Tom Jones the Musical Fox Huntin' - Mark Brown

Tom Jones the Musical Demo Sessions

I was in NYC last week to record demos for my new musical, Tom Jones the Musical. Man that’s a clever title. This week I’ve been writing a series of posts about those sessions. The other posts are: Kerry Butler and Dan DeLuca recording “About You;” Anissa Felix and Josh Tolle recording “Digging a Hole in the Ground;” Janine LaManna, Anissa Felix and Cullen Titmas recording “Harlot Jenny Jones;” and Janine LaManna and Adam Kaplan singing “London Town.”

Fox Huntin’

This song eluded me for a long long time. There’s a fox hunt in the first act and I wanted “fox hunting'” to be like a new dance craze. Sort of like the “mashed potato” or “the pony.” I wrote a bunch of different versions with different lyrics but was never happy with any of them.

I pounded my head against the wall for a very long time. And then…inspiration. It came to me. I don’t know how but I don’t care. It was something I actually liked. I wrote the song pretty quickly after the chords and the melody came to me. I wanted it to be a fairly simple song. A lot of the songs from the British Invasion were lyrically simple and that’s what I’ve been aiming for with these songs.

Dan DeLuca

I wrote about Dan in my post about he and Kerry Butler singing “About You.” Briefly: handsome, talented and nice. I hate him. Was in Newsies and is currently in Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Godspeed Opera House. Will be a big star.

Dan came into the studio in the afternoon and warmed up with “About You.” We then launched into “Fox Hunting'” and he completely captured what I was looking for in the song. Pure fun.

The background vocals are sung by Paul Mirkovich from the scratch vocals we recorded in LA.

This was the last song of the day and it was a great one to end on.

Tom Jones – The Musical

Here’s a brief synopsis of the show and what I’m doing with it.

In this thrilling adventure of the heart, Tom Jones, a charming young man of questionable birth and the ward of Squire Allworthy, is madly in love with Sophie Western and she with him. But when Sophie’s father arranges for her to marry Squire Allworthy’s loathsome and devious nephew, Blifil, she swears her undying love to Tom and flees for her life. Tom goes in search of Sophie, but hot on his heels are Sophie’s father, Sophie’s aunt, Squire Allworthy and Blifil, who are all in search of Sophie as well.

Set against this madcap story is music inspired by that frenzied mop-top-led era of music of the 1960s known as the British Invasion. Think The Beatles, Herman’s Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Hollies, the Animals, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield and of course—Tom Jones. It was a time of catchy, top-of-the-pop-chart songs that had everyone from London to New York City hitting the dance floor to do the Jerk, the Pony, the Shimmy and the Mashed Potato. Aristocrats, wenches and scalawags abound in this bawdy and rollicking romp through the back roads and bedchambers of England.