A fellow Bronx musician has decided to pay tribute to his late neighborhood friend by releasing a song in his honor.
“A Dream Come True”, an inspirational song co-written by Anthony Liccese, honors his late friend John Christopher, the co-writer of the song who passed away last November at age 70.
Pelham Bay residents Liccese and Christopher met in 1987 and began working together on music after. Together, they wrote various tunes during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Being older and more experienced in the music industry, John taught Anthony a lot about being a musician when he was first starting out.
“John was more than two decades older than me, so he taught me a lot about song construction,” said Anthony, who wrote over 20 songs with his friend.
“We had great chemistry when we worked together – John wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music and we both collaborated on the melody.”
After John passed away last November, Anthony made it a mission to get their song recorded and released,
Anthony joined the Our Lady of the Assumption Church choir soon after when he met music director Dan Thaler. After spending some time singing in the choir with Dan, he knew this song would be a perfect fit for his classical voice.
“A light bulb went off in my head when I first heard Dan sing,” Anthony said. “Dan’s powerful voice was a perfect fit for this song, and that was when I knew that I had to record it.”
Anthony was able to produce, record and mix the song through his own music production business, The HarmonyGuy Company. He worked with Jon Gordon on mastering and engineering the song.
Anthony also hired bassist Lincoln Schleifer, guitarist Marc Schulman and violinists Tara Porcaro and Carly Valentine to perform on the song, as he left no stone unturned to bring him and his late friend’s dream to reality – making the song title even more fitting.
The song “A Dream Come True” was released in July 2014, and can be found on YouTube, iTunes and Amazon. According to Liccese, the song’s message, “True and perfect love” is typical for John’s writings, and nothing less.
“I felt obligated to finish the job that John and I had started over 20 years ago,” said Liccese.
“My good friend John was a creator of progressive songs that carried insightful and spiritual messages. Those messages were instrumental when it came to us bonding together in a musical partnership.”
“A Dream Come True” featuring Dan Thaler is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5b2hAYwiuo and is available for listen and/or download on iTunes and Amazon.
