Music Review: Ben Jones' Latest Swoon-Worthy Single TOO LATE NOW Has Arrived Just In Time

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This latest entry in the BobbyMusicFiles comes from Cabaret & Club veteran Ben Jones. Yes, Bobby has extolled the vocal prowess of Mr. Jones a couple of times here on The BroadwayWorld and we always rank him the highest on our rainbow scale, but Jones is gearing up for an album release and is sending out some tasty tidbits as the lead-up to the full album drop. This brings us to an old chestnut Jones put out at the end of July - TOO LATE NOW by Lerner & Lane. Introduced in 1951 by super soprano Jane Powell in the hit film ROYAL WEDDING, the same movie where she and Fred Astaire introduced the title-us longus HOW COULD YOU BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAID I LOVE YOU WHEN YOU KNOW I’VE BEEN A LIAR ALL MY LIFE? Phew! In the years since Jane warbled this love song, it has become the 14th most covered piece of music from that year. Recorded and re-recorded by the likes of Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Steve Lawrence, Sammy Davis, Shirley Bassey, and even Jerry Lewis, for rainbow’s sake, this tune is one of the staples of the American Songbook and, in the here and now, in Ben Jones’ voice, it receives a truly amazing coat of polish. 
 

Performance-wise you can hear Jones' smooth liquid tenor croon in the opening phrases. Each of his soft floated notes are perfectly placed and pitched. Bringing in his power and range in the final verse is thrilling to hear and then Ben, wisely, goes back to floating super high notes, and lifts the onus off the song, landing it softly in “love song land,” at the end. He has perfect support from master Music Director Ron Abel, who takes a lovely improv solo for the middle instrumental break. It was wise to just have this one be the two of them only, voice & piano. Many of the previously mentioned covers are lushly orchestrated, and while wonderful to listen to, the impact in these two partners' performances is far more meaningful to little Bobby’s ears. For Lane’s lyrics - the words flow perfectly, here, in an AABB format - meaning the first poetic stanza of 3 lines is repeated twice with 2 lines as rhyming couplets followed by a third line that doesn’t rhyme until the end of the next stanza. The final words of each stanza rhyme, in other words, making these simple phrases the best of the song for our money. This number is from the days when it took a real poem to make a song and this one is a GREAT love song. 
 

A
Too late now to forget your smile
The way we cling when we've danced a while
Too late now to forget and go on to someone new
A
Too late now to forget your voice
The way one word makes my heart rejoice
Too late now to imagine myself away from you

B
All the things we've done together
I relive when we're apart
All the tender fun together
Stays on in my heart
B
How could I ever close the door
And be the same as I was before?
Darling, no, no, I can't anymore
It's too late now
 

See my dearlings?  Love has come and blossomed between 2 people, and, no matter what, it’s too late to go back. We are too tied, too intertwined to move on and be what we were. No matter if this is the start of something or the end of something - we are changed for good or ill. Married to Lerner’s simple but beautiful melody, the words fill with emotion, especially here, since it is only Abel and Jones in this mix, as this is a live recording, and Jones and Abel work, primarily, alone, although there are occasions when they are joined by other musicians.  Theirs is one of the great musical pairings in the industry, as they have proven time and again in every cabaret concert they perform.  The single was recorded in performance  (indeed the entire album is a collection of live recordings from a concert tour last year) with the Live sound expertly engineered by Michael Rodriguez and, then, the single masterfully Mixed by Ben Jones, himself, while Rick Starbuck Mastered the truly well-produced single.  It's one thing when a singer sings sweetly, and another when their tech team tweaks the knobs so that the listener can hear them properly.  This one is a win.

In all, dear Bobby fans, we loved this new single of an old song in a young voice, and though many of us have heard this one many times over many years, Ben Jones makes it worthwhile to listen to all over again and again because Bobby gives his TOO LATE NOW

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

Pick Up A Download From Amazon: HERE

OR From Apple Music: HERE

Check It Out On Your Spotifies: HERE

Ben Jones will release another album teaser on September 1st with the single "When I Was Your Man"

Ben's album I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE will drop on September 29th, just before Misters Jones and Abel head out on the road for a tour. 

All Ben Jones information can be found at his website HERE.

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