Biography

The Christmas I Remember Lorrie Morgan

Since 2003 I have been producing contemporary master recordings of songs from the St. Nicholas Music catalog. The company was founded by the late, great Johnny Marks who composed "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and several other Christmas classics. I had the pleasure of recording several songs with Lorrie Morgan. "The Christmas I Remember", written by Al Kasha and Joe Brooks (two iconic songwriters of the twentith century) is one of my favorite new Christmas songs and Lorrie's performance is sensational. I truly believe this song deserves to become a modern Christmas standard. It was an honor to produce the first commercial recording.

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree Lorrie Morgan

Michael Marks of St. Nicholas Music asked me to produce this classic Johnny Marks song as close to the original recording by Brenda Lee as possible. That was the inpiration I needed to reach out to Lorrie Morgan who I was convinced was the right artist for the song. This playful performance by Lorrie resonates perfectly on the track. Bob Howell's sensational saxophone solo was done in one take. This production was great fun!

Silver And Gold Lorrie Morgan

"Silver And Gold" is another Johnny Marks classic and perfect fit for Lorrie's warm, sincere vocal performance. I am very proud of the recording. The musicians and arrangement bring a fresh contemporary country flavor to the song. The rhythm sessions for Lorrie's tracks were recorded at Giant Steps Recording in Sickerville, New Jersey and the vocal performances were recorded at Out Lanidis Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

Christmas Mem'ries Helen Reddy

In 2000 I had the pleasure of producing the only full Christmas album of Helen's wonderful career. Helen is one of the greatest artists I've had the pleasure to work with. I am extremely proud of this recording. "Christmas Mem'ries", written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman and Don Costa, is an under exposed Christmas song that deserves to be heard a lot more often. I am hopeful that this recording will help introduce the wonderful song to a whole new generation.

The Christmas Of Your Life Helen Reddy

When we were selecting songs for "The Best Christmas Ever" album I collected a variety of songs from Warner Chappell Music in New York for Helen to choose from in addition to other classic Christmas songs from various publishers. I co-wrote "The Christmas Of Your Life" with Ray Dahrouge. My portion of the publishing rights was administered by Warner Chappell so it was included in their Chistmas songs sampler. Helen wasn't aware that I was one of the writers when she called me and said "Billy, we have to record this song". Her performance is magnificant. The jazz aproach I took for the production has attracted a lot of attention for the last several years from radio stations around the country including satellite and college stations. It's also the holiday theme song for The Music Of Your Life radio network.

Merry Christmas Baby Maria Muldaur

While recording some tracks with Maria for St. Nicholas Music in 2003, I asked her if she would stick around and record "Merry Christmas Baby" for my company. What you hear is basically a "live" recording. Maria's performance is the first take with the band which was intended to be just a reference vocal while laying down the music track. But it was so strong I and spontaneous I said "That's it, if it isn't broke let's not fix it". The only thing I added to the recording was Bob Howell's saxophone which he also blew out in one take. The recording just had the magic from the very start. The mix only took less than an hour due to every component fitting like a glove. A very rare accomplishment these days.

A Holly Jolly Christmas Bobby Rydell

Bobby Rydell was one of my earliest idols when I first had aspirations of being in the music business. I've always felt that pound for pound Bobby is the most all around talented performer ever to hail from Philadelphia. The best ironic part of the story of this recording is that I signed my first management contract at 18 years old on July 16, 1963 after auditioning singing "A Lot Of Livin' To Do" by Bobby Rydell from the film "Bye, Bye Birdie". The first session I did with Bobby recording "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and a few other songs from the St. Nicholas catalog took place at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia on July 16th, 2003. Forty years to the day of my offical entrance into the music business. I love Bobby Rydell.

This Christmas I Want To Be Close To You David Clayton Thomas

I had written a song for David and recorded him back in 1984 for Street King Records in New York and we remained friends ever since. When I reviewed this song in the St. Nicholas catalog I suggested to Michael Marks that we ask David Clayton to perform it. I felt the song fit his style perfectly. I was right! His performance is wonderful. The song was writtnen by my good friend, and two time Oscar winning composer, Al Kasha and Paul Murray. The musicians on the session were really inspired by the little harder edge in the direction of the production. Ron Kerber came in after the fact to play saxophone and did a magnificant job. The only thing Christmas about this recording is the lyric. It jams!