Class Song
1999 CD

I wrote Class Song when I was 17, inexperienced in every sense of the word, with only 5 years of piano lessons and 14 original songs under my belt.  But it would become the first song written by a Trenton High senior and voted by classmates as their official class song.  More than that, other schools would pick up on it in the coming years.  Now, well after my graduation, more people than I ever imagined still approach me to tell me they adopted this song as a personal expression of their high school days.  With no record deal, no Internet and no radio airplay, a little idea that began as a school writing assignment would somehow manage to sell just under 5,000 copies.

A Creative Course

In 1979, my high school (Trenton High in Trenton, MI) had a music program consisting of choir, concert band, jazz band and marching band.  As an extra-curricular activity, there were a few different musical productions each year.  Although I signed up for every one of those opportunities, I would never make a strong connection with any of the music teachers.  Also, there was no songwriting class and there were no instructors with any songwriting experience.  It looked like there wouldn’t be any formal way to work on my songwriting until college.  But then in my senior year, a new course offering caught my eye: A class called Writing for Publication.

The teacher was listed as Dennis Hamilton.  Little did I know then that Mr. Hamilton would turn out to be one of the most influential teachers of all my school years.  In most of my high school writing classes, we did what most students do: complete an assignment, get a grade.  But this course promised something more.  It offered the chance to create short stories, articles or poetry and then submit them for actual publication – while still in high school.

My Senior Picture

THS Teacher Dennis Hamilton piloted a successful video production class in 1978 which would quickly grow and become the Trenton Public School's Educational Television Studio (TPS TV).  He directed CARUSO's first five studio videos.

While the other students used the book Writer’s Market to decide the best places to submit their work, I bought a copy of Songwriter’s Market.  Both books were intended to make it easier to find publications that accept appropriate submissions from unknown writers.  Due to the high cost of copyright infringement lawsuits, the vast majority of publications would return unsolicited writing without even opening it.  Our chances of getting a rejection letter were high but these books gave us valuable information like which publications to call on, what kinds of materials to send, and style and submission guidelines.

One of our assignments was to create a writing specification, then write to meet that spec.  So I thought: What if I wrote a specification for a Class Song, then wrote that song and submitted it to my graduating class?  The submission would be a live performance, its acceptance would be determined by a majority vote from my class and if successful, the song would be published in the school yearbook.  This satisfied all of the assignment's requirements.  I took my idea to Mr. Hamilton and he was intrigued.  He was very supportive, he approved the idea and little did I know, he would be instrumental in getting the song across to the students.  As soon as I'd gotten what I asked for, I realized that my work was cut out for me.

Getting the Idea

Musically speaking, I had at least three major handicaps.  1) My songwriting experience was pretty limited -- I had written a grand total of 14 original songs, to varying degrees of success.  2) I was only in my 5^th year of lessons on piano, the instrument I'd be playing to sell my songs.  3) Unlike hit songs which could be heard every hour on the radio or played over and over on recordings, my classmates would hear my song exactly one time – live – and they’d have to instantly like it, remember it and identify with it enough to give it their vote immediately afterward.

The first thing I did was to write the title.  Naming the song "Class Song," served two purposes.  People would immediately know what the song was about and it presumptuously implied that "this is YOUR class song."  Although I had written my first two words, I had created no momentum for writing the lyric, because the title wouldn't appear anywhere in the song except at the top of the page.

For inspiration, I looked through my older brothers’ past yearbooks to see what kinds of lyrics the previous graduating classes had chosen.  Some served the purpose better than others, but none of them spoke directly to a graduating class, much less to ours.

That made me realize I had one advantage which hit songwriters didn't.  I could personalize my song to a degree that would create a sense of ownership by my classmates.  One way to do that would be to include our school colors (blue and gold) and our school team (Trojans) in the lyric.  Another way would be to throw in some popular school themes.  I made a list which included football (we had a winning team), school dances, dating and Friday night.  I also wanted to say something about the last four years (high school) and the next four (possibly college).

