Do you believe in late Christmas Goo gifts?

A couple of weeks before last Christmas I briefly talked about the possibility of providing our amazing readers with a Christmas gift, to celebrate the increase in views and attention the blog has been getting. Albeit, I also mentioned the fact that due to force majeure I was not sure whether or not I could provide it in time for December 25th. Obviously that was the case. Today, I keep my promise… With more than a month of lateness.

One of the rarest Goo Goo Dolls treasures one can hope to find is the 1997’s re-recorded version of a song which only appeared on a Christmas two-tune cassette the band released in 1989, for charity purposes. Yes, you already know which song I’m talking about.

“Do You Believe” appeared in the aforementioned cassette, and featured the unforgettable Lance Diamond taking over John and Robby on vocals, with the help of another unknown woman. In 1997, the band recorded a slightly different, yet way more improved version of the same song with the different title “Do You Believe In Him”, always for charity reasons, always featuring Lance and another woman providing backing vocals.

Before you continue, I encourage you to read this post, where I provide some more details about the nature of the tunes, on top of making my case as to why I consider the 1997’s remake one of the best Goo Goo Dolls songs ever written.

Those like me who have searched for the re-recorded version for the longest time know that Internet has only offered very low-quality versions of it, in a Lossy format. I am talking rips which were shared at quite scandalous bitrates, even lower than the decently acceptable 192kbps one. Today, I share with you the Lossless rip. This is an exclusive event, as such variant has never (to my knowledge) been shared before on the web.

What is the difference between Lossy and Lossless compression? This very detailed page tells you exactly that. Read it and learn something new about how compressing audio files works in general.

In a nutshell, the Lossy formats compress data in order to reduce file sizes. In the process of doing so, some data can be lost. Conversely, Lossless compression keeps everything as is, basically making a 1:1 copy of a given photo or audio file. Obviously, the latter occupies more disk space as no compression or data loss has taken place.

This post, therefore, offers you a Lossless version of “Do You Believe In Him”, coming with the famous FLAC format, for the first time ever. Yes, what you’ll be getting today is basically a 1:1 copy of the track as if you had the original CD in your hands.

Furthermore, on top of the amazing song, you also get information, which in this case is also as tasty and again, to my knowledge, these details hit the web for the first time ever. Alright, let’s get into it.

One of the reasons I’ve struggled so much to find the CD which features the song is that it is actually very rare. The “That Other Christmas CD” was issued in 1997 and sold only in a few music stores in Buffalo, NY, the Goo Goo Dolls’ native hometown. The goal was to gather money which was then utilized for charity activities towards a drug & alcohol abuse foundation in the very same area. I tracked the CD for many years before finding someone willing to sell it to me. When I did, there have also been issues with international shipping which delayed even further this very late Christmas gift for you all.

One of the reasons I wanted to get my hands on it was because I was curious about who wrote and produced one of my favorite Goo Goo Dolls songs, as such details were nowhere to be found on the net. Lo and behold, here they are… and they provide some very interesting insights indeed!

First and foremost, let’s take a look at the back cover for the album:

As you can seen, the song has been renamed from its original 1989’s title “Do You Believe” into “Do You Believe In Him“. I am not sure whether or not the missing question mark is a misprint, or an intentional choice. Now, onto the Liner Notes scan of the CD.

And finally, the mystery is solved. Here is the juicy info about this great song. Let’s analyze it together:

• Firstly, you notice how they refer to it in its original title “Do You Believe“. In my opinion, this clarifies the fact that this is actually a remake of a song which was previously released. It is likely they were forced to add the “In Him” part due to copyright reasons, as a change of label had taken place in-between 1989 and 1997.
• We also get to know who actually wrote it, that is the band themselves along with John Armand Petri. According to Discogs, Petri only has one writing credit on his belt, and it is not for a Goo Goo Dolls song. This information is pivotal: “Do You Believe” was the first and only song the band wrote with him.
• But wait, there’s more. We know that Petri produced the second and third albums (“Jed” and “Hold Me Up”), and he also worked on the pre-production phases for the following two (“Superstar Car Wash” and “A Boy Named Goo”) before being replaced by a producer chosen by the label in both last cases. I was certain his collaboration with the Goo Goo Dolls ended when “A Boy Named Goo” was released. This proves me wrong. “Do You Believe In Him” was in fact produced and engineered by him specifically for the “That Other Christmas CD” compilation. Not only this song represents the last collaboration between the Goo’s and the amazing Lance Diamond, but also the last partnership between John et al. and Petri himself.
• It’s not over yet. We also get to know that Petri played the piano on that tune. It’s nice to know that one of the band’s most important characters which helped them reach worldwide success was also responsible for one of my favorite Goo tunes as an instrumentalist.
• Last but not least, we also get another name. The identity of the mysterious and talented woman helping Lance with his endeavor providing backing vocals is none other than Buffalo, NY artist Dolly Durante, also known as Paula Durante. Here is her profile on Discogs. You can check a couple of pictures of her below. In the first one, she is posing at an event. In the second one, she is singing at the Lance Diamond’s memorial event in 2015, after the singer had tragically died. Needless to say, the Goo Goo Dolls also participated to the memorial, and played “Name” in his honor.

So there you have it, mystery finally solved (after decades).

Now, it’s time to let the music speak for itself. Below you can stream the song, its instrumental counterpart (created with the latest AI technologies), and the four stems comprising it (also created with AI). Furthermore, download links are provided as well. The download section offers the song in FLAC format and its AI-Generated counterpart in .mp3 format.

Remember: You got this marvelous content from the Temple Of Goo, hitting the World Wide Web for the first time ever…in Lossless glory!

DOWNLOAD (Main Source)

DOWNLOAD (Mirror 1)