Toto - Talk It Over (1979)

Before they got together and formed a band, the individual members of Toto were regular players on albums by Steely Dan, Seals and Crofts, Boz Scaggs, Sonny and Cher, and many other artists, contributing to some of the most popular records of the 1970's. Keyboardist David Paich, son of musician and session player/arranger Marty Paich, rose to fame after having co-written much of Scaggs' 'Silk Degrees' album, and he played on many sessions with drummer Jeff Porcaro (the son of session percussionist Joe Porcaro), whom he met while attending Grant High School. There they formed the band Rural Still Life, and Paich began to discuss seriously with Porcaro the possibility of them forming their own band, so they brought in bassist and fellow session veteran David Hungate, having played with him in the backing band for Scaggs. In addition, the duo asked fellow Grant High School students, guitarist Steve Lukather (who also played in Scaggs' band as a replacement for Les Dudek) and Jeff Porcaro's brother Steve Porcaro on keyboards to join the team. With the addition of former S.S. Fools singer Bobby Kimball, the group began to work on their first album in 1977, after signing with Columbia Records. Once the band came together, David Paich began composing what would become the eponymous debut album, 'Toto', and according to popular myth, in order to distinguish their own demo tapes from other bands' in the studio at their first recording sessions, Jeff Porcaro wrote the word "Toto" on them. In the early 1980's, band members told the press that the band was named after Toto the dog from 'The Wizard Of Oz', but in fact their first album was completed by the still un-named band, and after viewing the name on the demo tapes, David Hungate explained to the group that the Latin words "in toto" translated to "all-encompassing", and because the band members played on so many records and in so many musical genres, they adopted the name Toto as their own. Luthaker started his session work in earnest in 1977, and as most of the other players had been active during the early 70's, they started to appear together on various albums from the late 70's onwards, in groups of three, four, or even five on Kiki Dee's 'Stay With Me' album. From 1977, through the 1978 recording of their debut album and ending in 1979 following the release of their 'Hydra' album, they played on literally scores of recordings, and this collection brings together some of the best tracks that they recorded with girl singers in that three year period, making in effect a Toto album with a variety of female guest vocalists. 

Track listing

01 Top Of The World (Diana Ross 1977 SL/DH/JP) 
02 Talk It Over (Even Though My Body's Cold) (Lisa Del Bello 1977 SL/DP/MP/JP) 
03 I Don't Wanna Dance No More (Carole Bayer Sager 1978 SL/DH/SP/JP)
04 No Reason (Juice Newton 1978 SL/DH/MP/JP) 
05 Crazy (Valerie Carter 1978 SL/DH/SP/JP)
06 As We Fall In Love Once More (Evie Sands 1979 SL/DH)
07 Love Is A Crazy Feeling (Kiki Dee 1979 SL/DP/DH/SP/JP)
08 Why Can't We Fall In Love (Deniece Williams 1979 SL/DH/JP)
09 Hollywood (Lauren Wood 1979 SL/DH/JP/BK)
10 Prisoner (Cher 1979 SL/JP/DP co-writer)

SL - Steve Lukather (guitar)
DP - David Paich (keyboards)
DH - David Hungate (bass)
SP - Steve Porcaro (keyboards)
JP - Jeff Porcaro (drums)
MP - Mike Porcaro (bass)
BK - Bobby Kimball (backing vocals)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Elton John's 'Tumbleweed Connection' (2002)

As a result of the reasonable success of the 'Elton John' album, John recruited former Spencer Davis Group drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray, and flew to America for his first US concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on 25 August 1970. It was a such a success that the next day he received a telegram from Bill Graham, America’s most important promoter, offering him $5,000 to play at the Fillmore East in New York. Two months later, in October 1970, the concept album 'Tumbleweed Connection' was released, reaching number two in the UK and number five in the US. Co-writer Bernie Taupin has confirmed that despite people thinking that he was influenced in his lyrics by Americana and by seeing America first hand, the album had been written and recorded before they'd even been to the United States, and it was more influenced by The Band's album, 'Music From Big Pink', and Robbie Robertson's songs. Basic tracks for three of the album's titles, 'Come Down In Time', 'Country Comfort' and 'Burn Down The Mission', had been recorded at Trident during the sessions for the previous LP, 'Elton John', and Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson appeared for the first time together on this album as the rhythm section on 'Amoreena'. No singles were released from the record in the US, but 'Country Comfort'/'Love Song' (the latter a Lesley Duncan composition) was released as a single in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Once again, other artists clamoured to record these songs, and this time the big names included Al Kooper, Rod Stewart, Spooky Tooth and Sergio Mendes and Brasil '77, and new artists were still looking to 'Tumbleweed Connection' for inspiration in the 1980's and 2000's, with this album closing with a rousing version of 'Burn Down The Mission' by Toto from 2002. 

Track listing

01 Ballad Of A Well Known Gun (Kate Taylor 1971)
02 Come Down In Time (Al Kooper 1971)
03 Country Comfort (Rod Stewart 1970)
04 Son Of Your Father (Spooky Tooth 1969)
05 My Father's Gun (Miranda Lambert 2018)
06 Where To Now St. Peter (Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 1976)
07 Amoreena (Panhandle 1972)
08 Talking Old Soldiers (Michael Callen 1988)
09 Burn Down The Mission (Toto 2002)

Michael McDonald - ...featuring (2022)

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.