Recording with Toppe Secret and discovering the deeper meaning of "Happiness".

Yesterday, I spent about 5 hours at Hyde Street doing the way-too-easy job of "working" with Toppe Secret. The song was Happiness.

I would warble, she would sing, and so it went throughout the afternoon, as engineer Jaime Durr twisted knobs and captured, as only he can, Toppe's luminous lead vocal and harmony tracks.

As you can see from the photo, Toppe is sporting a baby bump. She's due in just a few months, a fact that inspired me to babble on about how her baby-to-be was the perfect thing to think about as she sang the lyric. For this was the central idea of the song, which I wrote right after getting married. It's about a person who who opens the door one day to find that happiness has come by — and not wanting happiness to ever leave again. Toppe and Jaime patiently listened to me philosophize and then Jaime added how we were each experiencing the song's subject matter in our own way: he and his wife just had a baby, Toppe was pregnant and I was still in my first year of marriage!

I can't wait to finally mix and share this song with my fans (you know, all ten of them!).

HAPPINESS

Happiness
Won't you come on in?
It's been awhile and you're looking kind of thin

Happiness
Can I get you anything?
Just tell me what you want because in my house you are king

And I have no pride
I will beg, I will borrow, I will cheat, steal and lie
I will not be denied
So happiness, won't you please come inside?

Happiness
I remember you so well
Why were you gone so long, what stories can you tell?

Happiness
I know you're staying for awhile
But where are your things? You've come so many miles

And I have no pride
I will beg, I will borrow, I will cheat, steal and lie
I will not be denied
So happiness, there's nothing to decide,
No excuses to try
So won't you please come inside?

And don't make me guess
Don't make me pass some kind of test
You know just what I want
All you need to say is, "Yes."

Happiness
Don't break my heart
We belong right here
Can't you see
Can't you see
Can't you see we should never be apart?