The singer who secretly replaced Boston's Brad Delp in 1981 has finally told his story. Niagara Falls-based musician Mark Dixon was hired by Boston mainman Tom Scholz in 1990, at a time when frontman Brad Delp was uncertain about his future with the band.
Not knowing if Delp would commit to Boston's delayed follow-up to 1978's second album Don't Look Back, Scholz placed an anonymous advert in the December 11, 1980 issue of Rolling Stone, asking for singers who could replicate the high vocal parts of "Chicago, Foreigner, Bad Company and, of course, Boston" and offering $50,000 for a year's work.
Up in Niagara Falls, Dixon, who was then fronting local band Avalanche and avoiding full-time employment, saw the ad and made a tape in his basement. He recorded three songs, including a version of Boston's Let Me Take You Home Tonight.
"I had one microphone and hooked it up," Dixon tells investigative journalist Brendan Borrell, in a short film on YouTube. "I started with the main lead vocal, and then I would pan to the other channel and do another vocal. Pan back to the other channel, add another vocal. And I did that till I had all the harmonies and lead vocal down."
Scholz heard the tape and, suitably impressed with Dixon's uncanny ability to mimic Brad Delp, invited him to Massachusetts to record a version of Boston's 1978 single A Man I'll Never Be.
"It was unreal," says Dixon. "One day, I'm just gigging in my own city, for the Niagara Falls area, and now I'm hanging around this pop star. Every modern convenience you could see, as far as recording goes, down in his basement."
Scholz edited the recording of A Man I'll Never Be, alternating lines between Delp's original vocals and Dixon's new additions, then played the tape for CBS chief Walter Yetnikoff, who couldn't tell the difference between the two voices. The contingency plan was in place. If Delp returned to the studio, Dixon would step away. If he bailed on Boston, Dixon would step up. Dixon was put on a retainer, with one condition attached: his appointment would, for the time being, be kept secret.
So Dixon prepared for his new role. "All I drank at the time was Diet Pepsi. You know, watch my weight, doing everything that I should do. No smoking, no nothing. Healthy, healthy man."
Dixon reportedly sang some lead vocals and harmonies on some of the original recording sessions for what became Boston's third album, Third Stage, but 12 months after being hired, Scholz called to say that Delp was back on board and that Dixon's services would no longer be required.
"I was on top of the world," Dixon tells Borrell. "And then I'm back where I started, on the ground. It's funny. I don't think about all this that often. The only time I start thinking about it is like when you called the other day, and then I got all depressed again."
There was an upside. Back in Niagara Falls, Dixon's little-known part in the Boston story made him local rock royalty. He was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame in 2018. Now retired, he kept singing, most recently with ELI, a Three Dog Night tribute act.
"Who could ask for more?" Dixon asks. "You know, I'd like the fame. I'd like the money. But you know what? I'm happy."
Brendan Borrell is the author of Power Soak: Invention, Obsession, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Sound, a book about Boston's legal battles with their record company, CBS. It's available now. Borrell also writes the Boston-themed Substack, Powersoak.
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