Take the Tom Jones Song Poll, Please So Paul Mirkovich are a little over halfway with recording demos for our new show Tom Jones the Musical. Paul has gone back to work on The Voice so it'll be awhile before we can sit down again in the studio. In the meantime, in order to help me out with which songs I should put on the Dramatic Publishing website, could you please take this poll? Thanks so much for helping me [...]
The Making of Tom Jones [embedplusvideo height="360" width="669" editlink="http://bit.ly/1Xovyvk" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/puUnDk8P2P8?fs=1" vars="ytid=puUnDk8P2P8&width=669&height=360&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep8316" /] My good friend Paul Mirkovich and I are in the midst of recording songs for our new musical Tom Jones, based on the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding. Not based on Tom Jones the Welsh singer. Writing songs always scares me. It's a bit out of my comfort zone. I never know if they're good or plain old crap. I felt [...]
Tom Jones - The Musical The other day I wrote about how my friend Paul Mirkovich and I are recording mock-up demos for our musical Tom Jones. It's been a long time in the making and I'm excited to finally record the songs. The plan is to do these mock-ups so Paul's band can hear them and then we'll record with the band. The idea we've come up with is to keep the story in the 1600s but with modern [...]
Tom Jones the Musical I was commissioned to adapt the novel Tom Jones into a musical. Many years ago. Many. Years. It's not that I've been dragging my feet. It's that I've been waiting on my friend Paul Mirkovich. See, he and I wrote China the Whole Enchilada. I wrote the book, lyrics, and basic melodies. Paul then made the songs much better. Much. better. The show ended up receiving Outstanding Musical at the New York City Fringe Festival. Go [...]
Best Christmas Songs - Lonely This Christmas I'm terribly behind on my 25 Days of Christmas Songs list. Today is "Lonely This Christmas" by Lucky Soul. Lonely This Christmas - Lucky Soul "Lonely This Christmas" is by Mud, an English Glam Rock band from the 1960's-70's. The songs came out in 1974 and reached the number one spot in the UK's Christmas Chart. The version by MUD sounds like a bad Elvis impersonator. I much prefer Lucky Soul's cover. Although I [...]
Best Christmas Songs - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" by The Ramones is definitely on my 25 Days of Christmas Songs list. Sure, Burl Ives has his place in any Christmas song playlist but a Christmas playlist is not complete without a punk band on it. And what says Christmas better than a song that basically says, "Can we just make it through the holidays without killing each other?" Merry Christmas [...]
Best Christmas Songs - Christmas is Cancelled "Christmas is Cancelled" by The Long Blondes is my lucky 13th song of my 25 Days of Christmas song list. Christmas is Cancelled - The Long Blondes The Long Blondes formed in Sheffield, United Kingdom in 2003. Things were going really well for them until 2008 when songwriter and lead guitarist Dorian Cox suffered a massive stroke. He was 27, that weird age when a lot of musicians have passed on. Brian Jones, Jimi [...]
Best Christmas Songs - If I Get Home On Christmas Day I missed posting about the best Christmas songs yesterday so here's the first of two for December 8. Elvis' "If I Get Home on Christmas Day," from the 1971 album Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas. If I Get Home On Christmas Day - Elvis What's Christmas without Elvis? Blue, I tell you. Blue. Although not as popular as his first Christmas album, the aptly named Elvis' Christmas [...]
Best Christmas Songs - All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue Okay I'm behind a few days. The weekend was slam-packed. Day 11 of my 25 Days of Christmas songs is "All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue" by Over the Rhine. All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue - Over the Rhine Over the Rhine is a Cincinnati, Ohio based band. They got their name from the Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhood Over-the-Rhine. Makes sense. They started out as a [...]
Best Christmas Songs - "Just a Sad Xmas" I'm heading into the vault for this one. I posted it last year so you know it deserves to be on your best Christmas songs playlist. "Just a Sad Xmas" by The Soul Duo is one of the finest soul Christmas tracks ever recorded. "Just a Sad Xmas" by Soul Duo Oh baby is this an out-of-sight song. Soul Duo was Ida Sands and Joe Webster, otherwise known as Little Ida and Little Daddy. [...]
