Quite a long time ago now, I conceived the idea of writing a Jazz Standard Christmas song. I was playing a cocktail piano gig a the time, I think, and all those classic American songs were running through my head and flowing through my fingers. And so I wrote the Choruses and the Bridge to “I Wanted Love for Christmas.” I was thinking maybe Peggy Lee or Nancy Wilson.
Years later, I think while I was teaching a class in songwriting, I was getting obsessed with classic American song form. To wit (I think): Introduction, Verse, Vamp, Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Reprise, Ending, Tag. I think the finished song has most of those parts. If you think this makes the song “too long,” then you don’t get it.
Ted Silar 