Lyrics Made to Order

Maybe it has never occurred to you that a great gift would be to give someone a personal song to celebrate a special event, or for you to communicate something you have always wanted to say, but in a unique manner.

Now you have a resource in Jazz-It-Up’s lyrics made to order. In addition to the many song lyrics Bob has written for his customized musical comedy shows, for over 40 years he has crafted individualized songs for business and social events. Research, insightfulness, and a lively imagination combine to create lyrics that everyone will enjoy and then laugh about for years. Bob’s lyrics always find a way to combine good humor with a heartfelt honoring of the “roastee”.

All kinds of people, in all kinds of situations, have been on the receiving end of Bob’s unique way of honoring people using humor and music: surprise parties thrown by employees for the CEO; wedding anniversaries; hospital patients in need of some laughs; sales training and educational forums where music and humor were key to expressing business or new product concepts – and many others.

So, what comes first, the words or the music? Bob often gets the idea for what lyric to write by going through his extensive song list to find one that speaks to him – the feel and theme of the song leading to a funny idea particularly suited to the situation. American popular songs written in the heyday of Tin Pan Alley work particularly well because, for the most part, they are familiar melodies and easy to learn, were written to convey many moods and situations, and were often spiced with a touch of humor.

Bob can deliver the song in several different ways, as the client prefers. The options include: sending you the lyric in printed form, creating a tape or CD to be played at the event, or performing the song in person with his banjo, either by himself or with others singing along. For the “full Monty,” have Bob do the song, accompanied by his unique washtub base, scrubboard, kazoo band, featuring your employees or guests as stars of the show.

"We recently hired Bob Whyte to create a special song for one of IBM’s clients to be sung by Bob at the client’s annual Christmas party. By conducting confidential interviews with key personnel and studying company materials we provided to him, Bob came up with extremely clever song lyrics that poked harmless fun at idiosyncrasies of management, included humorous incidents that all employees could relate to, and reflected the shared values and goals of the company. It was an amazing accomplishment, particularly since Bob only had 10 days to do the research and create the lyrics. In addition to delivering the song with his trademark high-energy style, he got a number of employees up on stage to form a rhythm instrument (gutbucket, washboard, spoons, etc.) band and lead the audience of 300 people in a sing-a-long of Christmas pop tunes. Happy times!

Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend Bob Whyte to anyone who is planning a business meeting or special event and wants to “jazz-it-up” with a song made to order."

- YanChing Zhang, PhD, MBA
Client Executive
IBM Global Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry


“Having been present on several occasions when your customized-lyric songs were first presented to their 'honoree,' I can attest to their enthusiastic reception, both by the person of honor as well as the audience. You have a real talent for blending words and music into a tailor-made gift that enlivens virtually any occasion.”

- Richard Wedemeyer,
Vice President, The Muppets


"For an important family celebration I organized recently, I wanted to top off the evening with a tailor-made musical comedy song for the guest of honor. Finding someone who is really creative at this sort of thing, who has the experience and skill to do the research to come up with a story and songs that are sharp and yet “in bounds”, is not easy. Fortunately, I had known Bob Whyte for about 10 years through our respective business careers and was comfortable with his professionalism and creativity in whatever he tackles...I asked him to put together a program, including songs written specifically for this event.

The results were beyond my expectations. In typical Bob Whyte fashion he created a hilarious story with songs, based on “facts” as told to him by family members, but embellished with a fiction story that was funny, and also brought out the best attributes of the guest of honor.

This was an exceptional performance, and I would be happy to recommend Bob to others who want to lighten up an event with original humor and music."

- Dennis Lockhart
Chairman, Small Enterprise Assistance Funds