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Here's the Song That Should Have Been In the 'Hamilton' Mixtape

By Vivian Kane | Hamilton | December 7, 2016 |

By Vivian Kane | Hamilton | December 7, 2016 |



Forgive me in advance, I beg you, for bragging.

I work from home. My fiancé also works from home. We don’t leave home much. It’s not a bad life, by any measure, but it’s all very contained. So again, please forgive me for bragging for, for once, BEING IN THE ROOM WHERE IT F*CKING HAPPENED.

This weekend, I took a trip to the famed Largo at the Coronet. (If you’re ever vacationing in Los Angeles, by the way, do yourself a favor and get tickets for pretty much anything that’s happening there during your trip.) The boy and I were seeing Paul F. Tompkins, whom I’ve now seen more than any other performer during my five or six years in this city. The show was titled “Paul F. Tompkins Hogs the Covers,” in which he— GET IT??— did a bunch of covers. With many special guests including Aimee Mann and Constance Wu (the night before featured Rachel Bloom), Paul did covers of show tunes, even more obscure show tunes, James Bond themes (WATCH THAT LINK; I was also at that Largo show: NON-HUMBLE BRAGGING; AGAIN, I DON’T GET OUT MUCH), Bowie bummers, and other great and weird stuff.

But perhaps the highlight of the night was when he said the mere word: Hamilton. I was one of three couples in my immediate range of sight, and all three had one partner (yes, I was that partner in my pairing) excitedly squeal and grab the other’s hand or leg.

The Hamilton Mixtape is a work of genius. A low point in that genius (which is still great, sure) is Jimmy Fallon’s “You’ll Be Back.” He once performed the song on his show, and now begins the number with a tiring bit that you’ll want to skip to to get to the actual fun of the song.

It’s bullshit compared to this.

That’s a rehearsal take. In the show itself, Tompkins followed-up his old-timey-style cover with a joke about Siri not setting a reminder for the Mixtape deadline, as if that were just a casual submission process he missed. It was a funny joke, except oh my god, that’s barely or not really a joke at all. That song SHOULD have been on the Mixtape. The Mixtape would be better for it. But also, that song should be everywhere. It is perfect.

Here, just for fun, and in looking ahead to the live album he promised they were recording, are the set lists from the shows: