Everyone involved in the creation of this passion project loves Musical Theatre. I am a lover of classic musical theatre, especially. In my mind, it doesn't get much better than Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Gershwin, and all of those composers. On the other end of the spectrum, I spend a lot of time listening to Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Punk, Folk, and other contemporary styles, yet always found myself pulling back to these brilliantly written classic tunes.
Back in the fall of 2013 I was in a production of Once Upon a Mattress at The Fireside, playing The Minstrel. Every night when "Yesterday I Loved You" would come on, I would joke backstage with the cast that because of the halftime breakdown on "I openly confess, tonight I love you less", it would make a really fun EDM track. A few months later, in the summer of 2014, I was playing Linville in Damn Yankees at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. During "Near To You" I would sit and wonder what the song would sound like if performed by the band Muse.
At that point I started asking myself and my close music friends the hypothetical question, "what would these classic showtunes sound like if they were written for today's radio?" Fast forward another year, and this question has been percolating around the back of my brain, constantly hearing tunes and thinking "who would write this song today?" In the fall of 2015 I started to put together this passion project, a love letter to the classic musical theatre songs. The project? Take these songs, which are some of the best ever written, and arrange them into the styles beloved today, and see just how they hold up in that light. The result? I honestly couldn't have expected just how amazing these songs would turn out. Between the brilliance of the composers and lyricists, the brilliance of the arrangers, and the brilliance of the performers, these tracks are phenomenal, and prove just how well these songs stand the test of time.
In early 2016, while I was deep in pre-production for this, my father entered the hospital, passing away on February 3rd. In talking with everyone we decided to push forward with the project rather than putting it on hold. The 11th and final track, "New Words" was added during his final days, in his honor.
Thank you for checking out our little project, I hope you enjoy listening to these songs, and I hope you'll take some time and look at the work of our artists, who are all incredible, and have their own projects that definitely deserve to be seen and heard. Also take some time and rediscover some classic showtunes, so many of them really are masterpieces and woefully underperformed or forgotten.
~ Ned
Back in the fall of 2013 I was in a production of Once Upon a Mattress at The Fireside, playing The Minstrel. Every night when "Yesterday I Loved You" would come on, I would joke backstage with the cast that because of the halftime breakdown on "I openly confess, tonight I love you less", it would make a really fun EDM track. A few months later, in the summer of 2014, I was playing Linville in Damn Yankees at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. During "Near To You" I would sit and wonder what the song would sound like if performed by the band Muse.
At that point I started asking myself and my close music friends the hypothetical question, "what would these classic showtunes sound like if they were written for today's radio?" Fast forward another year, and this question has been percolating around the back of my brain, constantly hearing tunes and thinking "who would write this song today?" In the fall of 2015 I started to put together this passion project, a love letter to the classic musical theatre songs. The project? Take these songs, which are some of the best ever written, and arrange them into the styles beloved today, and see just how they hold up in that light. The result? I honestly couldn't have expected just how amazing these songs would turn out. Between the brilliance of the composers and lyricists, the brilliance of the arrangers, and the brilliance of the performers, these tracks are phenomenal, and prove just how well these songs stand the test of time.
In early 2016, while I was deep in pre-production for this, my father entered the hospital, passing away on February 3rd. In talking with everyone we decided to push forward with the project rather than putting it on hold. The 11th and final track, "New Words" was added during his final days, in his honor.
Thank you for checking out our little project, I hope you enjoy listening to these songs, and I hope you'll take some time and look at the work of our artists, who are all incredible, and have their own projects that definitely deserve to be seen and heard. Also take some time and rediscover some classic showtunes, so many of them really are masterpieces and woefully underperformed or forgotten.
