| For The Record... |
| Born in St. Louis, MO, in 1952; married Amy Holland, 1983. Released That Was Then, 1982; If That's What It Takes, 1982; No Lookin' Back, 1985; Take It to Heart, 1990; Blink of an Eye, 1993; Rockin' Down the Highway, 1996; Blue Obsession, 1997; In the Spirit, 2001; Motown, 2003; Motown II, 2004; The Ultimate Collection, 2005. Awards: Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Arrangement of Accompanying Vocals, for "What a Fool Believes," 1979; Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, for "Minute by Minute," 1979; Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for a Duo or Group with Vocals, for "Ya Mo Be There," 1984; received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, 2003. Addresses: Record company—Motown Records, 1755 Broadway, 6th Fl., New York, NY 10019. |
Soul singer
Soul singer Michael McDonald has a unique and immediately recognizable voice that has soared through pop, rock and R&B hits for four decades. Unlike many artists, he has enjoyed sustained success while retaining his personal sound and values. His Grammy Award-winning performances blend rock, adult contemporary, and R&B.
McDonald was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Like many young people of his generation, he grew up listening to the soul sounds of Motown. On the website for World Hunger Year, a cause he supports, McDonald said, "I grew up around guys who were well versed in all the soul singers, and ended up playing with lots of them in bands. I remember thinking, at a young age, 'These are the kinds of records I'd love to make someday.'"
In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, and one of his first gigs was as backup key-boardist for the group Steely Dan. He continued backup work for various groups until 1975, when Tommy Johnston, lead vocalist of the Doobie Brothers, became ill. The group chose McDonald to take Johnston's place, and the decision led the band to new heights. His rendition of "What a Fool Believes" won the band a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and his "Takin' It To the Streets" became a 1970s anthem.
McDonald soon became known as the signature voice of the Doobie Brothers, but by 1982, the year of the band's first farewell tour, he wanted to pursue a solo career. He has since reunited with them for special events, particularly Rockin' Down the Highway: The Wildfire Concert, released in 1996.
In 1983, his first year on his own, McDonald won another Grammy for his duet with James Ingram, "Ya Mo Be There." After this initial hot start, he slowed down, producing only three albums over the next 15 years. He was not inactive, however, but lent his unique voice to backup work for many other artists, including Patti LaBelle ("On My Own") and his sister, Maureen McDonald ("I Keep Forgettin"). Over the years he has also appeared with Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, The Winans, Amy Holland, and his former bandmates in Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. His immediately recognizable baritone could propel a song to success, and other musicians came to rely on him.
McDonald moved from Los Angeles to Nashville in the late 1990s. The town was buzzing with a new musical sound, a blend of soul, gospel, and folk, and McDonald found it a good fit for his own style and interests. Producer Tommy Sims was at the forefront of this musical energy, and McDonald persuaded him to produce a new album, Blue Obsession, described in Soultracks.com as "the most overtly soulful and spiritual album of his career." However, record label red tape delayed release of the album for almost three years. It finally appeared in 2000 on the Ramp label, to little fanfare. A Soultracks writer commented that this was "a tragedy, as Blue Obsession was clearly the album for which McDonald's fans had been waiting." The reviewer praised the songs and their "lyrical depth," noting that they "were the best of his solo career" thus far.
In 2001 McDonald released a Christmas album, In the Spirit. In 2002 he began working on a new project: recording cover songs of the great 1960s Motown hits, the songs that had influenced his youth and his career; the album Motown was released on the Motown label. He approached the songs with characteristic reverence and respect, not as an outsider taking pieces of others' success, but as an homage to the songs and their original artists, in hopes of bringing a new generation back to the Motown sound that he had always loved.
Interestingly, the album was recorded in Europe, with European musicians. McDonald told Henrik Bohm and Jan Bau in Blue Desert that the reason for this was because "Americans have lived with these songs for decades and feel that these songs can only be performed by the original artist," and Europeans did not have these preconceptions about how the songs should be played. He noted that when the Beatles played in the United States, they had done some Smokey Robinson songs, "and the audience loved it." This hope evidently came true, because the album soon became McDonald's biggest success in twenty years.
Recording the album was a joy for McDonald, because of his deep love of the music. On the website for World Hunger Year he wrote, "It was probably more fun that I could ever have realized for all kinds of reasons." He added, "Certain projects, you feel like you're pulling teeth. Other times you think, 'This has to be good on some level because it's just too much fun not to be.' This has been one of those kinds of projects." He also noted that he was most proud of the album because it "makes obvious, one more time—for the 150th time probably—just how great these songs are, no matter who is singing them." McDonald toured through Europe as part of the promotion for Motown and found that the audiences there were very enthusiastic about the music.
Two of the tracks on the album, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" were featured in commercials for MCI. However, McDonald told an interviewer on the Artists Against Hunger and Poverty website that "in terms of the way that I tend to judge the success of an album, commercial success is an appeal, but not always the key ingredient." He was more pleased by the opportunity to "show respect to the original performers and their original performances."
The album was nominated for a Grammy. McDonald followed it with a sequel, Motown Two. A Soultracks reviewer noted, "The good (and surprising) news is that the sequel may be even better than its predecessor." And, as McDonald told the Artists Against Poverty and Hunger interviewer, "At some point there might even be a Motown Three," adding, "It's just such a rich and resourceful wellspring of wonderful copyrights and wonderful songs and incredible performances to go to school on."
Selected discography
That Was Then, Arista, 1982.If That's What It Takes, Warner Brothers, 1982.No Lookin' Back, Warner Brothers, 1985.Take It To Heart, Reprise, 1980.Blink of an Eye, Warner Brothers, 1993.Rockin' Down the Highway: The Wildfire Concert, 1996.Blue Obsession, Ramp, 1997.In the Spirit: A Christmas Album, MCA, 2001.Motown, Motown, 2003.Motown Two, Motown, 2004.The Ultimate Collection, 2005.
Sources
Periodicals
Entertainment Weekly, December 12, 2003.
People, December 6, 2004.
Online
Artists Against Hunger and Poverty Website, http://www.worldhungeryear.org/comm_conn/m_mcdonald.asp (June 27, 2006).
"Interview with Michael McDonald," Blue Desert, http://www.bluedesert.dk/mcdonaldinterview.html (June 27, 2006.
"Michael McDonald Biography and Update at Soul Tracks," Soul Tracks, http://www.soultracks.com/michael_mcdonald.htm (June 27, 2006).
"Michael McDonald Embodies Soul, Professionalism in Music," Nashville City Paper, June 13, 2006, http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm (June 27, 2006).
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