Middle Man (album)

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] Interestingly, two cuts from the album, "Jojo" and "Breakdown Dead Ahead", landed higher on the Canadian charts than on an other international or US charts, indicating that Canadian audiences had embraced Scagg's harder rock edge, diverging from slower ballads and hits such as "Look What You've Done To Me", which he deftly wrote in the same year, as a track for the movie, Urban Cowboy.

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]

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

• 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)
• David Foster – synthesizers (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9), acoustic piano (1-5, 7), string arrangements (1, 3, 4, 5, 8), electric piano (3, 4, 8), synthesizer programming
• Don Grolnick – electric piano (2), acoustic piano (8)
• David Paich – additional synthesizer (3), organ (6), synthesizers (6)
• James Newton Howard – clavinet (6)
• Larry Fast – synthesizer programming
• Michael Boddicker – synthesizer programming
• Steve Porcaro – synthesizer programming
• 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
• 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)

• 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

• Middle Man Lyrics