Anne Leighton and Priscilla Harriett Looking For Musicians’ Whose Eyes Wander... To Santa

Win $100 Making the Best Youtube Video of Songwriting Duo's XMAS Song

It was a spontaneous decision that Anne Leighton had with her friend, songwriter Dianne Baumgartner, “Everyone would have fun with your Christmas song.” Dianne, whose songs have been recorded by Carla Olsen and Shelby Lynne, also taught Anne how to write songs when she was starting in the music business.

Anne dabbles a little bit in songwriting, winning a DAR Songwriting contest in the 1970s as a high school student, and then in the ‘90s sharing an honorable mention with Buffalo’s first lady of Rock, Jessie Galante in a Billboard songwriting contest, Other than that, her career is in artist development and as a writer, doing publicity, management/music services, and poetry these days. (Anne’s new book, THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION on Canada’s Soul Asylum Records—released this past October—is still selling into the Christmas Season).

Priscilla Harriett is more focused as a songwriter and musician, and still is popular in the New Jersey/LeHigh Valley music scene. Famous rock musicians who later went on to play in Cinderella, Enuff Z’nuff and Britney Fox were in Priscilla’s bands.

“I Got My Eye on You, Santa” is a flirtatious Christmas song. Anne wrote most of the words and music. Priscilla improved it, tweaking some the melody plus getting specific with the lyrics, “waiting by the chimney with homemade cookies and a smile that is sparkling so bright!”

“I Got My Eye on You, Santa” lyrics and melody, plus the contest rules are available at soundcloud.com/leightonmedia/i-got-my-eye-on-you-santa.

The contest is free to enter.

These are the rules:

Make the best youtube music video of this song, with a wandering eye of "I Got My Eye on You, Santa," by Jan. 1, 2016, 12:00 AM EST, and you will be awarded a money order of $100 by Jan. 20, 2016.

Be creative-if you rap, go for it. If you do choir arrangements, get your choir to flirt with Santa. Rock it, folk it, funk it, showtune it. Most of all, have fun!

Choice of video to be determined by songwriters Anne Leighton & Priscilla Harriett. Money will be sent via money order from New York State.

Once you post the video, please tweet to Anne at @LeightonMedia on Twitter or feel free to post the youtube link below in the Comments' section for this song on soundcloud.

Downloadable flyer to share with musician friends for the contest:

Anne Leighton Releases Her First Book of Poetry, THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION!

Tour dates and merchandise to follow, bit by bit, through 2017!

Anne Leighton is pleased to announce the birth of her first poetry book, THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION, which has always been the title Anne has wanted to use. “Inspired by The Music Explosion who rocked with a favorite song, ‘A Little Bit Of Soul.’ It's optimistic, glorious, fun, and self-empowering, which are qualities I love in art... “

Empowerment was something Anne felt all the way through the making of the book. She pre-sold THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Lots of friends, including her stepbrother Ken Bluttman, helped her along. “Through my whole adult life, when my dad was telling me to get ‘a real job with the phone company,’ Ken was one of the biggest cheerleaders I had.” In the campaign, Ken would cc Anne and some of her closest friends in round-robin emails, “Come on, let’s spread the word; she’s gonna reach her goal.” Anne says,”He believed in me.”

Her father’s attitudes changed for the better as Anne became an editor at a rock magazine, HIT PARADER, and built a freelance career as a writer in rock, fitness, and cat magazines including BILLBOARD, GOLDMINE, CREEM, CATFANCY, INSIDE KUNG FU/KARATE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, and then authoring books: USING YOUR ART AND THE MEDIA TO COMFORT PEOPLE (Free to Run, California) and PAWS FOR THOUGHT HOW TO KNOW WHAT YOUR CAT IS THINKING (Rockwell UK), and her own 2014 ebook, GET THE GIG: COMMON SENSE CAREER CONSULTING. Her plays are read in churches, libraries, and bars. They were also performed at the Howl Fest and by The Poets Repertory Theater of Long Island. She won some small writing awards and honorable mention for a 1993 BILLBOARD songwriting contest for the song “Carry Across” with Jessie Galante. She also works in music and publicity with clients that include Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson (who wrote the foreword to THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION).

Anne has also performed on radio and in a variety of recordings, from Jay Tausig’s TRIP AROUND THE MOON series to the the GRAMMY-nominated album, HEALTHY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT. It was with the making of HFFT that she met Canadian poetry publisher Ken Cowle.

THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION is available for order at every major book chain in North America, Australia, Europe, South America. Next, look for Anne’s growing merchandise line (e-books, home recordings of the book, USB sticks, and her T-shirts, all designed by Anne!).

As for her agoraphobia, she’s becoming more mighty every day. She travels by buses throughout the city, and then asks people to help her cross the street till she reaches her destination. She will be traveling and sharing her poetry live through 2017 in New England, Washington, DC, eastern Pennsylvania, Buffalo, Bronx and Manhattan. She would love to open for Courtney Barnett.

E-books as PDF files will be available for media; please email Anne at Anne@AnneLeighton.com

“Anne Leighton is hilarious.” — Bebe Buell, author of REBEL HEART, singer, animal lover

“Whether musing about pets or past loves, the pleasure of her word-play is palpable.”— Sander Roscoe Wolff, LBPost.com

“You have an awesome book, Anne, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and found myself, smiling often, and laughing out loud at times too, with your great sense of humor and wit.” — Ken Cowle, Anne’s publisher at Soul Asylum books

www.anneleighton.com

Ordering page for Autographed copies anneleighton.com/store/

THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION on Amazon: www.amazon.com/The-Leighton-Explosion-Anne/dp/1926876539

Photos at www.flickr.com/photos/8320698@N05/albums/72157611847817960 between Vonda Shepard and Brenton Wood.