The Making Of Hug Inside An Envelope

Back on July 27, 2020, in the middle of our Covid summer, I released my first single in 7 years, 'Hug Inside An Envelope.' Yes, it has been seven years since my last official release. To let you know what was going on during those seven years could probably fill four self-help books. So let's just say that I have been "busy." To be completely honest, I had no plans to release anything at all. That is until I was approached by a lyric writing friend of mine in London, England. Her name is Rosalind Winton, and we met via the Internet a few years ago. She told me some time ago that she would like to work with me one day. Well, this past spring, she contacted me to inform me that she believes she finally had a project on which we could collaborate. I will not say anything else about it, for I want Rosalind to tell you how all this came about in her own words. So Ladies and Gentlemen, Mrs. Rosalind Winton.

THE MAKING OF 'HUG INSIDE AN ENVELOPE'

One morning in 2018, David, my husband told me that he had been listening to an interview with a lady who had written a letter of support to a friend who was in a bad place. The friend spread the word and the lady ended up sending hundreds of handwritten letters to people who needed a kind word. 

David told me that at the end of the interview, the lady said... "It's a hug in an envelope". David told me that, because he knew I was always on the lookout for great lyrical hook lines, and this certainly had my attention. 

When I thought about that line, I thought about why someone would be sending a letter, especially in this day and age. Also, there's the telephone, so I had to think of a reason why a phone call couldn't be made. I then had the idea of writing it in a way to depict that a lot of time had passed and a letter was the only way of contacting the recipient.

Once I had the concept, the lyric came to me pretty easily, but it was originally written as a love song. I had words like 'dear', 'love' etc in it. Then, at one point, I sat back and just looked at the lyric on the screen in front of me and as I read it, I realised I could tweak it slightly, so that it could be more relatable. I took out all the lovey words and altered it accordingly. It then became a lyric conducive to any relationship and any circumstance. I was happier with that, it felt better.

I then thought about who of my composer friends I should send it to and I decided to send it to Robert Benson. I've known Robert a long while and he has put great music to a few of my lyrics and I felt he would be right for this one. 

Robert liked the lyric and once he had composed the music, he sent me a demo, which I absolutely loved.
I then took the song into a professional recording studio and had the music arranged and produced professionally, so now it sounded like a 'real song'. Towards the end of the session, the producer mentioned that he thought something was missing, so he asked me if I would play percussion on the song. I didn't have to be asked twice. I played the tambourine on the bridge and shaker on the last chorus. That was an amazing experience, I loved it. Now to find a vocalist.

My original idea was to find someone local to me here in the UK, that I could take into the studio and give an experience to. I put the word out and a few people contacted me, but when I sent them the song, they either couldn't connect to it, or found it difficult to sing, or said it just wasn't right for them. So I gave up on that idea and looked to my professional singer friends.

I thought about my friend Jeff who is in the US. I have known him a good few years now and it has always been an ambition of mine to work with him. I sent him the song, he loved it and agreed to record the vocal. Once Jeff had recorded the vocal, he told me he loved it so much, he would like to release it as a single. Of course, I said. "Yes".

The whole process, from when David gave me the idea, to now has been quite a while. There were gaps of many months between all the aspects of producing the song, but it was well worth the wait. From the moment David told me about it, I had a great feeling about it and that is why I never gave up on it. 
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I would like to thank Jeff so much for putting such a great vocal to the song, it's perfect. I hope everyone who hears it, loves it as much as we do.

ROSALIND WINTON - LYRICIST
Rosalind Winton has been writing poetry and song lyrics most of her life. She has produced and published a book POETIC WONDERS, which contains poems written by herself and five other authors that she gathered together for the project. Very recently, she wrote a song with her collaborator AJ Clarke called ONE DAY SOON, which is a song for our time and raised much needed funds for the NHS during the COVID-19 crisis. Rosalind has written for unsigned artists, musical theatre projects and original school plays. She has also won awards (Merit and Outstanding) for two of her songs, both in 2001 at different music festivals. 

You can find Rosalind on Facebook at:   www.facebook.com/rosalind.winton

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