Public Domain Christmas Songs

Has anyone ever recorded a Christmas CD? I would like to do this but I am confused on which songs I can record without legal issues or paying for the rights, etc. I also want to do my own arrangement of some or all of them. Is this legal?

legal?

One safe route is to go to the library and get a 100 year old collection of Christmas music. You can do whatever you want with those. The contemporary Christmas music, all that good stuff written by Jewish composers, is like any other license.

It is interesting, though, that a trad. tune can still have a copywritten arrangement. Depending on the source, you might have to do your own arrangement.

You're running a little late for a holiday CD. Shooting for 2004?

*sigh* But if not, you'll be sure to tell him.... over and over and over...

Cluskey wrote :-

<snipped>

I have purchased a Bachelors CD, with only the 2 brothers on it, called 'The Best of The Bachelors' which contains re-recordings of the 'mega-hits' and include 3 trad arranged Cluskey/Cluskey and 3 songs where the credits are:

Stay (Cluskey) Key To My heart (Cluskey/Cluskey) I Need Love (Cluskey/Herron).

Let it now be said quite clearly : Compared to the 'vanity recordings' that RMMSers post you don't even make average. Not for production. Not for songwriting.

If anybody doesn't believe me the CD is available at Amazon for peanuts. Buy it and see for yourself - any CD which only has the 2 brothers on the cover.

As for your comment about 'mega-hits' in the past couple of weeks I have seen both a list of the top 100 albums and top 100 singles (UK) and not one mention did you get. Let me repeat that : The Bachelors did not get one mention.

Are you really so broke that you have to come round RMMS to get your ass kicked everytime you post?

Kiss my Rmms. Richard

Songwriting, recording and creative & links http://www.angelfire.com/music2/richhoncho/index.htm

A selection of RMMS at

I must say I have heard 'stay' and 'key' and I think the production was OK in a Queen Motherish way. So I think that's a bit unfair of you. The songs have more than 29 words and they don't seem to have a melodic hook I can hear. However I am not here to critique the writings of Clusky I merely wish to point out that it is my understanding that DEC is an Associate member of a British PRO, Furthermore I understand that to be a full member of this PRO one needs to have PR in excess of UK 3,000 PA . If all this is true this means the Clusky Christmas album at 80 cents a unit sold less than 7,500 copies. So what say you in regards to these musings Honcho

Cheers

A good blacksmith does have some useful expertise for building custom engine part and body construction

Speaking as somebody who has also 'charted' a bit, I find the quality of Dec's advice to be first rate and that's really all that's relevant. The nuts and bolts of the music business has changed remarkably little since it was rebuilt from the ground up during the late '40s and early '50s.

We're at a point once again where everything needs to be rebuilt. Advice from the folks who created the current industry is a lot more valuable than advice from younger people who know how to go through the motions but haven't a clue as to WHY things need or don't really need to be done in certain ways. I was very lucky to learn directly from people of Dec's generation and am happy to see him aggressively making himself available when he could just as easily be lying on a beach

I agree. And yes, the B's were making top of the chart hits - and my late Mum used to like them and bought their records. (She also was a great opera fan, so she had good taste.)

I should think, if any are still around who remember the B's, that the resell/repackaging would do well, but, they had the hits with songs that someone else had written!

Dolores (who has a grandson named Declan - a good old Irish name) who was born early, weighed in at just under 2 pounds and is now a beautiful 3yr old

[snip]

Agreed... but does he have to keep taking the jacket off and flogging other people over the head with it?

To paraphrase Shakespeare:

'The man doth promote too much, methinks.'

[snip]

I guess it's just the 'aggressive' bit that gets to me, Bob.

Maybe it doesn't strike everyone that way, but when someone repeatedly trumpets their own accomplishments, I get wary. Competence rarely requires promotion, in my experience, but promotion is often used to cover up incompetence. So a competent person who over-promotes is doing damage to my estimate of their competence from the get-go.

I've read in various places that you've done excellent work and that you are someone to respect and admire, but I never see you starting a post with 'You probably know me from my multiple chart-hitting productions...' If you did, I'd wonder about you, too. So, maybe that selling style works with some people, but it certainly doesn't with me... or with many musicians I

Gary enquired :-

I said that it was about average for a RMMS poster, I don't think that was unfair.

The songs have more than 29 words and

Actually the figure to be an Associate Member of PRS is between 1p and £3,000 every THREE years. He joined in 1968 - there is no guarantee that he is entitled to remain a member. Obviously he has never been in a position be upgrade his membership.

Richard

Songwriting, recording and creative & links http://www.angelfire.com/music2/richhoncho/index.htm

A selection of RMMS at