Welcome to Musical Chairs!-a project where I release a daily music video featuring myself performing with a rotating lineup of fellow musicians and loved ones.

 Youtube: https://youtu.be/8p0zA0dJhaA

Today’s song  (#11 of 31) “Charlene” was written by Randy Spring in 1976. I absolutely love this song for its simplicity, its feel and the imagery it creates.  Randy describes it as “an ode to Texas women inspired at 2:00AM by a cute little North Dallas Waffle House waitress who nursed our table back to life after a hard night of Honky Tonkin.  Her name badge simply said Charlene.”

It was incredibly meaningful for me to do this song with Randy as he is one of my earliest mentors.  It was at Randy’s encouragement that I began playing publicly, with our first gig being at The Geneva Mining Company in 1976, along with my little brother, Kelly. Randy is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who began playing in bands when he was in the 8th grade, forming the “New Breed” with future Boyzz drummer Kent Cooper.  As a songwriter, he has written jingles and many original songs and is an accomplished lead vocalist and harmony back up vocalist.  As a musician, Randy plays lead & rhythm guitar, bass guitar and keyboards and has played such diverse styles as country, rock, pop and jazz.

Location note: The Baker Community Center in downtown St. Charles IL.  It was a special treat to record here as it is where most of our high school dances were held back in the day!  Both Randy and I got to perform here as The O’Brien/Spring band for dances post high school.

Happy holidays!  Please enjoy and share!

For links to all currently released videos, please visit my website http://www.dennisobrienmusic.com/calendar?view=calendar&month=12-2023