Writing and Recording
"I had a little cassette running, a work tape in case you can't remember something but you know it was good. A lot of hooks come out of making mistakes and then you can't remember what you did. I went home that night and got into bed with my husband. I was listening to our work tape. I knew there was a real gem there in a very raw form that was going to be something one day"
Writer Peiken talks about the development of the track.Shelley Peiken was the writer behind "What a Girl Wants", initially Peiken's success was established slowly and any success she did enjoy wasn't prominent in the music industry until she met songwriter Guy Roche after he had moved to Los Angeles with Peiken's manager suggesting the pair should work together. One day the pair were working together and were working with a cassette tape after which they experimented with vocals and hooks and the night after the writing session had commenced Peiken asked her husband to listen to the tape which featured the lyrics, "What a girl needs, what a girl wants, whatever makes you happy and keeps you strong" and after the presentation she decided the working progress did have potential and would return to it at a later date.
The song was completed and was titled "What a Girl Needs" and after no major interest until it was pitched to Ron Fair of RCA records at a time after he had signed Aguilera and was searching for material for her debut album. After expressing interest Fair and others from the label asked the pair to swap the words; "change" and "need" after which the songwriting duo were unsure and called it a "leap of faith" allowing him to edit the track in this manner. "What a Girl Wants" was the first track recorded for Christina Aguilera in June 1998, Fair liked the song and after the decision was made to release it as the second single the label called for a second recording of the track because they wanted to change the original key in addition to editing rhythmic changes. The second recording came in September 1999 after the success of her debut single "Genie in a Bottle", after which the label wanted to produce a similar tone.
Read more about this topic: What A Girl Wants (song)
Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or recording:
“Success and failure on the public level never mattered much to me, in fact I feel more at home with the latter, having breathed deep of its vivifying air all my writing life up to the last couple of years.”
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“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
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