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.
