We’re an Anglo-American musical group called SQUARE HALO and we’re keen to get songs from our Lyme disease awareness album ‘The Lyme Years’ featured in independent films. We have original, evocative, catchy, high-quality songs for sync licensing and we’re happy to waive the licence fee too!
Exclusively for Raindance, here are our Top Christmas movie soundtracks…
Singer-songwriter Demetrios Loukas of SQUARE HALO:
If a film stars music legend Whitney Houston then expect a soundtrack of note, and ‘The Preacher’s Wife‘ soundtrack is excellent! The album has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling gospel album of all time.
The album features 6 traditional gospel songs which Whitney Houston recorded with the Georgia Mass Choir who also appear in the film: ‘He’s All Over Me‘ (a duet with the First Lady of Gospel Music, Shirley Caesar), ‘Hold On, Help Is on the Way‘, ‘Joy to the World‘, ‘I Love the Lord‘ (a personal favourite of Houston’s since childhood), ‘I Go to the Rock‘ and ‘Joy‘.
Houston began singing at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, as a child. At every music award ceremony throughout her career, Houston always publicly honoured God and Jesus Christ for her achievements and blessings:
‘First and always first in my life, I’d like to thank my heavenly Father, my Lord Jesus for blessing me so.’ (1994 American Music Awards)
‘I have to first give honour to my heavenly Father and my Lord Saviour Jesus for without, I am nothing, with, I am everything.’ (1994 World Music Awards)
I make a point of mentioning her gratitude to God and Jesus Christ because her traditional gospel music performances powerfully and yet humbly demonstrate her love and appreciation for God and Jesus Christ. Houston’s voice is an undeniable supernatural force which continues to remain in a category of its own; unique, unmatched and unrivalled.
The album also features meaningful quality pop songs written by veteran songwriters such as Diane Warren (‘You Were Loved‘), Babyface (‘My Heart is Calling‘) and Annie Lennox (‘Step by Step‘). I was unaware that ‘Somebody Bigger Than You and I‘ which features Bobby Brown, Faith Evans, Johnny Gill, Monica and Ralph Tresvant had previously been recorded by Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson and Dionne Warwick, amongst others, but Houston’s uptempo R&B rendition is fresh and contrasts completely to the original ballad arrangement.
The soundtrack’s lead single ‘I Believe in You and Me‘ written by Sandy Linzer and David Wolfert was originally recorded in 1982 by an American vocal quartet from Detroit called The Four Tops. The version recorded by Houston for ‘The Preacher’s Wife’ stays true to the original musical arrangement but her gospel vocal delivery is fearless and fantastic, and superior in every way to that of The Four Tops.
Whitney Houston on the recording of ‘I Love the Lord‘ on the set of ‘The Preacher’s Wife‘:
‘There’s a moment in the filming of ‘The Preacher’s Wife’ where I say okay, I’m gonna sing ‘I love the Lord’, this is our last take man. I said (to the choir) let go. I said, if you feel it, let the spirit just take you over. And, it naturally happened because we sang the song and then stopped, and then the music started to play again and I started singing again, and the choir started getting into it again. The Spirit of God came upon us, his Holy Spirit came down, and we just started to praise him, make a joyful noise unto him. And I can remember hearing Penny (Penny Marshall, the Director) saying ‘Cut! Cut!’, and then I would hear cutting while I still have to slow it right down. I said, forget about it, just let him have his way, you know what I’m saying? She (Penny Marshall the director) couldn’t direct the Holy Spirit!’
Composer, arranger and producer Treyvonce Ambers-Moore of SQUARE HALO:
I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas films and songs; however, there is one song that has absolutely stuck in my mind since childhood and it’s all thanks to the animated film ‘Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer‘.
Now looking into the song as an adult, I have a confession to make. I didn’t know ‘Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer‘ was an actual song separate from the film. Turns out the song was written by San Francisco-based couple Elmo Shropshire and Patsy Trigg who released only a handful of records together. The couple recorded the song after hearing songwriter Randy Brooks sing ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer‘ in Lake Tahoe in 1978; the couple recorded their own version of this song and began selling it as an independent single the following Christmas.
The song first charted in 1984 and went on to become an annual holiday favorite. Elmo and Patsy completely achieved their goal of making a light hearted fun Christmas song that can be played yearly for generations.
Composer and co-writer Omar Shelesh of SQUARE HALO:
Adapted from Raymond Briggs‘s cherished children’s book of the same name, The Snowman is a short-animated movie that has become synonymous with the holiday season, delighting television audiences in the UK and beyond annually since its release in 1982.
Set against the whimsical backdrop of a wintry wonderland, the enchanting soundtrack immerses listeners in a world of frosty magic. With its playful melodies and delicate instrumentation, this charming score perfectly captures the innocence and joy of childhood wintertime adventures. What makes the soundtrack even more remarkable, however, is that ‘The Snowman’ is essentially a silent movie, over which composer Howard Blake had to craft a type of symphonic poem – an intimate and imaginative orchestral arrangement for the film’s simple yet poignant storyline that narrates and evokes a mood through the music alone. The score culminates in the song, ‘Walking in the Air‘ – the musical centerpiece that accompanies the famous flying sequence.
Performed by St Paul’s Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty in the original film, the song gained wide acclaim and general appeal for its soaring melody and evocative lyrics. Stylistically, it is a piece of Christmas music, orchestral pop, and choral music seamlessly weaved together, and with over forty versions recorded across various styles, with subsequent covers by artists like Aled Jones has further solidified its place as a beloved holiday classic. Merry Christmas!
Howard Blake, composer of Walking In The Air and the score for the film and play ‘The Snowman’ talks about how he got involved with the story.
Their story begins with Demetrios, a former primary school teacher who contracted Lyme disease back in 2005 whilst on a school trip to a farm in Oxfordshire. The infection went undiagnosed and untreated for 8 years and during this time his health deteriorated with the infection spreading and his life hanging in the balance. He was, however, clinically diagnosed in 2013 and since then, his health has improved.
In 2015, Demetrios reached out to Treyvonce online and they started collaborating remotely. Their debut album ‘The Lyme Years’ took the group over 5 years to complete.
