For Lisa Layne, Sept. 27, 1989 would mean more than just her 27th birthday. She was standing at the microphone at Nashville’s Masterfonics recording studio. Nearby were some of the town’s finest studio musicians prepared to record a new bluesy Christmas song. The recording would be listed under the name of a retro rock and roll band that originated in New Orleans, Vince Vance and the Valiants.
As the tape began to roll, a funky, but melancholic saxophone solo introduced the tune until the point when Lisa Layne leaned into the microphone and began to sing:
“Take back the holly and mistletoe
Silver bells on string
If I wrote a letter to Santa Claus
I would ask for just one thing… “
Here was one of those moments when greatness was achieved in a single take. The song, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is among the holiday’s best pop songs ever.
“I don’t need sleigh rides in the snow
Don’t want a Christmas that’s blue
Take back the tinsel, stockings and bow
‘cause all I want for Christmas is you.
Layne was born in Tyler, Texas but her family moved to Dallas when she was three. Because her father was a musician music was part of her heritage. After graduating from high school she performed with her own band until she was scouted by the Valiants whose operations were split between New Orleans and Dallas.
“All I Want…” was written by New Orleanian Andy Stone, who plays the role of Vance, the rock geek with the pointy hairdo, and guitarist Troy Powers. Stone was inspired to write the song in 1973 when he was touring with the band and spent a lonely Christmas in a Columbus, Ohio motel room. His words would dig deep into the emotions of the season especially when Layne erupts after a seductive mid- song sax solo:
“I don’t need expensive things
They don’t matter to me
All that I want, can’t be found
Underneath the Christmas tree
I had become so captivated by the song, and its anonymous singer, that with the coming of each Christmas season I wanted to interview her. With the help of a Valiant I was finally able to make contact several years ago: “I never got a penny for that recording” Layne recalled, nor was her name on the label. She was an employee for the band just doing her job. Few Valiants were involved in the session which included mostly Nashville musicians recording under the Valiants’ name. The song, nevertheless, would become world famous with Lisa Layne as the powerful, but mysterious voice.
There is a grinch in this Christmas story. It is singer Mariah Carey. In 1994, five years after the Vince Vance recording, Carey released a song with the same name. The Carey version is completely different but the message of love and longing is the same. “I guess they had the right to use the name,” Layne conceded, though grudgingly. The Carey song comes nowhere near capturing the moodiness of Layne’s Joplinesque performance.
After leaving the Valiants, Layne settled for a while in Nashville. If there is one person in country music history that anyone who tries to imitate has to be really, really good it is Patsy Cline, the greatest female voice that the genre ever produced. For two years Layne played the lead role in a national tour of a “Closer Walk With Patsy Cline.” She is one of only a few performers to have been endorsed by the Patsy Cline Foundation as being worthy of playing the stellar role.
When I first interviewed her Layne was spending most of her time in Branson, Missouri. Boo Miller, who backed her on the steel guitar, also assumed the roles of manager and “permanent partner.”
Now she is working mostly out of Texas, with occasional forays into Louisiana doing herself and Patsy Cline.
For all the anonymity of the original version, “All I want…” is still the song that most identifies her.
“Someone we knew in Amsterdam once called” Layne said, “to say they heard it there. Sometimes during Christmas my Mom calls saying, ‘Guess what I just heard on the radio!’ “
Let’s see, could the song Mom heard end like this?
“You are the angel atop my tree
You are my dream come true
Santa can’t bring me what I need
‘cause all I want for Christmas is you.
Vince Vance’s words, and Lisa Layne’s delivery, will reverberate for as long as there is Christmas – and loneliness.
–30–
Lisa Layne performing All I want For Christmas live at the Grand Country Theatre Branson Mo on the 97.2 Bass Country Radio Show Dec 2009.
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Errol’s Laborde’s books, “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at local bookstores and at book web sites.
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