~ Ned
Track NotesGeorge ’n the Skankee Doodle Dandies - Give My Regards To Broadway
From the musical "Little Johnny Jones" Words and Music by George M. Cohan Arrangement by Will Boyajian and Marcus Thorne Bagala Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound (degrawsound.com) Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Vocal - Will Boyajian Guitar - Marcus Thorne Bagala Bass - Will Melones (willmelones.com) Drums - Aaron Drescher Trumpet - Dan Wendelken Tenor Sax - Josh Plotner (joshplotnermusic.com) Bari Sax - Josh Plotner Scott Wasserman and Okieriete Onaodowan (ft. Travis Kent) - Getting Married Today From the musical "Company" Words and Music by Stephen Sondheim Arrangement by Scott Wasserman Recorded at Degraw Sound (degrawsound.com) Produced by Scott Wasserman Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mixed by Harper James (harperjamesmusic.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Programming - Scott Wasserman (scott-wasserman.com) Vocals - Okieriete Onaodowan Vocals - Travis Kent (traviskent.co) Common Jack - On The Street Where You Live From the Musical "My Fair Lady" Words by Alan Jay Lerner Music by Frederick Loewe Arrangement by John Gardner Recorded at Muse Light Music Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Executive Prodcer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Guitar, Cavaquinho, and Vocals - John Gardner (commonjackmusic.com) Megan Dorn (w/ Marcus Thorne Bagala) - “I Enjoy Being a Girl" From the musical "Flower Drum Song" Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Music by Richard Rodgers Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala Recorded at Muse Light Music Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Guitar and Programming - Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Vocals - Megan Dorn (megandorn.com) Drums - Aaron Drescher Harry Nichols - “There is Nothing Like a Dame" From the musical "South Pacific" Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Music by Richard Rodgers Arrangement by Harry Nichols Recorded at W.J. Pullman Studio, Ithaca NY and Degraw Sound (degrawsound.com) Produced by Harry Nichols Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mixing and Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Guitar, Bass, and Vocals - Harry Nichols (harrynichols.bandcamp.com) Drums - Aaron Drescher Will Boyajian - “My Name” From the musical "Oliver!" Words and Music by Lionel Bart Arrangement by Will Boyajian Recorded at Muse Light Music Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Guitar, Bass, and Vocals - Will Boyajian Thorn3z and Pinup (ft. Ned Donovan and Hannah Richter) - "Yesterday I Loved You” From the musical "Once Upon a Mattress" Lyrics by Marshall Barer Music by Mary Rodgers Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala and Hannah Richter Recorded at Muse Light Music Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Male Vocals - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Female Vocals - Hannah Richter (hannah-richter.com) Additional Vocals - Steven Dean Moore Grant Carey - “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” From the musical "Pal Joey" Music by Richard Rodgers Lyrics by Lorenz Hart Arrangement by Grant Carey Recorded at Birdnose Audio Produced and Mixed by Grant Carey (grantcarey.xyz) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Vocals, Eletric Guitar, Bass, Synthesizers and Percussion - Grant Carey DJ Buttons (ft. Colly C, Mike Larry Draw, and Doron Lev) - “Money” Inspired by the musical “Cabaret” Sample from "Money, Money" from the 1972 Movie Soundtrack Music by John Kander Lyrics by Fred Ebb Arrangement by Scott Wasserman Recorded at Degraw Sound Produced by Scott Wasserman Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mixed by Harper James (harperjamesmusic.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Programming - Scott Wasserman (scott-wasserman.com) Vocals and Lyrics (Verse 1) - Colly C (facebook.com/collykillit) Vocals and Lyrics (Verse 2) - Mike Larry Draw (mikelarrydraw.com) Vocals and Lyrics (Verse 3) - Doron Lev The Nights of Müse (ft. Steven Dean Moore, Creighton Fraker, and Zoe Friedman) - “Near To You” From the musical "Damn Yankees" Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Vocal Direction by Andy Collopy Marcus Thorne Bagala: Guitar and Bass Aaron Drescher: Drums Steven Dean Moore: Vocals Creighton Fraker: Vocals (pushphonic.com) Zoe Friedman: Vocals (zoeblairfriedman.com) Ned Donovan - “New Words” From the musical "In the Beginning" Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston Arrangement by Chris LaRosa (chrislarosa.com) Recorded at Degraw Sound Produced and Mixed by Harper James (harperjamesmusic.com) Executive Producer - Ned Donovan Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com) Conducted by Samuel Thorne Bagala Video Capturing by Garrett Kafchinski and Abner James Video Editing by Ned Donovan Vocals - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com) Piano - Samuel Thorne Bagala (samuelbagala.com) Guitar - Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com) Bass - Will Melones (willmelones.com) Percussion - Sebastian Chiriboga (cbasschiriboga.com) Violin 1 - Erica Swindell Violin 2 - Zoe Aqua Viola - Katrina Lenk (katrinalenk.com) Cello - Christina Chen |
ThanksFirst and foremost, I have to thank Marcus Bagala, who is literally the reason that this project even happened. He arranged 3 songs, mixed a grand total of 6, and was my ears on the other 5 to help me make sure they executed well. He is a full blown musical genius, and that's all I have to say about that.
Second up I have to thank the other two partners in crime, Scott Wasserman and Harper Willis. Harper mixed and/or recorded for over half of the tracks, and Scott was one of the first arrangers that I brought onboard. Both of them I leaned on heavily in the creation of this thing. They were beyond vital to it even happening at all. To every person who performed/worked on one of these tracks, thank you. Look to the left and check out all these people. If they have a link next to their name, click through, and see the incredible work that they're doing on a regular basis. To the composers and lyricists of these songs. I am so indebted to the inspiration you've given me my entire life. I love the songs you've written, and every arrangement on this project is a love song to the beautiful things you've created. This project was to prove that the greatest songs ever written still hold up against the music today, and I think we've proved that that is not only true, but that the original songs are even better than the majority of today's music. To the people who I leaned on when I needed ideas, or to make sure my ideas weren't crap, thank you. My father passed away during the creation of this project on February 3rd, 2016. He made me play him every demo I had at the time to make sure he got to hear as much of my project as he would be able. It's that kind of support that allows me to be who I am today. This project was originally 10 tracks. The 11th, and final track "New Words" was added in his honor. Please give it a listen and check out the session video we made in his honor. The rest of my family is pretty incredible too, so thanks for putting up with my crazy, guys! |