Susie Drage
Music, Art & Cookery
I'll Be Home for Christmas
I'll Be Home for Christmas was orchestrated and arranged by David Gilson and the vocal was recorded by Susie Drage and the production was mixed and mastered on Logic Pro X by Tom Doughty of NeverEnding Media on 20th December 2022.
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Information regarding the music track by David - The arrangement was created in Logic ProX with my Dexibell keyboard used as a MIDI controller to play in the tracks.
I first played in the whole song on piano to give me something to orchestrate against. I then played each instrument track separately before removing the original piano track and mixing the end result. Finally I edited in the changes in tempo and pause sections. I always find this is best done at the end so that all the instrument tracks are slowed down or paused together rather than being slightly offset if I try and play them all with varied tempos.
There are 13 separate tracks using a mixture of the free Apple sounds and sounds from the East West Symphonic Orchestra software. You will notice that I used two separate ensemble string voices to give some variation to the overall sound palette.
ORCHESTRATION
East West Symphonic Orchestra Software
Solo Viola
60 Strings Lyrical
70 Strings Expressive
Trombones
Cymbal
Timpani
Free Apple Software
Electric Piano
Yamaha Grand Piano
Harp
Flute
Oboe
Glockenspiel
Fretless Bass
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This is based on the Josh Groban version, which can be seen on the YouTube link below.
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams”. The flip side of the original recording (Decca 18570B) was "Danny Boy."
The song touched the hearts of Americans, soldiers and civilians alike, in the midst of World War II, and it earned Crosby his fifth gold record. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O. shows. The GI magazine Yank said Crosby "accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era".
1945 V-Disc release by the U.S. Army of "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Bing Crosby as No. 441B
Despite the song's popularity with Americans at the front and at home, in the UK the BBC banned the song from broadcast, as the Corporation's management felt the lyrics might lower morale among British troops.
Seventy-seven years after its original release, Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (at number 50 on the chart dated January 2, 2021).
In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, while on Gemini 7, requested "I'll Be Home for Christmas" be played for them by the NASA ground crew.