Danny was on Island Records at the same time as Bourgeois Tagg back in the 80's, and we ran into each other all the time back then. More recently, we bumped into each other at the Warner Chappell building and resolved, as songwriters do as a nervous habit whenever they meet, to write a song together. As it turned out, he lived about a mile away from where I was staying, which was a good 50 miles out of Los Angeles, so there seemed to be a serendipitous quality to the enterprise. It also made it harder to back out. My idea of terror is sitting in a room with another musician and trying to write a song from scratch--the whole idea seems like a recipe for mediocrity, in my opinion-- on the night before we had planned to get together, I cobbled a few chords together so we would have something to work with. When we sat down at his house, he defined it, aligned it, and refined it. When I left, we had recorded something that sounded song-like, but without any lyrics. We both made solemn vows to try to come up with some.

I had always wanted to write a song in the effortless, naive style that the Beatles perfected in about '65, albums like "Beatles VI." I sat down over the next week or so and came up with "Hand in Hand." Now Danny had a pretty full plate at the time, the Rembrandts "LP" record was coming out, and they had just recorded a theme song for some new TV show called "Friends," so we used my lyrics. I came over and made a pass at singing it. By that time, he had added some great mandolin and guitar tracks -- he is one of the great "home recording" experts in the world, I think. He came up with a great, on-the-spot idea for some background vocals, we sang 'em, played some shakers and stuff, mixed it, and it was done that day . . . except for one last thing, which was to paste a sample of a harp flourish on the front of it, a sample of a sample Todd used at the beginning of "For the Want of a Nail."

p.s. (I guess the "Friends" thing worked out pretty good for Danny, because the next time I saw him he was singing the National Anthem at the World Series.)

I got a string
And you got a kite --
Don't we go hand in hand?
You're the sun
And I'm a satellite -- 
Don't we go hand in hand?
Even though you never want to talk about love
We're mated like two kid gloves
You say where
And I say "Why
Don't we go hand in hand?"
I got a hammer
And you got a bell -- 
Don't we go hand in hand?
My fear of heights
And your bottomless well -- 
Don't we go hand in hand?
Don't say you didn't see it before
We're mated like the sea and the shore
I'm an apple
You're William Tell -- 
Don't we go hand in hand?
I thought I'd seen too much
To ever let anyone touch me
The way you touch me
Say you'll love me
Always
Don't pretend it never crossed your mind
If you'll stay, so will I
We're headed toward a sunset sky
We can go hand in hand
We're headed toward a sunset sky
We can go hand in hand

Danny Wilde - harmony vocal, guitars, mandolin, tambourine, and shaker
Larry Tagg -- lead vocal, bass, keyboards, tambourine, shaker, and rhythm program
Recorded at Danny's house by Danny Wilde
Mixed by Danny Wilde