Xmas puts Home T-4 in a good mood
This is the third of the Jamaica Observer’s daily 12-part series, 12 Days of Jamdown Chrismus. The series ends on Christmas Day.
SINGER, songwriter and music producer Mikey Bennett was just getting into his song-writing groove on when he penned a song for Christmas. It was the late 1970s and he was then part of the vocal quartet Home T-4. The song was Mek the Christmas Catch You in a Good Mood.
Bennett can’t remember what inspired him to write the now-popular Jamaican Christmas song, but thinks it was all connected to his love for the Yuletide season.
“I grew up in a large, loving family, and so, for me, Christmas was always special with aunts and cousins visiting, lots of food and family and, of course, the presents. That whole vibe made Christmas my favourite time of year… and it still is,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
He recalls taking the lyrics of the song to veteran producer Joe Gibbs, but it was early December, and although Gibbs liked the lyrics, he thought it was too late to release the track considering that the holiday season was imminent.
“I was back at the studio days later and Lloyd Parks was there doing a session with Dennis Brown. I told him about the idea and lyrics and by December 10 the song was mixed and mastered, but there was still the thought that it was too late for that Christmas season. The decision was however taken to give it a shot. The song was released and, as they say… the rest is history,” Bennett recalled.
By the following week, Mek The Christmas Catch You in a Good Mood was racing up local charts and was a hit on the party circuit. Home T-4 now knew what it felt like to have a hit song.
“Once the fever started to mount, I went down to Joe Gibbs Studio and they were playing the song, and each time they kept stopping the record. I then asked ‘Why they won’t allow the song to play?â somebody asked if I was an idiot if I didn’t realise that each time they stopped the song it meant somebody had bought the song off the turntable. I stood there transfixed for the next two hours and just watch the record fly off the turntable as patrons just came in and bought my song.”
Bennett still gets a good feeling whenever he hears the track. It still stands up there with his favourite music for the season and is only rivalled by Carlene Davisâ Santa Claus Do You Ever Come to the Ghetto.