Graduation Day

Starting Lines

I knew that my first four lines had to grab the listener fast or my song wouldn’t stand a chance.  At 17, I felt what most teenagers felt -- that a lot of the advice I was getting about my life didn't feel right for me.  I was determined to make my own choices and mistakes.  That seemed like good theme, so I wrote:

“For the best years of our lives: the last four

We’ve made more friends than anyone could ask for

It seems that we, in all our newfound wisdom

Were too unwise to see the things we were supposed to be”

Over the first four lines, I opened with a musical theme that builds slowly, creating new motifs rather than repeating itself. After the 8 long lines of the verse, only musical line is repeated – the first one.  The 9 lines of chorus don’t contain the song’s title and although they repeat a bit more, they create even more new motifs.  All of this was pretty risky in terms of audience recall on a single listening.  At that early stage of my writing career I probably wouldn’t have been able to re-imagine the melody once my brain had committed to it, so I was stuck with it whether it was destined to work or not.

One of the most obvious musical hooks in the song is in the bridge:

“We’ll see each other when we can but never come back here again”

…a theme which which continues under the next few lines:

“Friday night, feelin’ tight

The football fame, the dating game

The senior prom, the notes from Mom

The blue and gold

The Trojan mold”

Getting the Vote

I played the song for everyone I knew, trying to get a reaction.  Everyone said the same thing: It was very different from any song they’d heard before, but it spoke in a personal way about school days and they could really relate to it.  After all my friends and family had weighed in, it was finally time to make the big submission.

At Trenton High, class songs were normally selected from a ballot.  In this case, nobody had ever heard my song before and there was no recording of it yet.  So Mr. Hamilton arranged for an assembly so the entire senior class could hear my song live.  This was no simple task because it required every student to miss part of a class.

I remember being extremely nervous.  I sat at the piano on the stage as the school auditorium slowly filled up.  The loud voices of my classmates all filling the room at the same time was very intimidating.  Finally, Mr. Hamilton asked for quiet and introduced me.  Between that introduction and my first note, every cough, squeaky seat or cleared throat was pure torture.  Somehow I got through it.  I performed the song with just piano and vocal and waited for the results after the assembly.  In the end I had nothing to worry about.  In a vote by over 500 students, all but a handful voted for my song.  The News-Herald printed a story about me being the first senior at Trenton High to write an original song voted by his classmates as their graduating class song.

Arranging and Recording

My brothers and I didn’t waste any time.  We rushed to book studio time and recorded Class Song with piano, drums, bass and vocals.  For the refrain “We’ll see each other when we can / never come back here again,” I dropped out most of the instrumentation and supported the vocal with a unison glockenspiel part, giving it a childhood sound.

Next, I bought a book on arranging for strings.  It showed the ranges of the instruments and explained what was natural and awkward for a string player to execute.  On a typed copy of the song lyric, I sketched some ideas about where the string parts should be heard and how they would support the song during the different sections.  Using the sketch, I was able to imagine the four string parts together in my head and draft them by hand into a score.  Then I had to transfer each of the four individual string parts onto its own separate page .  Our recording engineer and good friend, Miller Goodman, (who was also my piano teacher) hired the string quartet: Korky Schneider, Adele Hamilton and Laura Paulini on violin, and Peter Paolini on cello.  We recorded the strings in one session.  At this point, most of the recording was finished.   

Class Song
45 RPM Vinyl Single

Trenton High Senior Talent Show, 1979
Picture 1: Me (on keyboards)
Picture 2: Joe and Mike Caruso
Picture 3: Rob Caruso (drums)

The four players were seated closely on folding chairs in the small studio with the handwritten scores on music stands in front of them.  They listened to the playback in their headphones and we recorded them in just two takes while I listened and followed along on my own copy of the score.  It was the first time I got to hear the parts I wrote.

