Notice
How can you arrange a Studio Session on a Friday, play that Session on a Sunday, teach all of the Musicans (payed Triple Overtime by the way) a Song right there on the spot, and come up with an All-Time Pop Song Classic??
Well, evidently, that is what happened here with "Hello, It's Me", destined to be Rundgren's Shining Moment in the Pop Music spotlight, though some may refer to this song as Todd's Albatross around his neck, and the ensuing success with this Ballad may have well driven him away from making anything resembling "Commercial" Music again for many years to come.
For some reason, this song seems to somehow embody the 1970's Pop Culture Myth, and always seems to pop-up wherever and whenever anything comes along describing the '70's, be it a Documentary, Movie, CD compilation, TV Show, this song seems to make an obligitory appearance.
The song itself was actually penned by Rundgren in the mid 1960's, Todd enduring his first heartbreak in High School flame named Marlene Pinkard. Many of his early songs reflected upon that relationship as a motivating force behind what became some brilliant Song Writing.
"Hello, It's Me" was originally recorded by Todd's first Band "The Nazz" in 1967, and was released as a Double A-Side Single along with "Open My Eyes". The song did fairly well on the East Coast USA, but Nazz rarely ventured out of the Northeastern States to promote any Records by doing Tours. They were a regional phenom Band, and were a well kept secret for their brief time together.
The Nazz version of "Hello, It's Me" is not even close to the 1972 version which brought Rundgren his long awaited Classic Hit song. The Nazz version is very moody and sultry, using a Triplet Feel thing, and a very slow and subdued Tempo to boot, along with the fact that Stewkey sang the Lead Vocal (Todd on Backing Vocal), but it still is a great Song and showed all of the promise the young Kid from Upper Darby could bring to Popular Music in the next few years.
True Pitch (-0.36), which means I tuned the "Recorded Version" DOWN 0.36 of a Tone. So, please Tune your Instrument UP to jam to Recorded Version.
Bass Line is Scored from original Recording, Bass Player John Siegler came up with one the most well-known Bass-Hooks ever put to Vinyl (the opening Riff, which does repeat many-many times throughout the Song).
There are three modes of thought behind this Tablature:
1) A Full Piano Score, Tabbed Note-for-Note from original Recording.
2) Consider this an arrangement for Two Guitars.
3) A "Classical" Guitar Score. Tune as follows: E, A, D, G, B, E), and use Gtr 1 as Melody, and use Gtr 2 as a (Duet) Bass Line.
