Cove Cliff: the Ballad of Sean Hosein

There is a man named Sean Hosein who works behind the scenes in the music industry, penning hits, mixing tracks and generally manning the ones and twos. His illustrious career includes a string of notable compositions, and he has written music for and worked with artists like 98 Degrees, Jessica Simpson, Color Me Badd, Stacie Orrico, All for One, M2M, The Corrs, Kelly Rowland, Amy Grant, and everyone's favourite actual-one-hit-wonder-boy-band-from-a-reality-show, O-Town. I also have it on good authority that he wrote the commercial jingle for the United Buy & Sell Furniture Warehouse, which any person on the Canadian westcoast or the Pacific Northwest could sing for you without hesitation.

However, there is one group he worked with that is strangely absent from his musical resumé, a group that I have a very close connection to, and a group that he would maybe rather forget.

Sean Hosein wrote the theme song for my elementary school.

My early alma mater, Cove Cliff Elementary, apparently needed a song for the children and faculty to rally around and proudly sing together, and the principal at the time, Lois Hosein, chose her son to get it done.

It was a stirring ballad, a powerful anthem, and a moving tribute to a school. It was also recorded by a local chanteuse and put onto two tapes, one vocal and one instrumental. Legend has it that when the music teacher was fired from her job, she took the instrumental version along with her. Thus, we now have all too clear memories of awkward children, standing in an assembly, singing along with a pre-recorded and overdone vocal performance.

The one benefit to this repetitive and educationally enforced singing was that I still know the song, word for word and off by heart, to this very day. So without further adieu, I present to you, the aptly titled "Cove Cliff Song".

There's a place, that I keep in my heart,
For things that are special to me.
There's a voice, when we all sing along,
A voice that will carry to the top of the trees.

We are sharing, with each other.
We are learning that we all can belong.
We will care for, one another.
Together we're going to be the best we can be.

Oh Cove Cliff.
Cove Cliff.
We'll sing to the mountains,
And out to the sea.
Oh Cove Cliff.
Cove Cliff.
Together the best we can be.

There's a place, that I keep in my heart,
For things that are special to me.

For things that are special,
To me.

You can check out more of Sean's work at his company's website, and if anyone can get me a copy of the actual song, I will personally mail them a cheque for five dollars.