The inspiration for this song was my own experiences raising my children. I believed it was a relatable experience and that maybe other parents experienced similar feelings. I rarely create songs written with lyrics. This song would not be the same without the vocals so I made the rare exception of allowing a song with my voice to actually be released.

Lyrics

Verse 1.
Seems like just yesterday I held you and could hold you with one arm. You were so small and beautiful to me. Seems like just yesterday I held you and loved you when you cried. Late nights all the time held you near me. Tried hard couldn’t sleep without you near me. In my dreams I think of and dream of You Little One. And then I wake up and all I wanna do is check on you. Are you breathing? How do you feel? Are you covered? Now I can start my day?

Main Chorus Vocal
One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you through the day. One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you every day.

Background Chorus Vocal
One Two three Four I Will Love You. One Two three Four I Will Love You.

Verse 2.
Seems like just yesterday I heard you start talking the first time. You said lots of things that made me smile too. Seems like just yesterday I held you and loved you when you fell. Running and playing is what you did best, smiling and laughing is what I liked best. Every day I watch you and love you and feed you little one. And if you need a rest, I’ll lay you on my chest, and i’ll check Are you breathing? How do you feel? Are you covered? Now I continue my day?

Children
talking and laughing

Second Main Chorus Vocal
One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you through the day. One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you every day. One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you through the day. One Two Three Four Years fly by. I will just love you every day.

Second Background Chorus Vocal
Warmness coldness. I will Check on you. Warmness coldness. I will Check on you. Warmness coldness. I will Check on you. Warmness coldness. I will Check on you.

Verse 3.
And now I see that your eyes are red, It looks like it’s time for bed. I’ve kept you up too late. I’ll let you hold my arm after I tuck you in. Your dreams can now begin. And I check Are you breathing? How do you feel? Are you covered? Now I can end my day?

The journey from idea to Check on You.

I worked on this song sporadically over the course of many years. I do not remember the beginning of the tune that would become Check on You. I just started playing it. Many times Since 1998 when I would pick up the guitar and try and think of a song I would end up playing this tune. I do not play the guitar very often and tend to think piano. My largest problem with guitar is I just hear the music in my head and then play it. If I make a mistake on piano and the note I play is not what I heard in my head I just hit the keys until I find the right note. On a guitar it is not as easy to just randomly hit notes until you hear the one you are looking for. So when I do play guitar it is more single notes than chords. I thought the guitar tune sounded like a soft lullaby. When my first child was born thought of lyrics. That is when I first decided to turn my little guitar tune into a full song with the original name Guitar 09-05-16. I worked on playing and composing the lyrics in my spare time for months. When I could finally play the entire song from beginning to end. I set out to record my first fully live instrument song. (Technically In 2001 I composed a piano song called Goodbye with lyrics and actually performed (including singing) the song on a real piano for another person. That song however has never been released and I never recorded the performance on a real piano.) I now have a lot more respect for anyone who records live instruments. I am accustomed to virtual instruments. Live instruments are finicky. Phase issues, tuning issues, volume issues. All of which only matter if I play the guitar perfectly in the first place. Which I frequently did not do. Haha. After months of practicing off and on I finally recorded myself playing the guitar for the entire song in one take. It would have been easier to record the song in parts and combine them for the song but I felt it was a personal accomplishment to play the entire song from beginning to end in one take. If real musicians can play entire sets in one take I could at least play the guitar for 4 minutes without making any disastrous mistakes. Once recorded I thought it sounded pretty good. It was just a guitar with some recorded test vocals to help me remember the tempo of the lyrics. I was unable to leave it alone however. I kept hearing instruments in my head that I wanted to include in the song. I finally decided to just give in and started adding additional instruments to the song. This is when I first learned about all of those issues with recording live instruments. By itself the guitar did not sound very bad. But as soon as I started adding professionally recorded virtual instruments. I learned the realities of live recording. The phase and tuning issues wreaked havoc on the song. I compensated and changed the arrangement to help everything gel together better. Over the years I took the time to try and record some of the vocals with real vocals. I was never very successful. Each time I needed to record vocals it was a process of rearranging my studio/office/exercise/everything area and turning it into a vocal recording booth/engineering area. This would sometimes take 3 hours. Then I would record the same take multiple times each time getting my voice a little closer to being in key. Haha. I never intended for my actual vocals to be used for the song but I did very much intend to get better at singing. I thought I could someday at least be acceptable if I tried hard enough. After the birth of my second and third children I would go back to the song within a year and add some children’s vocals and tell myself once again that “I need to finish this song. I like this song!” Thankfully after 7 years I finally said enough is enough and decided to finish and release the song. I made it part of my 2023 new year resolutions. The base of the song was already there. I had a nice musical composition and some temporary vocals. I believed I was close to completion. I just needed to mix and master the song. I originally had a lot of grand ideas of what I was going to do to get the song finished. Once May hit and I was nowhere near getting any of those grand ideas done. I accepted reality and decided to just finish and release the song. Finish being the word that I had the most problems with. I had to accept that either I was going to release a song that was not perfect or I was most likely going to fail at releasing the song this year or possibly ever. So I decided an unfinished (imperfect) released song was better than a finished (perfect) song that was unreleased. In may I hurriedly added few more instruments and changed a few sections of composition. I quickly mixed and mastered the song. I Copyrighted it and sent it off for distribution.

Let me know what you think.

My musical workflow includes very little outside interaction. I have lots of songs that are composed, mixed, and mastered all by myself and all unreleased. Some songs I have shared with a few friends and family. Check on You is not one of them. Outside the people in this house that have heard the song hundreds of times no one else heard it before it’s release. Let me know what you think. I will appreciate positive comments and constructive criticisms as well.