I’ve had the rich opportunity to work with many great pros during my career and one of the best of them over 4 decades has been a superb musician and fantastic lady, Margaret Dorn. We first met when I cast her in a leading role in my rock opera, The Wedding Of Iphigenia, that played both in London at the Old Vic and in New York at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theater.

In the years since, Margaret and I have worked on countless projects together. And in that time she became one of the top call studio singers and vocal arrangers in New York in a great career that spanned decades.

Here’s a short list of some of the many she worked with as a vocalist, an arranger and a keyboardist both in the studio and in concerts around the world: Celine Dion, Bette Midler, Jennifer Lopez, Carly Simon, Lionel Ritchie, Donald Fagen, Michael Bolton, Boz Scaggs, Willie Nelson, Barry Manilow, Jessica Simpson, Michael McDonald, Garth Brooks, The Chieftans, and Diana Ross.

So when it came to doing this Duets album, Margaret was the first woman we thought of. She has such an incredible ability to sing in just about any style, so I was having a hard time nailing down a song for her because there were simply too many directions we could go. So I kept waiting for just the right impulse.

Then, when we were close to finishing the CD, sadly I learned that she was not available to work with us. This was a crusher to both Julia and me. How could we do this album without Margaret?

One day I was searching through some old files trying to find some old tracks to a song and I came across the TV Tracks for my album, Thru Me, recorded about 15 years ago. (A TV Track is a mix of a song with everything on it except the lead vocal, used when the singer might need to sing without her band.)

Margaret had both done the vocal arrangements and sung with the other background singers on the album. I played through the TV Tracks one day and was blown away by all of her fine work on the CD. I was listening one day in the car driving and I got to one song called Playin’ The Fool and remembered that Margaret had come to me and asked me if she could handle the background voices on that song by herself. She said that she had an idea for an approach that might be interesting. I agreed instantly and when she did the session solo she basically just came in and sang emotional riffs in between the lead vocal lines on the song. She used no actual words – just sounds like “oh” and “ah” an “ooo”. It worked great.

So there I was driving in my car, 15 years later, listening to what she had done way back then, and I was so struck by the mastery and beauty of what she had done that day that I had to pull off the road and stop and listen to the song 3 more times. I couldn’t even remember what I had sung as the lead vocalist. I couldn’t even remember how the song went!

Later I played it for Julia and she had the same reaction to Margaret’s mastery.

Then Julia came up with a brilliant idea! “Why don’t you use this track on my Duets album and I’ll sing along with Margaret?” I’ll have to admit that at first I was not too enthusiastic about the idea. Who wants to hear a song with a couple of women singing “ooo” and “ah” throughout?

Several days later I was out taking my walk and thinking how I could satisfy Julia’s insistence, and the thought just came to me that Margaret simply blew me away with pure emotion and no words. There is so much music in that woman that she doesn’t even need words to touch the soul.

The phrase, “Music is a language of it’s own” came to mind, and I knew I had a starting point. I rushed home and dove into the finished track – finished 15 years earlier. It was good that I did not remember so well the original song that I wrote because I wrote a completely different song to this already finished track. I no longer had the multi-track files of the original song, so I had to work only the finished mix of the TV Track, but the ideas came easily. Margaret always led the inspiration.

Julia was thrilled … and then thrilled me with her gorgeous performance. It certainly is one of my favs on the album.

A Language Of Its Own

Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

 

Afrikans

Mandarin

Portugese

Bengali

Sundanese

Japanese

Arabic

Hindi

[Margaret – 4 bars]

So many languages

So many tongues

So many people tryin’

To touch each other’s lives

And missin’ just the words to say

But music has a language of its own

And everybody hears it

And everybody understands

[Margaret – 4 bars]

So may I introduce you

To my ol’ friend Margaret

[Margaret – 2 bars]

This lady can sing sing to the world

[Margaret – 2 bars]

Sing it Margaret

[Margaret – 4 bars]

 

She doesn’t need words

To get right down to your soul

She doesn’t need language

To pierce the heart

 

Cuz the universal language of music

Is a language of its own

And everybody knows what you’re sayin’

And everybody knows how you feel

So sing to us of love Miss Margaret

[Margaret – 6 bars]

Oh yeah ee

Yeah ee yeah

Yeah ee yeah

Yeah ee yeah ee yeah

[Margaret – 3 bars]

Oh oooo yeah

[Margaret – 2 bars]

 

Yes the universal language of music

Is a language of its own

And everybody knows what you’re sayin’

And everybody knows how you feel

[Spoken]

Let’s talk.

[Margaret (Interlude 6) – 4 bars]

Aaaahhh

[Margaret – 1 bar]

[Julia answer]

[Margaret – 2 bars]

Do dah do dah do dah do

Dah ee yah ee yah ee yah ee do dah day

[Trumpet solo – 2 bars]

Now give it just that classical touch

That makes me love ya’ so much

And brings the tears to my eyes

[Margaret (Soprano Solo – 4 bars]

Sing it to the world now, Margaret

[Margaret (Wah ooo) – 6 bars]

 

Afrikans

Mandarin

Portugese

Bengali

Sundanese

Japanese

Arabic

Hindi

 

But the language of music

[Margaret – 2 bars]

It really gets ya’ goin’

[Margaret – 2 bars]

It really gets ya’ goin’

[Margaret – 2 bars]

Yes the universal language of music

Is a language of its own

Yes it do

Ooo ooo ooo

[Trumpet solo]