I Choose You
In the early 80s, I came up with a song title that I wrote down in case I ever got married: “I Choose You.” I never wrote it; I just had the title and maybe a couple of ideas jotted down. Fast forward to 1990. My friend Scott told me he had a friend getting married---in two days, mind you---and the bride and groom had no one to play for the wedding. Would I be willing?
I had made it my personal mission statement at that point never to play in another wedding (battle scars from previous ones), but Scott persisted, I liked Scott, so I caved. Only then did he tell me that the wedding was an hour away ... and there was a rehearsal the night before. This was escalating quickly.
The night of the rehearsal, I was told to play whatever I wanted because they had no preferences. They were truthfully the easiest married-couple-to-be I had ever dealt with. But then Scott came back with hook #2: They were really bummed because they didn’t have the anyone to sing at their wedding. Would I be willing to just play and sing something wedding-like?
“WHAT?!?” I replied. “NO!” quickly followed that. A wedding singer, I was not.
"Wellllll," he said. "Maybe if you could play it, I could learn it and sing it?"
“What are you going to sing with the wedding only 12 hours away?” I asked him. My wedding repertoire was non-existent.
Scott’s next statement still makes me laugh out loud when I think about it. "How about you just write something really quick during the rehearsal dinner, then my friend and I can learn it real quick and sing it tomorrow for them." One hour later, in a people-pleasing mode that astounds me to this day, I was sitting in an unfamiliar small church auditorium penning lines to a wedding song title I had come up with years before for my own nonexistent wedding---for complete strangers. I had to feverishly try to complete it while everyone else was in the basement enjoying the rehearsal dinner. At no point did anything kick in that told me we were insane for attempting this. (Hey, I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy.)
Surprisingly, I had something I thought might work and make everyone happy by the time the meal was over. For better or for worse (ha, ha ... see what I did there?), it was ready. Scott and his friend learned the song, and we went home. The next day, there was no time for another run through.
Kim and I had just started dating, so I (ironically) asked her to come with me to this wedding. She got to hear the finished song, technically intended for her (I guess), but not really. This song never got used again, so somewhere out there is a couple who is the only couple in the world to have this song at their wedding, and it was written just for them. I did not know them. I still don’t like wedding music, and I never want to be known as the wedding song writer, but I saved the recording with the memory, and it still makes me laugh.
To listen to this song, click below:
