Time for another post from Mike S, and this time he's been trawling his record collection for recordings that feature one particular vocalist, so over to Mike...
Michael Solof back with you for another round of fun tunes. I was inspired this time by pj's wonderful '...and on guitar' series. I was listening to an old Steely Dan album the other day and I followed it with Christopher Cross’s first album and realized that Michael McDonald was on both albums singing background vocals (and almost co-lead at times) and that got me thinking about how many songs I loved that he'd contributed to over the years. McDonald is known for his distinctive, soulful voice and was a member of two of the biggest bands of the 70's/80's, with stints in the Doobie Brothers from 1975–1982, and Steely Dan during 1973 and 1974. He wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including 'What A Fool Believes', 'Minute By Minute', and 'Takin' It To The Streets', and his solo career consists of nine studio albums and a number of singles, including the 1982 hit 'I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)'. However, it's his session work that we're looking at here, as during his long career he's collaborated with a huge number of other artists, including James Ingram, David Cassidy, Van Halen, Patti LaBelle, Lee Ritenour, the Winans, Aretha Franklin, Toto, Grizzly Bear, Joni Mitchell, and Thundercat, and unlike almost all other background vocalists who literally do "disappear into the background", McDonald's voice always broke through that haze and became a unique, distinctive and very important part of each song he contributed to. His beautiful tone just added a lushness to the harmonies that you couldn’t help but notice. I therefore started going through his entire musical catalog and pulling out two different ways that he'd helped many wonderful fellow musicians throughout the years. One way was just as a background vocalist and the other was as a co-lead or guest vocalist (and often times songwriter), and then I broke up the collection accordingly. The first volume is his guest vocals on other artist's songs, while the other two volumes feature his backing vocals for a wide variety of artists over an extra-ordinary 46-year career.
Track listing
Volume 1
01 Let Me Go, Love (from 'In The Nick Of Time' by Nicolette Larson 1979)
02 I've Got My Mind Made Up (from 'Together?' soundtrack with Jackie DeShannon 1979)
03 Heart To Heart (from 'Heart To Heart' by Kenny Loggins 1982)
04 Arcade (from 'Swing Street' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
05 Let's Stay Together (from 'Tribute To Jeff Porcaro' by Paulette Brown & David Pack 1997)
06 Moondance (from 'Nathan East' by Nathan East 2014)
07 Long Haul (from 'Unfinished Business' by Robben Ford 2014)
08 Night Of Our Own (from 'Someday, Somehow' by Steve Porcaro 2016)
09 Love In The World (from '2' by CWF 2020)
10 Higher Ground (mixed by Tomey Maguarfield, feat. McDonald/Red Hot Chilli Peppers 2022)
Volume 2
01 Any World (That I'm Welcome To) (from 'Katy Lied' by Steely Dan 1975)
02 See What You Done (from 'Chunky, Novi And Ernie' by Chunky, Novi And Ernie 1977)
03 Strengthen My Love (from 'White Shadows' by Tim Moore 1977)
04 Red Streamliner ('Waiting For Columbus' out-take by Little Feat 1978)
05 Losing Myself In You (from 'Bish' by Steven Bishop 1978)
06 I Really Don't Know Anymore (from 'Christopher Cross' by Christopher Cross 1979)
07 This Is It (from 'Keep The Fire' by Kenny Loggins 1979)
08 Please Don't Leave (from 'Lauren Wood' by Lauren Wood 1979)
09 Young Blood (from 'Rickie Lee Jones' by Ricky Lee Jones 1979)
10 One Fine Day (from 'Satisfied' by Rita Coolidge 1979)
11 Steal Away (from 'Robbie Dupree' by Robbie Dupree 1980)
Volume 3
01 Why You Givin' Up (from 'Arcade' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
02 I Just Can't Let Go (from 'Anywhere You Go' by David Pack 1985)
03 I'll Be Over You (from 'Fahrenheit' by Toto 1986)
04 A Fool And His Money (from 'Mosaic' by Wang Chung 1986)
05 Never Give Up (from 'Outrageous Temptations' by Tim Weisberg 1989)
06 Same World (from 'Same World' by Henry Kapono 1991)
07 Where Words End (from 'Just Across The River' by Jimmy Webb 2010)
08 Some Children (from 'Holy Ghost!' by Holy Ghost! 2011)
09 The Best Of Me (from 'Starting Now' by Toad The Wet Sprocket 2021)
McDonald has one of the finest, smoothest, most mellow voices in All of Music. It’s the reason he is still in such high demand over 40 years after his debut.
