Song info, lyrics and credits

Hear "Play for You 2022" on the Songs page

I think the initial genesis was when I heard an Isley Brothers song with a syncopated beat that started a concert. Maybe from a "Live" album? I fleshed out the basic structure with the keyboard, horns and drums on the Korg 01/W-FD and played it for the boys (Ákos, Laci, Peti and Viktor) in our basement practice room. I remember their smiles when the beat kicked in and from there we just worked it up. 

The first version of "Play for You" was recorded for the cassette demo we gave to clubs to get gigs. You can hear that version here: https://soundcloud.com/user-1781007/play-for-you-original 

This was one of the songs we played live along with backing tracks from the synth. Ákos had to have headphones on to hear the click track and then he would signal to us the start. The guys didn't like it too much but I wanted horns, percussion, keyboard parts etc without a 10-piece band so this was the only way we could manage. A few of the original Korg parts are still in the remake version 30 years later.

Also of note is the female vocal line during the bridge, chord modulation. It was too high for me to sing so it later fell to one of the girls and that ended up coming out great. Now it is one of my favorite parts of the song.

I remember Peta (Lukács Péter) complaining about soloing over the various key changes, but one day all of a sudden he started killing it. I asked him what happened and he said "rá jöttem" which basically means "it came to me". I don't know why that moment has stuck with me all these years. I guess because he is such a brilliant guitar player it surprised me that he had to actually work on something. He plays everything so effortlessly, I never considered that occasionally there was some sort of effort involved.

There is a video too from the day we made the original recording, but I don't know if I have that. I do have a bunch of photos though, and you can see more of them by visiting the Robin Hód page (or clicking here).

If you listen carefully at the end of the Play for You 2022 version you can hear audio from one of our "live" shows in the 90s, when we opened for the Cotton Club Singers at what I believe was the former Budapest Sportcsarnok. 

Here are several other songs from that show. I'm embarrassed I messed up the Hungarian lyrics. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-1781007/cappuccino-and-cream-live

Hear "Play for You" on the Songs page