E-mail a friendMichael McDonald
airdate March 18, 2008
Michael McDonald's unique voice was first noticed in the early '70s when he was a guest vocalist with Steely Dan, but it was the Doobie Brothers that made him a "blue-eyed soul" singing star. He's gone on to enjoy a successful solo career, winning multiple Grammys, and also providing backing vocals and doing duets with many other artists, including Kenny Loggins and Patti LaBelle. In '03, McDonald received a star on the Walk of Fame in his St. Louis hometown. His latest project is "Soul Speak."
Michael McDonald
Tavis: I am pleased to welcome Michael McDonald back to this program. The multiple Grammy winner and former lead singer of the Doobie Brothers is now out with a new CD of classic R&B covers called "Soul Speak." The disc also features three new and original songs from Mr. McDonald. In just a moment, he'll perform one of the classic tracks from this new CD. But first, some the video now for the song "Higher and Higher."
[Clip]
Tavis: If you're going to do a cover song, pick the right one, and "Higher and Higher" ain't a bad choice.
Michael McDonald: (Laughs) Thanks. No, it's a great choice. It wasn't mine, actually. My daughter picked that one for the album.
Tavis: Oh yeah?
McDonald: Yeah, she had it on one of her little mix tapes, and so I was listening and I said, "Boy, that's a strange song for you to have." She goes, "Dad, you should do that song."
Tavis: Oh yeah? How old is she?
McDonald: She's 16.
Tavis: Oh, she's a kid, then.
McDonald: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tavis: Yeah, okay, cool. Speaking of your daughter, how much help does one get when one is trying to figure out what songs to cover on a project like this?
McDonald: Lots, actually. A few of my friends had their suggestions, and a lot of times it's songs I wouldn't have thought of. But what it always comes down, unfortunately for us, is a big list of songs that we have to boil down to just 14. And later on, I'm always finding these lists in my bag and stuff out on the road, songs we scratched off, and I'm thinking damn, why didn't we do that song? (Laughter) And the list only gets longer with each record that we to do.
Tavis: Is there - how do I ask this? I was teasing before we came on - not teasing, but saying emphatically before we came on the air that Michael McDonald has got to be the most soulful White guy I've ever met. You put him on a list with Kenny Loggins and Phil Collins - we all have our list of people - but Michael McDonald's at the top of the list, as far as I'm concerned.
I say that only because I wonder whether or not when you decide to cover certain songs whether or not there are songs that your voice, your style fit better with or songs that you would like to cover but you know just isn't right for you? Does that make sense?
McDonald: Yeah, oh, yeah, definitely. In fact, that's pretty much the crux of the matter going into an album like this. I can't think off the top of my head what songs we might have passed on for that reason. I'm sure there were some. I know in the first record there was one. I can't remember what it was, but it just wasn't meant to be, and I took a stab at it and after everybody was hysterically bent over in the sound booth, (laughter) I decided I'd better give it up.
But you do, you try to find the songs that you feel you can - and sometimes I think I can bring something to a song that I can't, and I really - that's where a good producer comes in and you really depend on the people who are listening, because what's going on in your head may be completely off, out of reality.
Tavis: Now are there songs that, as talented as you are, there are just certain songs for you that just need to be left alone? Like even though you think you could bring - or know, for that matter - you could bring your own thing to it, it's just that for whatever reason, that song needs to be left alone. That nobody ought to touch this?
McDonald: Well, that's an interesting thing, and I've run into that a few times. The first time was with a Freddie King song, I think, I believe it was Freddie King, forgive me if I'm wrong on that - "Hey Girl." Freddie Jackson.
Tavis: Freddie Jackson, yeah.
McDonald: Yeah, excuse me. And when I was asked - or the producer at the time, Russ Titelman, said, "You've got to do this song. I want to cut a version of this." And I said, "Man, that is such a classic record, we'd be crazy to try to do that."
And he convinced me to do it and that was the first time I learned my lesson - never say no. And then the second time was "Grapevine." That was the only song on the first Motown record, I said, "I've got to put my foot down. There's no way I should try to cut that song." I said, "First of all, just out of pure cowardice, that song gets played more today than it did even when it was a hit." And I said, "So every time they hear it by me, they're going to hear it within the hour by Marvin Gaye." But again, I got talked into it or coerced into it or strong-armed into it.
Tavis: Somebody was right, though. (Laughs)
McDonald: Yeah, but in hindsight, you can bring something to a record like that that you don't even plan on bringing, and it really is more to the credit of all the people involved, the band. And on this record, I think by now I should have learned my lesson, but there were a couple of things that I was a little daunted by. "For Once in My Life" was one. But at this point in time I kind of learned to just jump in there, and the worst that can happen is it goes to the cutting room floor.
