Now Come Over And Give Santa Some Sugar

OK, so admittedly this is late for Christmas, but my cousin and I finally finished recording a version of Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa". We had started recording -- in fact, finished the entire instrumental track -- well before Christmas, but then there were the vocals. Nothing I was doing was leaving either my cousin or I very happy. I can do vaguely loungey, but I can't even begin to pretend I have soul. Nor, at the same time, could I seem to muster up the sort of passionless recitation that I thought that the song really needed.

I love the original, but it is pretty singular, and that riff was great enough to be sampled by Run DMC for "Christmas in Hollis". Originally we were going to do it very synth pop -- the template I was keeping in mind was the minimalism of early Soft Cell. But while we were recording it, I was bothered by the fact that my cousin was just playing a simplified version of the original's bassline, which didn't really bring anything new. So, on a lark, I was like, let's play the bassline from Peter Gunn. It kind of sort of worked. Who knew?

So there we were with a mildly disturbing instrumental track tonight, confronted with my glaring vocal deficiencies. Again, on a lark, I suggested maybe we could find a website online to do the vocals. It could not have turned out better. Keeping in mind that I have no audible remnant on the track, what with all my vocals thankfully gone, and being completely unable to play any instrument, I pretty much am responsible for how it turned out. My cousin says that's why he likes working with me: I come up with crazy ideas because I don't know better.

Schlimme-Burgfeld: "Back Door Santa"

I like it, I like it. I like it a lot. I really like it. Back Door Santa.