In 1984 Al McKay, of Earth,Wind & Fire Fame got called to produce the Temptations upcoming album. Al McKay and I had met when he first did some guitar work on one of SWITCH'S albums. He was looking for some songs for this upcoming project and I submitted some songs to him. One of the songs I submitted was 'Just Call My Name', which ended up being the single for Allison Williams. I spoke about this song on the March 6, 2011 post on this BLOG.
Tony Haynes, Attala Zane Giles and myself had written a song by the name of "Running", which I also submitted to Al McKay. This song ended up being the first song on the Temptations "Truly For You" project.
This album featured the debut of their new lead singer Ollie Woodson who replaced Dennis Edwards. Since I'm more known as a singer rarely do I get to play on sessions. Of course I did with SWITCH but I've also got to play on the songs that I've written and placed on someone's project. On the song "Running", I'm playing the keyboards and the synth bass and Zane Giles is playing the guitar. Even though the Temptations sing, on this particular song, Zane and I are doing all of the backgrounds with a nice 4-part harmony.
By this time in the Temptations career they had mega-hits. Some of the groups personnel had changed from the originals but they were still a main-stay in the industry.
This particular album had a #2 hit with the song "Treat Her Like A Lady" and the album as a whole hit #55 on the pop charts. For us it was a privilege to have a song and perform with such a legendary group. I also got to sing backgrounds on a couple of other songs on this album in addition to "Running".
When you listen to this song today you can definitely tell that it was the 80s. Give it a listen:
Again another project that I was able to add my talent to and I'm thankful,
Patti Austin's career in the music industry has crossed decades. Patti charted twenty R&B songs between 1969 and 1991.
Patti's biggest mainstream hit was "Baby, Come To Me" which was a duet with my brother James Ingram. This song initially peaked at #73 on the Hot 100 in early 1982 and then fell off the charts. After this song was featured as the love theme in a prominent story line on the soap opera General Hospital, this song re-entered the pop charts in October and went to number one in Feburary 1983. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA. She later teamed up with Jams for the duet "How Do You Keep The Music Playing"
Patti singing
In 1984 Patti recorded an album that had the hit single "It's Gonna Be Special". As part of my songwriting career I co-wrote a song on that album called "Fine Fine Fella". I shared the co-writing with Attala Zane Giles and Ollie E. Brown. Ollie produced this particular song and Attala and I did the background arrangements and also sang on the record as well.
The single "It's Gonna Be Special" from this album, peaked at #5 on the Dance charts, #15 on the R&B charts, and charted on the Hot 100 in 1984. Patti continues to perform all around the world with her amazing voice and she still amazes audiences.
Patti & Phillip
Patti and I got to re-connect when I sang backgrounds on the 60 Years of Quincy Jones at the Hollywood Bowl. She's just as silly as ever and as always, we had a great time at rehearsal and performing on the show.
Being a co-writer on "Fine Fine Fella" is yet another aspect of the career that I've enjoyed over the years.
As a singer / songwriter you're always writing and coming up with different songs. I mentioned in a pass BLOG that Allison Williams recorded "Just Call My Name" and it did quite well.
The first song that I co-wrote that ended up on someone's album outside of SWITCH though was a song called "Forever Yours". Zane Giles and I co-wrote this song. We played on it and sang on the backgrounds. This is one of the songs that I'm actually playing the piano on. Most of the songs that I co-wrote that ended up on someone's album I got to play on, but there are some exceptions.
Janet was about 16 years old or so and we knew each other from when SWITCH had come out to California. Janet had recently come off of 'Good Times' and 'Fame' the television show and A& M Records was giving this Jackson a shot. Her first 2 albums made some noise but it was really her 'Control' album produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis that got Janet out into the mainstream to where she became a household name. "Forever Yours" did have it's place though.
Notice some of the comments about this song even today:
"I think I just found my future wedding song"
"I'd been looking for this song for Days but couldn't remember who had recorded it..."
"Of course I discovered this song after Janet went mainstream and it holds a very special place in my heart. 'As one through the years we're gonna stay' "
"This is my favorite Janet ballad, man the lyrics are so true to the heart, I hope that Janet does this song live one day"
Zane & I co-wrote quite a few songs back then and many of them were recorded by various artists which I'll talk about on future BLOGS. This particular song "Forever Yours"will always be the first song that I co-wrote outside of the group.
You can listen to the song on YouTube. CLICK HERE!
Most people know me for my singing on records, commercials, movies and live performances but there's many facets to my musical life. Coming from a self-contained band you learn a lot about being a musician, producer, singer, songwriter, etc. Well back in 1984 Denzil 'Broadway' Miller and myself decided to do a collaboration. We had been friends and mutually respected each others talents but had never written a song together. We got together and came up with 2 songs. We had the music and the melody but not the lyrics.
Even though I also write lyrics I decided to let another friend of mine by the name of Ken Curry do the lyrics. Ken & I had written another song together called 'On and On' which he did the lyrics on and I did the music. I recorded 'On & On' as a duet with Sherri Payne.
Well 'Just Call My Name' was the song that Denzil, Ken and I came up with. Denzil and I recorded the demo on one of those 4-track Teac Cassette players. Some of you may remember them, others are like 'are you kidding me?'
Russell Simmons had just started Def Jam records and Denzil and Russell were good friends. Denzil presented this song to Russell for a new artist by the name of Alyson Williams. I was flown to New York to do the backgrounds, so the 4-part harmony that you hear on this song is me singing all of the parts. Again, with the type of harmonies that SWITCH does on their records and live shows, the harmonies on 'Just Call My Name' has become normal for me thanks to being part of such a wonderful talented band.
We recorded this song back in 1984 and then the song just sat. Years were going by before the public would hear this song. I was working with Al McKay of Earth, Wind & Fire fame on the Temptations, 'Treat Her Like A Lady' album. I was singing backgrounds for the record and had submitted some songs for the album. One of the songs I submitted was 'Just Call My Name' because I didn't think this record was going to come out and I didn't want this song to get buried. Al liked the song for the Temptations and also liked a song called 'Runnin' that Zane Giles, Tony Haynes and myself had written.
Just about this time I got a call that Alyson Williams record was coming out and the single was "Just Call My Name". I had to let Al McKay know that this song was no longer available and I didn't think that it was coming out because it had been so long. The song 'Runnin' was recorded by the Temptations and was the 1st song that opened up that album.
'Just Call My Name' came out and now it was 1989, 5 YEARS LATER from the time we recorded the song. Usually within 5 years songs change and I was a little worried that maybe this song was going to be dated. Shows you that if you have a good melody and lyric, they will always stay the test of time. 'Just Call My Name' became a top-ten hit. It climbed to #3 on the R & B charts and Alyson Williams is best known for singing this song.
You can watch the video they shot for this song above. Alyson did a great job singing this song. Denzil, Ken and I had fun writing this song and we were glad to be another part of musical history. So when you need a friend 'Just Call My Name'
