Middle Man (album)

Middle Man
Studio album by Boz Scaggs
Released	April 1980
Recorded	1979
Studio	Studio 55 (Los Angeles, California), Sunset Sound and Cherokee Studios (Hollywood, California)
Genre	Pop, rock[1]
Length	41:27
Label	Columbia
Producer	Bill Schnee
Boz Scaggs chronology
Down Two Then Left (1977)Down Two Then Left1977 Middle Man (1980) Hits! (1980)Hits!1980

Middle Man is an album by Boz Scaggs that was released by Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs hired members of the band Toto as session musicians and shared songwriting credits with them, returning to the commercial, soul-influenced rock of Silk Degrees (1976).

The album reached No. 8 in the Billboard 200 album chart, and two singles reached the Billboard Hot 100: "Breakdown Dead Ahead" at No. 15 and "Jojo" at No. 17.^[2]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Smash Hits	5/10[4]

Writing for Smash Hits in 1980, David Hepworth described Middle Man as an "impeccably tasteful collection of sophisticated white soul" that was "useful as background music in the more sedate kind of nite spot". Acknowledging that the album was "well done", Hepworth noted that Scaggs' previous albums were "thrilling as well as perfectly formed". Hepworth went on to say that the album sounded as though "they designed the sleeve first and then made the record to go in it".^[4]

Allmusic's retrospective review commented that the album "caps off the decade with equal nods to [Scaggs's] '70s hitmaking formulas and the newer, shinier production techniques of the coming decade." They made a point of noting the album's repeated imitation of then-popular fads, while at the same time opining that these imitations were successful.^[3]

Track listing

All songs written by David Foster and Boz Scaggs, except where noted.

Side One

1. "Jojo" (Foster, David Lasley, Scaggs) – 5:51
2. "Breakdown Dead Ahead" – 4:33
3. "Simone" – 5:05
4. "You Can Have Me Anytime" – 4:56

Side Two

1. "Middle Man" – 4:51
2. "Do Like You Do in New York" (Scaggs) – 3:44
3. "Angel You" – 3:38
4. "Isn't It Time" (Scaggs) – 4:53
5. "You Got Some Imagination" (Steve Lukather, Scaggs, Bill Schnee) – 3:56

Personnel

• Boz Scaggs – lead vocals, guitar (1-8)
• Ray Parker, Jr. – guitar (1-8), bass guitar (6)
• Steve Lukather – lead guitars (1,3,5-8), additional guitars (2), guitar solo (2, 7, 8), all guitars (9)
• Carlos Santana – guitar solo (4)
• John Pierce – bass guitar (1)
• David Hungate – bass guitar (2-5, 7-9)
• Jeff Porcaro – drums (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9)
• Rick Marotta – drums (2, 8)
• Joe Vitale – drums (6)
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• David Foster – synthesizers (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9), acoustic piano (1-5, 7), electric piano (3, 4, 8), string arrangements (1, 3, 4, 5, 8), synthesizer programming
• Don Grolnick – electric piano (2), acoustic piano (8)
• David Paich – additional synthesizer (3), organ (6), synthesizer (6)
• James Newton Howard – clavinet (6)
• Larry Fast – synthesizer programming
• Michael Boddicker – synthesizer programming
• Steve Porcaro – synthesizer programming
• Adrian Tapia – saxophone solo (1)
• Marty Paich – string arrangements (4)
• Charlotte Crossley – backing vocals (1)
• David Lasley – backing vocals (1, 6)
• Sharon Redd – backing vocals (1)
• Paulette Brown – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 8, 9)
• Venetta Fields – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 8, 9)
• Bill Thedford – backing vocals (2, 3, 8)
• Julia Tillman Waters – backing vocals (5, 9)
• Oren Waters – backing vocals (5, 9)
• Bill Champlin – backing vocals (6)
• Chuck "Fingers" Irwin – backing vocals (6)
• Rosemary Butler – backing vocals (7, 8)

Production

• Producer and Engineer – Bill Schnee
• Assistant Engineers – Stephen Marcussen and Gabe Veltri
• Mastered by Doug Sax and Mike Reese at The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, CA).
• Design – Nancy Donald
• Photography – Guy Bourdin
• Management – Irving Azoff

References

External links

• Middle Man Lyrics