"This Kiss"

I was in LA shooting the cover for the Sand & Water CD, getting dressed in a hotel near Malibu beach (get name). My good friend Annie Roboff was hanging out with me while I was changing and throwing on some make-up for the photo shoot, which was on the beach.

Annie was sitting on the bed with a plastic Yamaha keyboard on her knees, one that I'd bought for my son but somehow it had migrated with me to my photo shoot in LA.

Over and over Annie was playing this little section of a tune that she and Robin Lerner were working on. It was totally infectious and I said, "wow...that sure sounds like a hit! You'd better stop playing it or I'm not going to be able to control myself from trying to write it with you guys!" I didn't want to horn in on a song that they were working on.

They already had this great chorus:

It's the way you love me
It's a feeling like this
It's centrifugal motion
It's perpetual bliss
It's that pivotal moment
It's ...ah...{your critical kiss}

I wasn't sure about the "critical kiss" part...but the rest was totally happening...and the verse melody I think was pretty shaped out...but mostly with those words on the way to words-which in my experience often already have the vowels in place.

I remember calling back to Annie from the bathroom where I was putting on mascara.... warning her a few more times if she didn't stop playing it I was going to have to steal it! And then at one point when she played that great channel one more time I screamed out "This Kiss This Kiss!!" when it came to the end, nearly ripping my eyelashes out of the eyelash curler!

Annie called Robin right then and the next day Annie and Robin and I went to the beach in Malibu with that plastic portable Yamaha keyboard and watched cute boys walk by on the beach and had the best time writing it.

Just in case it is ever assumed that these things are easy and streamlined to write, here's how messy and chaotic my rough draft lyric sheet looked:

Now most writers would have been happy with just the catchiness of the verses and chorus...but in the 11th hour Annie whipped up a whole new cool progression in the classic "Roboff" bridge which drops you off in an altered state but refreshed and ready to plow back into the chorus. That's why she has so many plaques on her wall for #1 songs!

We pretty much finished most of the rest of the song in that one afternoon with the exception of one or two additional tweeks. Robin is a great songwriter too and fast...so it was lickety split once we got into the flow of it. I do remember Annie and Robin pausing when I started putting Cinderella and Snow White in the second verse. The fear was that it was going to start to get too cute....which is completely understandable. But the way the line came out it made Cinderella and Snow White sound kind of hip so it ended up working.

The rifle-fire "you-can-kiss-me-in-the-moonlight" pretty much flew out and I remember it just bouncing around between Robin and I like the words were tennis balls...

I wish we'd had a film of us working on that song. A widow, a career woman, and a divorcee....turning our heads while the boys walked by and writing this great tune about what it feels like to be kissed right! I felt very lucky to be a part of it...knowing that the two of them could have finished it without me.....so thanks girls!

The first time we did a demo on it we cut it really pop. And I tried singing it but I just couldn't get the phrasing as cool as the way Annie sang it. But her voice alone didn't quite cut it either. So we decided to both sing it in unison. It's hysterical. Truly like a couple of loser chicks trying to get the song across!

Eventually we got an R&B singer to do it since we thought it was perfect for Patti LaBelle or someone like that. All I knew was it was a hit!

My son was in high school at the time. I would drive him to school blasting that demo while he groaned because he was listening mostly to Kurt Kobain and heavy metal at that time and he was beside himself when he'd even hear the first chord of the dreaded demo.... getting "This Kiss" stuck in his head. I remember when he was threatening to throw the tape out the window I said, "Hey! This song is going to put you through college!"

And eventually it did!

Almost a year and a half after it was written "This Kiss" still hadn't been cut! Robin and Annie started talking about moving it more to guitar in the way it was produced. Annie then went into the studio and did another demo asking the musicians to get into the headspace of "Everyday I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello. That did it! We did another version with me singing and Annie and I arranged the background vocals (which is always my favorite part). Still it lacked something. We then got this up and coming demo singer soon to be star- Jamie O'Neil- to sing the lead vocal. The whole song popped after that. Within hours Faith Hill had put a hold on it thanks to Robin's publisher Whitney Dane who took it right over to Missy Gallimore, who was looking for songs for Faith.

I was really delighted when Byron Gallimore, the producer, asked me to come and put the same background vocals on the master because it really worked with the song.

The rest they say is history...

"This Kiss" was nominated and won for "Song of the Year" ASCAP in 1999.

It was also nominated for a Grammy that same year.

But truly I'd have to say my favorite "This Kiss" memory was several years later when I was on tour in the UK and I was opening for James Taylor in Knutsford, England. We had a few hours to kill after sound check so Annie and I went for a stroll. We ended up wandering into a pub where there was a gathering of about 20 very drunk people doing karaoke. Unable to stop ourselves we ordered a couple of beers and asked to view the huge book of songs. There is was. So we meekly raised our hands and got up to sing along with the track, laughing hysterically when my own voice came blaring out of the speakers on the background vocals on the track while I sang the "Faith" part to the room full of stunned faces. The crowd gave us a standing ovation. We had to get back to the venue so we said thanks and started to leave. It was difficult to get out the door as there were several that came up and insisted that we consider doing this professionally. "What a blend!" one woman exclaimed.

Ah. Showbiz!

I don't want another heartbreak
I don't need another turn to cry, no
I don't want to learn the hard way
Baby hello, oh no, goodbye
But you got me like a rocket
Shooting straight across the sky

It's the way you love me
It's a feeling like this
It's centrifugal motion
It's perpetual bliss
It's that pivotal moment
It's, ah, impossible
This kiss, this kiss
Unstoppable
This kiss, this kiss

Cinderella said to Snow White
"How does love get so off course
All I wanted was a white knight
With a good heart, soft touch, fast horse
Ride me off into the sunset
Baby I'm forever yours"

It's the way you love me
It's a feeling like this
It's centrifugal motion
It's perpetual bliss
It's that pivotal moment
It's, ah unthinkable
This kiss, this kiss
Unsinkable
This kiss, this kiss

You can kiss me in the moonlight
On the rooftop under the sky, oh
You can kiss me with the windows open
While the rain comes pouring inside, oh
Kiss me in sweet slow motion
Let's let everything slide
You got me floating
You got me flying

It's the way you love me
It's a feeling like this
It's centrifugal motion
It's perpetual bliss
It's that pivotal moment
It's (ah) subliminal
This kiss, this kiss
It's criminal
This kiss, this kiss

It's the way you love me baby
It's the way you love me, darlin'

It' s the way you love me
It's a feeling like this
It's centrifugal motion
It's perpetual bliss
It's that pivotal moment
It's (ah) subliminal
This kiss, this kiss
It's criminal
This kiss, this kiss

It's the way you love me baby
It's the way you love me darlin

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