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From: Willie Schoellkopf
First, thanks and appreciation to Charlie ("Chuckie") O'Neill, Chris Clark, and all who contributed their time & energy to the re-release of the choir album. I hope everyone knows that a portion of the proceeds are going to the St. Teresa's Comeback Run. The project has brought back many treasured memories of those years at St. Teresa's in the early '60s. What a cool bunch of kids. Father Leo ("Pops") McCarthy was a wonderful assistant to the Great Monsignor, and we were all very lucky to have a guy like him as our mentor and role model.
One of my most vivid memories involves the making of the record itself. I'm sure the other Savios will remember it differently, or not at all, but here's what happened. Mr. Uschold was the recording engineer--I think he was the only guy in South Buffalo who had a tape recorder--and for some reason, he and Fr. McCarthy decided we needed to record "O Holy Night" in the Mt. Mercy auditorium rather than the Parish Center (by the way, does anyone other than Chris Clark still have their "Basil Button"?). I think it had something to do with acoustic resonance. Anyway, I was singing the solo on that song, and I was having trouble with it. Of course, there was no "overdubbing" or "punching in" on Mr. Uschold's rig...if there was a mistake, we had to do the whole song over. After three or four excruciating tries, we finally pulled one off, solo and all. Fr. Leo was doin! g ! his patented stretch to get us to hold out the last note, when all of a sudden there was a loud, unmistakeable "CLUNK." Charlie had dropped his 8th grade ring onto the stage floor, and the acoustic resonance of it all was too much for me. What happened next is not quite so...
