Hi Bob,

Thanks for the Long Goodbye rave. Strange its passage through the record/ radio biz. It was the fourth or fifth single off the Brooks ‘n’  Dunn record as I recall. The record company just didn’t want to release it. But it kept getting played from the album and when they finally released it, it took around 19 weeks to get to No 1. Equally with the Ronan Keating version (Ronan was co-writer) in the UK. They didn’t want to even put it on the record at first. Then they didn’t want to send it to radio. Again it was the fourth single off his album… but still eventually went top five there and charted well throughout Europe. My own version came out first (in 2000) and was 5 weeks on the BBC Radio 2 A-list. So, a song that the public developed a relationship with and wanted to hear in spite of the various A&R depts inability to deal with it.

I was amazed at the various reactions from fans ..apart from the obvious ‘it’s a break-up’ read. While my version was on the radio a woman wrote to me from UK to say that she and her husband’s new-born baby had a terminal illness and that over the three or four weeks till the little child passed they kept hearing it and it meant so much to them and gave them such comfort. Another man thought it was about someone drifting away with Alzheimer’s. That’s what I love about songs. You write it and think you know what it means…but it’s only passing through you.

Re my record Trick or Treat… a flop?! Ouch!! ………More like a non-runner, I’d say. I remember producer Gary Katz and myself going for dinner after what I thought was a pretty good showcase gig I did in a club in Soho, NYC in the presence of Alain Levy and various other Polygram grandees the week of its release in US. I wittered on at dinner for a while fantasizing through the adrenalin till Gary raised his hand and, in his world weary Brooklyn way said.."Let me tell you something, Paulie. Right now those people are wondering whether or not to even put you in for the race." Ho, ho! How right he was. A week or two later my supporter Mercury boss Mike Bone was ‘let go’ and as every artist knows, that’s the kiss of death for a record.

But that was a long time ago. Life is real good now. As I write I’m in San Remo, Italy to be presented tomorrow with the Premio Tenco award for songwriting at the 36th annual ‘Rassegna della canzone d’autore’ , the Italian Grammy for songwriters. Aren’t songs amazing? Nearly 11 years after It was written, you discover it and fall under its spell. I feel blessed to have been gifted with it in the first place.

Best wishes,

Paul Brady