Hope of Christmas” and “Fly with the Angels” both of which have beautiful messages about looking into the future with optimism. How do you sit down to write Christmas songs hoping they won’t be corny?
This isn’t an album of as many Christmas clichés as people expect during Christmas time. When I write music I think about the words and how would a person speak them, and when I was writing the music for “The Hope of Christmas” I sat at my piano, read the lyrics a few times and turned on my iPhone voice memo and sang what I felt. When I have the words in front of me the music comes very natural, so it didn’t take too long for that melody to unfold. What’s really interesting about “Fly with the Angels” is I was preparing to do an in-store presentation for my Sarah Vaughn album, and I sat in the music room at this Barnes and Noble waiting for the audience to come, Bill had just given me this lyric, and we both thought it would be great to have a Christmas song that celebrated how it feels to be loved during Christmas time, and what a romantic holiday it can be, so I sat down, put on my voice memo and most of the melody you hear is the first take I did. I sent it to Bill and he loved it, and then I thought this would make a beautiful bossa nova. It’s very exciting to write with other people, I usually write alone, and Bill is such a pleasure to work with.
Michael Feinstein contributed in a song too…
I love his work, he also wrote liner notes. A lot of people don’t know what a talented songwriter he is because he doesn’t play his own songs much, but a few years ago we had a week at his home in LA and spent time around the piano just writing. There’s no end to his talent.
Speaking of Michael Feinstein, you’re going to be performing at 54 Below in November, will they be Christmas concerts or what have you prepared?
My November show is called “Feminine Persuasion”, it’s a tribute to female songwriters, the fact that I’m a female songwriter means I’ll do a few of my own songs and one or two from the new CD. Because we’re launching the Christmas season, they’ll be great songs by women which aren’t Christmas songs, but I’ll add a few treats at the end. I think it’ll help people get in the spirit!
I spoke to your sister earlier this year and asked her to give you the message that The Nanny was coming out on DVD…
She did give me that message, and it was such great news! I love that show and love being a part of it. So yeah, you were the one who told me about that and it was very exciting, thank you.
You’re welcome! Liz mentioned that it was still surreal for her to listen to the song all over the world. What has been the most surreal experience for you with the title song?
My most surreal experience was when I was singing in berlin for the first time at the beautiful Philharmonie which is where one of my favorite albums of all time was recorded, Live in Berlin with Ella Fitzgerald, so I’m very excited and nervous to sing for the Berlin audience and I asked one of the lighting people if they knew The Nanny, and he said the show was a huge hit in Berlin, so I decided to put the song in the show and that night I have a packed house, I sing the song, and at one point where I sing “the nanny…”, I ask the audience to sing with me, and the entire audience sang along with their German accents. At the end of the night they were so thrilled that the singer of The Nanny had sung for them, I had literally hundreds of people hounding me for my autograph. I love when kids and famous people even come to me and sing the song, it’s really delightful, I had no idea it would become such a huge hit.
I feel like that was the last great TV theme song, we haven’t had anything like that in ages!
It’s a shame that they don’t have more themes, I love that tradition. What was great was when Fran Drescher said (does a Fran Drescher impression) “I want this song to tell people how I got the job of the nanny”, I’m good friends with Fran, I love her so much, she’s a great lady and now we’re actually talking about turning The Nanny into a musical and I’ll be writing the music of we get a good book writer on board, that’s the next big project ahead.
Which would be great because you haven’t done anything on Broadway in quite some time now.
I’ve submitted songs based on an old script, but we decided that we need a really fabulous book writer, so right now we’re looking for a storyline that will be exciting, and really grab audiences. It’s very challenging to find a storyline for a Broadway show for it to be a hit. But I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, I’m so excited about this project because everybody in the world knows The Nanny and it would be great to find something whimsical. The only problem with this show is that none of the cast of The Nanny is going to be in it, so how do we cast it? How do we make it fresh? I have confidence that we will find a way and that it will bring a lot of delight to people once we get it going. Wish me luck!
Absolutely! You just gave the ten year old in me his Christmas present!
(Laughs) Good, that makes me very happy!
The Hope of Christmas is now available in stores.