Tavis: Is there a danger for an artist of your stature doing two or three cover projects in a row, and if so, what is that danger?
McDonald: Well there may well be, which is why on this third Motown album we asked for and we were given permission to kind of open the door a little wider.
Tavis: Beyond Motown, yeah.
McDonald: Beyond the Motown artists, beyond the Motown -
Tavis: And you've got three originals on this one, too.
McDonald: And we put some originals on there, just to kind of give this project a little different feel. And although there may be some danger in that, it is so much fun to do that it's kind of like eating sugar - you can't stop.
Tavis: (Laughs) Don't I know.
McDonald: And like I say, the list of songs was maybe 500 on the first album. It's grown to over probably a thousand now. Instead of getting shorter, it gets longer. But it's hardly work; the hardest work is just paring down each record to 14 songs.
Tavis: When you walked in the studio, the first thing I asked was whether or not there was some performance that you were doing while you were in town that I was unaware of, because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss you doing your thing. The audience is going to hear you in just a second here on the stage; I wanted to make sure you weren't doing something else that I was unaware of.
And I asked that in part because you are prolific at performing almost, like, every night. You are on the road all the time throughout the year. I raise that because when I come to a Michael McDonald concert, there are things I just want to hear from your corpus, which is growing deeper by the day. So the catalog is so deep, there's always stuff I want to hear. But now you keep putting out these cover projects. So is the audience, like, screaming and yelling at you, like, all throughout the show now for more stuff than you could ever give them?
McDonald: Sometimes, sometimes, and we do take requests on a given - sometimes if we don't know it as a band I'll just play it, if I can. And sometimes, we just don't know it. (Laughter)
Tavis: But it's one thing, though, to have a catalog as deep as yours - the Doobies and your solo stuff - but now you add on top of that other people's stuff that you put your own flavor on. I know your requests - the screaming and yelling must get crazy now.
McDonald: Well, it's fun sometimes, especially in a club where you're a little more one-on-one with the audience. But for us, these are the songs that we - if we went to the bar after hours, after we got off, and sat in with the band, these are the songs we would do. So to actually be able to play them in our own show is a lot of fun.
However, if we're not careful, we'll be doing all Motown and Atlantic songs, and maybe just doing ours in the encore or something.
Tavis: Yeah, no, that would never happen. Your stuff is awfully good. Speaking of which, I was talking to one of my producers a minute ago, and last night, in a conversation with some friends, about you coming on the show today. These are obviously Black folk, and everybody remembers the episode of "What's Happening." Do you remember this?
McDonald: Oh, sure, sure, sure.
Tavis: (Laughs) I've had two or three conversations about that in the last 48 hours, about that episode of (unintelligible) "What's Happening," and another issue, anyway. That issue came up because people said, "Remember Michael McDonald on 'What's Happening?'" I said, "Yes, everybody knows the episode of Michael McDonald -
McDonald: Well, that was great fun for us, actually, and when we were asked to do it, there was a publicist that we had back in the day who has become more or less infamous himself over the years, David Guest.
Tavis: Right.
McDonald: Married to Liza Minnelli.
McDonald: He was the Doobies' -
Tavis: That was his idea?
McDonald: Well, yeah, and he was the Doobies' publicist back then.
Tavis: Wow. Small world.
McDonald: And when he first brought it up, to do TV back then was, like, no-no. No self-respecting rock band would go on an episodic sitcom.
Tavis: On "What's Happening" especially, yeah.
McDonald: Well, any TV show.
Tavis: With Rog and Rerun, yeah.
McDonald: And we said, "Okay, we'll do it," and it was great fun. But the whole cast, Fred Berry was from St. Louis; I'm from St. Louis.
Tavis: From St. Louis, yeah, exactly.
McDonald: But it was a great cast of characters, great fun doing the show, and oddly enough, people 14 years old come up to me and ask me about it, because it's still in syndication.
Tavis: Yeah, it still runs.
McDonald: It was probably one of the smartest things the Doobies ever did, was do that show.
Tavis: Well, here we are, 25 years later, still talking about it, so.
McDonald: Yeah, exactly.
Tavis: It obviously impacted a bunch of us who were "What's Happening" fans back in the day. Anyway, Michael McDonald has a new CD out. It's called "Soul Speak," and it's more of the same good stuff that he always gives. And up next, a special performance from Michael McDonald, with his band, or at least part of the band. Stay with us. Michael, good to see you.
McDonald: Tavis, good to see you, thanks.
Tavis: Thank you.
From his new CD, "Soul Speak," here is Michael McDonald, accompanied by Yvette Preyer, Bernie Chiaravalle, and Andrea Jackson-Merritt, performing the Dionne Warwick classic "Walk on By."
[Performance]
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