I hope you like this collection as much as I do.
Mike S
For MAC users
Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.
Great collection. There should be an app to add Michael McDonald backing vocals to any song.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Solof,
ReplyDeleteIs this a one-time thing, or have you another '...featuring' in the works?
It is so funny you mentioned PJ's '...AOG' series as an inspiration, as that was exactly what I thought when I saw the post in the first place LOL
Funny you should ask that FB.
DeleteI floated an entire "...featuring Mike Solof on Air Guitar and Drums" set to PJ, but so far he isn't going for it.
We will have to see..........
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete[EYES ROLL INTO NEXT ROOM] LOL
DeleteAlso backing vocals on Jo Harman's "When We Were Young" from 2017
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion... but my inclusions were not meant to be totally comprehensive and all encompassing... just a large sampling where Mike was very apparent!
Delete... and yet once again I cast my vote for a John Wetton "... and on bass guitar"! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThat is a wonderful but tough suggestion. The thing that makes these sets difficult to put together is that they aren' only featuring a great artist... but featuring a great artist in a SIGNIFICANTLY NOTICEABLE AND STANDOUT-ISH WAY. Wetton was of course amazing..but not many songs of his did he guest on that you could point at and say WOW...that's John Wetton! His Vocals..for sure... but his bass, to me, not so much. Weirdly I think Chris Squire you could much more easily find examples of his work and go ...ohhh That's Squire on Bass. He just had "that sound". That what we need for this series which makes it so hard to put together...that unique sound. But please keep those suggestions coming and also feel free to (politely) argue with me! I love a good argument.
ReplyDelete(No you don't. Yes I do, No you don't. This isn't an argument... this is just contradiction. No it isn't.)
Sir, not that I don't appreciate your guest appearances here and elsewhere, but the Pythonian tilt of that closing parenthetical had me in stitches, and curious as to when you will start your own blog to share these works you do put the work *in* to make them so GOOD :)
DeleteOf course I will ... My rationale for suggesting John Wetton was more the wide spectrum of different styles of bands he played in - there was one point in time when he left King Crimson and joined Uriah Heep ... and I totally agree, if I didn't know beforehand, I never would be able to recognize: "Oh that's John Wetton!" - so having talked about Yes, King Crimson and recognizability, how about my vote for a Bill Bruford "... and on drums!"? (... and is it me or do I like three dots as much as you like parentheses? ...)
Delete(Well...Let me think about that.) As for Bruford... once again ...a stunningly great drummer but not one I daresay that jumps out in a crowd. Keith Moon... perhaps.
ReplyDelete@Fredrick Beondo
What are you trying to say? I'm Funny?
I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to f***in' amuse you?
Yes. :)
DeleteCompletely agree with you with the recognizability of Keith Moon ... but here, my criterion of prolificness comes in: Except The Who and Keith Moon solo records, how many recordings do you know that Keith Moon played on ...?
DeleteHe's got you there, although actually more than you'd think - Jeff Beck, Mike Heron, Plastic Ono Band, Harry Nilsson, Bo Diddley, Roger Daltrey solo, John Enwistle solo, Eric Clapton live, and Labelle. Probably not enough for an album but some surprises there.
DeleteIf ...featuring is going to be a series, Barry Gibb is featured on many other singers' tracks - though mostly on songs he wrote and/or produced. Otherwise the artists I can think of are mostly female, like Madeline Bell and Lesley Duncan, and a whole bunch of black American female singers (as in the movie 20 Feet from Stardom).
ReplyDeleteI missed Norah Jones from the above list. She's already issued her own "Featuring" collection, but she does so much collaboration with other artists that there's plenty more material.
ReplyDeleteYes, she has, and Paul over at albumsthatshoulsexist has posted loads of stuff from her, including some of those collaborations.
Delete