For the final touch, I had my brother Mike play a 6-note trumpet part over the outro: the theme which is so closely identified with graduation ceremonies, “Pomp & Circumstance.”

Since Class Song was our third single, it wasn’t unusual for us to play it at every live performance.  As a result of all this exposure, without a record deal, no Internet and no radio airplay, Class Song would go on to sell just under 5,000 copies.

Senior Talent Show

By this time, my brothers and I were playing concerts at Michigan high schools on a regular basis.  When we were granted a time slot in the senior talent show in my graduating year, we included Class Song in our set.  In retrospect that worked out well, since my commencement performance of the song would be marred by technical difficulties.

Commencements

Our commencements ceremony took place on our football field.  As Class President, I was supposed to give a speech.  I decided to sing Class Song.  Back at the recording studio, we had prepared a backing track for me to sing against.  Unfortunately, when the time came for me to sing, the P.A. system went out.  I kept singing but it was obvious to everyone that there was a problem.  Somebody (possibly my brother Mike) realized that the only good sound was coming from my monitors – the small speakers on the ground which were only intended to let me hear what I was singing.  He thought quickly and flipped those monitors toward the crowd in the stands.  Unfortunately, the monitors weren’t meant for reaching an entire football field so to make up for the loss of the main speakers, they were overdriven to the point of distortion.  To top it off, turning the speakers away kept me from hearing myself or the track I was singing against.  So much for the big moment, but I guess that’s showbiz.

Singing "Class Song" at THS' 1979
commencements ceremony

THS 1979 Yearbook

Yearbook

Although I received my share of rejection letters during “Writing for Publication,” our school yearbook did publish “Class Song.”  It was one of my proudest accomplishments at that time.

Another High School

A few years after I graduated, my brothers and I got a call from Cabrini High School in Allen Park, Michigan to play their prom.  Even though they had already chosen their prom theme -- Styx’s “The Best of Times,” they still wanted permission to use Class Song for their own school and graduating class.  What an honor.  When I was writing the song, I was focused on getting my Trenton classmates to vote for it by including our school colors and team mascot right in the lyric.  Fortunately, Cabrini had the same school colors, so they didn’t mind.

We played the song as a band at the Cabrini Prom and they credited the song in their prom program.

Another Commencement, Another Yearbook

Once again, I’d be performing the song at a graduation ceremony, this time at a Catholic school.  I soon found myself standing alone at the front of Cabrini's chapel, in dead silence, with a roomful of total strangers staring straight at me, waiting for me to play a song I wrote which they all chose to represent them at their graduation.  This was even more intimidating than playing the song for the first time for my own classmates.  I sweated profusely.  My voice was unsteady.  My foot shivered on the damper pedal, which squeaked every time I pressed it.  But when I finally made it to the end of the song, I was rewarded with a loud applause.  Afterward, I received a nice card and a copy of their yearbook with Class Song printed inside.

Cabrini's 1981 Yearbook

1999 Class Song CD Publicity Photos by (cousin) Larry Caruso

20-Year Reunion, Anniversary Re-Issue

Way too soon, I turned around and 20 years had sped by since my high school graduation.  Our vice president, treasurer, secretary and I got together and we started planning our (gasp) 20-year reunion.  Someone suggested I sing Class Song again and I said I would.  But I started to think about how I had never liked the way my voice sounded on the original recording.  Rather than transfer the original song to CD, I re-recorded the song from scratch in my home studio.  This time I played most of the instruments and recorded the song with three different lyrics: one for Trenton students, one without a vocal, so people could sing Karaoke-style, and one without the Trenton references.  Here’s how that version goes:

I thought it would be fun if I could sing it live at the reunion with a real string section, so I hired “Equilibrium.”  It was incredible playing the song live with a string quartet backing my piano and vocal.

Performing with Equilibrium at the THS 1999 Class Reunion
at Crystal Gardens in Southgate, MI.  Cello: Andy Barnhart.
Photo: Juliette LaMonica