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October 3, 2000 'Come On Over Baby' tops the charts
You are the greatest fans in the world! On Sale Everywhere! Christina wants to thank all her fans for making 'Come On Over Baby' #1 on 'TRL'. She knows how much you have been calling and voting and appreciates it. MTV also added 'Come On Over Baby' into Heavy Rotation! The video was directed by Paul Hunter and it is amazing! It features over a dozen dancers, wild sets, great choreography, and of course, Christina's amazing singing. Listen to the hot new version NOW! Exclusive
photo gallery - A Special Message Greetings to all Christina fans! You guys don't know me, so let me introduce myself. My name is Ron Fair. You may have seen my name on the back of Christina's records, or playing the piano in the video for 'Chestnuts Roasting...' I'm her 'executive producer' and A&R Man at RCA Records. 'A&R' stands for Artists & Repertoire. I'm the person who heard Christina sing a capella (meaning with no backing music) and put her under contract with the record company. Together, Christina and I chose all the songs, discussed the producers, the direction, the beats, the musical settings, etc. I guess you could say we are a pretty successful team because we had three number one-selling singles in a row, sold ten million albums around the world, and Christina won the Grammy for Best New Artist and was nominated for a Latin Grammy for 'Genio Atrapado' (the Spanish version of 'Genie'). Christina is the greatest singer I have ever worked with. As we have recorded so many songs together, she has begun to develop more ideas about musical arrangement, placement of vocal parts, sounds, beats, etc. She has great instincts and she will be writing, collaborating and creating a lot of her own new material for the next album. You are probably wondering why we decided to change 'Come On Over' from its original form on the album into 'Come On Over Baby.' When we decided that the hook on 'Come On Over' was too strong to ignore, and the fans kept going crazy in concert when the song was played, Christina and I sat down and talked about all the possibilities with the song. The most significant fact was that the original was recorded almost two years ago - and after 'Genie,' 'What A Girl Wants' and 'I Turn To You,' the original version sounded dated. Christina likes her beats funkier and harder than she used to, and her voice has gotten stronger by huge leaps and bounds. We decided we needed to refresh the song, so we also took a look at the original lyrics. They weren't as cool as they needed to be for Christina to really sink her teeth into. So we got permission for Johan and Paul (the guys who wrote the original version) to re-write the words, and Christina sat down with Shelly Peiken (Shelly wrote the words for 'What A Girl Wants'). Then we brought in some new chord changes and a brand new beat (working with new producers "Celebrity Status.") Christina tore into the vocals with a vengeance, sounding better than ever before, with layers of new ad-libs, spoken parts, a rap section and really cool background vocals. We wanted a 'big production moment' in the song where Christina would sing a killer blues riff, so we added the 'sequel' to 'What A Girl Wants,' with those intricate 5 part harmonies and that solo voice moment where she wails. All in all, we kept the chorus of the song intact (when it ain't broke don't fix it). The final mix was done by Dave Way, who mixed 'Genie' and 'What A Girl Wants' for us. Christina came to the mixing session and had a couple of strong ideas. One was to add a funky hip-hop noise in the intro sections that would set off accented dance movement in the video. We were rockin' pretty hard in the control room, the volume was cranked all the way, and she stopped the tape after the 'What A Girl Wants' section. There we all were, Dave Way, Myself, Eric, Ray and Chaka from Celebrity Status, It was a dramatic moment, because all of a sudden we stopped the song. 'Is that a xylophone?' she asked me (there was a dinky little part mixed way in the back in the 'What A Girl Wants' section). 'Why, yes,' I replied. 'I hate that sound!' she said laughing. 'Can't we get rid of that?' As it turns out, that little xylophone part (which you could barely hear if you were trying) was of course one of my own favorite bits. I was amazed that through the giant layers of sound Christina could pick that out! Of course we ditched the Xylophone because she just didn't care for it, and it was an unnecessary detail after all. We all know how great Christina's voice is, but the true source of her musical super-powers is how great her EARS are. Being able to hear all the tonalities, the nuances, and create spontaneous magic comes from a great set of pipes, great imagination and most importantly, great ears. The final result: 'Come On Over Baby' is fresher, funkier, hipper, cooler and vibier than the original and it represents where Christina is right now today. You are probably wondering why the new version has the 'Baby' at the end of the title. We had to differentiate it from the original because it's really a hybrid of a new song and the old song! - Ron Fair |
| ' 'Come On Over Baby' is fresher, funkier, hipper, cooler and vibier than the original and it represents where Christina is right now today' - producer Ron Fair |
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