In 1983, I wrote a single lullaby for my sisters first born “Andy” during a road tour with Jimmy Bo Horne, a singer I was playing keyboards for in his band. I sang Andy’s name in the song a few times out of an instinct to help him really connect to the music. When I got off the road from that tour I recorded it at a local 8 track studio called “Star Track”. At about the same time, Mike, a friend of mine, became the proud father of a new daughter, “Rachael” so I inserted her name in the format as a gift.
That started it all!!
My friend Mike urged me numerous times to create a couple of additional songs. He co-wrote one with me and I recorded the series. We called it the “original” personalized lullabies because we could find no-one else doing what I had created. We started a company and forged a partnership with my buddies at the studio and a good friend “Bob” who headed his own print advertising firm.
We called the company “4 Children” in a nod to the 4 partner team we had formed. I would create the music and sing it, Mike would be the prime entrepreneur, Star Track would provide the production facility and Bob would do marketing. Our first “client”, right out of the box, was “Huggies”. Mike had procured the license to use the label of the famous toy company “Playskool” and we became the team to provide Huggies with a promotional program that would allow customers who sent in a collection of “proof of purchase” coupons to receive in the mail a personalized Lullaby cassette (yes cassette) with the child’s name sung in the lyrics as I had done years earlier. The rest is history as they say …
What a ride!!
Well, that phase of our lives ended some time ago and I have decided to carry on independently.
Many of our customers from the past have “found” me on the internet and have written to me hoping to obtain a cd for their newborn or grandbaby or just for themselves because the tape they had when they were little children had worn out! I was so gratified and emotionally moved to know they held it dear all of these years. They had held on to their tape along with other keepsakes from their childhood!
With the advent of the modern “internet age” it has become feasible to offer some of the product along with some new music. So, here we are, I have decided to start this new phase as “Songs for Only You” with the four music programs available on this site. I will add new music in time but this is a nice collection for starters. You can listen to the samples I have created so you can get a taste of the music of each CD. Also I have provided a short description of each Cd’s content along with the lyrics.
Thank You so much for visiting and reading. I sincerely hope you and your little ones will enjoy this music.
Dave Roppolo
July 2016
Simply put, a life in music.
Dave is a versatile and schooled musician with an easy, people-pleasing style.
Born in Lexington Kentucky as a descendent of the famous jazz clarinetist Leon Roppolo, he has since early childhood been drawn to and molded by music of all types. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing drums, piano/keyboards, electric/acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo, flute, harmonica and cello. His vocal style is reminiscent of James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Billy Joel, or Dan Fogelberg, even Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney or Billy Currington.
