It's been said "there's a song for every city."
You can now add the Electric City to that list...
Schenectady County Community College School of Music faculty member Cliff Brucker wrote, produced and recorded a jingle, "Schenectady is the Place," at the request of Mayor Gary McCarthy, who is facing a tough reelection battle against Roger Hull. "The mayor's a friend of mine and I mentioned to him that I had a great idea for a jingle and I was wondering if he'd give me some money to produce it. And of course there's no money in the budget in election year to produce a song. I still wanted to do it. Wait. What a great idea. To connect the School of Music at SCCC - we have a brand new state-of-the-art recording studio - we just opened - and we have a new degree in there in the audio recording arts. And I said why don't we do it down there, so I talked to Dean Meckley as sais why don't we do it here, produce it here at the studio and I'll recruit student singers and then the faculty can present the backing tracks and we can do it as a joint project to highlight all the great things that are happening in the city. And it'll show off the School of Music."
Dean Bill Meckley says he's happy Brucker brought the project forward. "Cliff composed the piece and produced the recording. And then, another member of our faculty, Sten Isachsen, did the actual recording, engineering and all the post-production, which was a great deal of work. And all of that was done in our recording studio, the Vianna-Brignola Studio in the School of Music at SCCC, and then there were also students involved as performers."
Spohomore Amanda Cuthbert sings first lead on the jingle. "I sing about all the different local things that are going on in Schenectady. A buncha new buildings, the casino, and then of course and SCCC and the media department here and Proctor's things that people come to Schenectady to see. It's really nice. It's very catchy. It's cute. I think it's a lot of fun for other people to sing along to."
Tonight at 7 p.m the Schenectady City Council is scheduled to formally adopt the jingle as the official song of Schenectady.
- Schenectady’s the Place
(1st Verse)
It’s in our DNA, it’s what we are today
Our history abounds, you can see it all around,
Edison and Steinmetz brains, ALCO built the trains
we lit and hauled the world, innovation is our fame
(Climb)
Just look at us today, a renaissance is under way
A community reborn, success is here to stay;
(Chorus)
Schenectady’s the place, a city tried and true
Schenectady's the place, we’re the city right for you
(2nd Verse)
Arts and culture for your eyes, from Proctor’s to MiSci
Educational opportunity, from Union College to SCCC
Casino by the shore, Hotels, Restaurants galore
it's such a fabulous place, there's so much to explore
(Climb)
Central park's a place to play, a renaissance is under way,
A community reborn, here’s what we have to say,
(Modulate up) Come check us out today
(Chorus)
Schenectady’s the place, a city tried and true
Schenectady's the place, we’re the city,
we’re the city, we’re the city right for you
