Gretchen Christopher - Looking Back And Looking Ahead

by Chuck Dauphin

It has been an amazing ride for Gretchen Christopher.  From a legendary career with the Fleetwoods, one of Pop music’s biggest groups of the 50s and 60s, to a long stint instructing others in the art, the Washington resident has seen it all during her life----and she’s still living and living well today, thank you very much.  The singer has been promoting her latest album Gretchen’s Sweet Sixteen (Suite 16) for a while now, and the response has tickled her greatly.

“The response to my new album has been wonderful.  In fact, many of the responses----all of which are unsolicited, are posted under CD reviews at the web site, GretchenChristopher.com or Fleetwoods.com.  Those are from people who bought the album.  In fact, they pre-purchased it because I thought I was going to get the album finished for my sweet 16 birthday, which is February 29.  I committed to making it, and certainly thought that I would get it done that year, and it actually took much longer.  I had the concept for the album SWEET SIXTEEN, which stands for my 16th birthday as a leap year baby, and I had been 16 when I met the first person with whom I fell in love.  He was eighteen, and it was his first time falling in love too.  We were together for two years, then apart for almost forty years, and in the meantime I had all the Fleetwoods success----11 hit singles, about fifteen albums, then decided that all the external success was not necessarily internal success.  I married and had two children, then amicably divorced after fourteen years.  But, we both are still here in Olympia, WA, and we all celebrate birthdays and Christmas and everything together.”

As Christopher’s “real life” obligations became more and more a part of her life, she wasn’t as active in the business as she once had been, but in her words “I never did quit performing totally---I did just a very few selected things.  Then, once my children were grown, it took me a while to believe I could really do this without having to pay the price in terms of relationships, but my children encouraged me to go for it.”

What happened next to the singer was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments where happiness came once again---though she admittedly wasn’t expecting it to come the way it ultimately did.

“I was interviewed here by the local newspaper,” she told MusicNewsNashville, “and they did a story that was on the front page of the Living section---actually it covered more than just the front page, and some woman subscriber sent that to her son in California, and he wrote a letter in care of the Evergreen State College, where I was teaching dance periodically for many, many years.  They forwarded the letter to me, and it turned out to be from my first love!”

After all the years that had passed, the spark was still there---for both of them. 

“Then we started communicating and dating long-distance.  Either I would go down to California, or he would come here.  I lived in Thurston County, WA, and he had lived in Orange County, CA for about 40 years.  We ended up getting together again.  He proposed the “M” word, and I said 'if you’re really serious about that, maybe you should move closer to where I live so we could see if we really wanted to be together, and I could spend as much time with you as I do my other friends.'  I was very much involved in dancing at jazz festivals, and loved doing that.  He even took dance lessons for three years, because he knew how important that was to me.  That was great.”

The album is a product of that story, as well the gamut of her entire life and career---including her time as member of the Fleetwoods.

“I conceived the album as sort of the soundtrack to a musical to express that story, and celebrate our love, my sixteenth birthday.  It’s called Gretchen’s Sweet Sixteen 16 (Suite 16) spelled both ways with Suite 16 in parentheses, because it is a suite of sixteen songs including the first hits I wrote or co-wrote.  “Come Softly” was the original song I wrote, and it’s on there acapella, and I’m singing all three parts.  That was what we performed at our senior class talent assembly, and when I say “we,” I’m referring to Barbara (singing harmony), Gary (singing background), and myself (singing lead, the melody and lyrics I’d written)—we three who became the Fleetwoods---taking the name of our Olympia telephone exchange.  So that’s on there, along with “Come Softly” a cappella, plus the hit arrangement of “Come Softly To Me,” and “Graduation’s Here.” The kids at school loved “Come Softly” and asked Barbara and me to write another song for our senior graduation party, so we wrote “Graduation’s Here.” Then, a year later, it became the follow-up to the hit of ‘Come Softly To Me.” I asked Gary if he could come up with a background part in counterpoint to be on the recording, and that part of the arrangement is on the new recording too.”

“Come Softly To Me” is also included on the album again, in its’ hit version, as well as re-recording of another song the group recorded, “Blues Go Away.”  Christopher has fond memories of the song.  “It was actually the first Fleetwoods solo and was recorded on our fourth album in the old days.  We recorded it in Hollywood, but our producer and engineer dialed out the other two singers because they felt it was better as a solo, being so deeply personal.  So, a new recording of “Blues Go Away” is on the album as a reflection of how having Number One hits doesn’t necessarily make a happy nineteen year old.  I realized what I needed in my life was one good man who shared my values and my love.  All of these things are in the sixteen page booklet of liner notes that accompanies the album.  That is part of the concept---sixteen songs, sixteen pages.  It was so difficult keeping that down to sixteen pages, because it kept turning into an autobiographical book.”

Sweet Sixteen (Suite 16) also represents the culmination of a life-long dream business-wise, as well, as it appears on her Gold Cup label.

“When I was in my twenties, and we were recording in Hollywood, about the time I recorded “Blues Go Away” on the fourth Fleetwoods album, I remember being at Liberty Records, who distributed our music.  By then, they had actually purchased the Dolton label.  I had decided by then that if I was going to continue recording as a solo artist, I wanted it to be for a label that I owned or had a great deal of interest in.  So, it took four decades or so, but I finally fulfilled that dream.”

Her dreams of being involved in the arts stems in part from her relationship with her parents, both of whom were very artistic. 

“Dad played in the Olympia Symphony Orchestra for thirty-three years.  He played flute earlier, then cello.  Those are two of my favorite instruments.  You’ll hear some flute and cello on the album.  I grew up in a house where at one time or another---not necessarily the same time, Dad had trombone, flute, clairinet, guitar, banjo, ukulele---which he taught my sister to play, a piano, a pump organ---so many instruments….a big drum kit.  Fortunately, we had a big living room---about 24 x 24, so it didn’t fill the living room to have the large drum set in there with the grand piano.  Mom played the piano and sang, and she was a great interpreter of songs because she was an actress and a director, too.  She founded Olympia Little Theater in 1939, I believe.  In fact, they had their first production in our house.  That was the year before I was born, and she was a fine director too.  My sister followed in her footsteps as a community theater actress.  Mom worked for decades to help make the Washington Center for the Performing Arts a reality”

Though Sweet Sixteen (Suite 16) was initially released in 2007, earning a place on several years-end lists (including Billboard magazine), she wasn’t able to fully promote the project due to taking care of her mother. 

“After mom died at the age of 99, I thought I would be able to resume my music.  But your heart and mind just doesn’t kick into gear when someone close to you dies.  There’s an adjustment to make, which I didn’t fully make until this new year.”

She slowly eased back into things, however, and is looking forward to letting people know about the release as 2010 progresses. 

“Now, I’m ready for signings and performances,” she says.  “On Valentine’s Day, I appeared at Seattle's King Cat Theater and performed "Come Softly To Me" to benefit Haiti.  I'll sing and sign CDs, for Olympia's Arts Walk at The Eagles Grand Ballroom, April 24th, and at Seattle's new Hard Rock Cafe, April 30th “ I’m hoping that the album will be a real inspiration to people.  It tells that your first love can be your last---even if you break up, there’s a possibility of getting back together.  And, when you become a person of a certain age, that doesn’t mean it’s all over……you can still have a storybook romance, and make long-held dreams come true.”

For more on the album, log on to www.gretchenchristopher.com