Post by erik on Apr 24, 2021 17:24:32 GMT -5
A popular but less well known singer/songwriter of the FM rock variety is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with a sizeable hit of his from early 1980.
BREAKDOWN DEAD AHEAD (Boz Scaggs; CBS; 1980)— Canton, Ohio native Boz Scaggs’ hit-making days of the period between 1976 and 1981 are only part of the story of his lengthy career. Indeed, his own mix of R&B, pop, rock, and blues began with his joining Steve Miller’s group The Marksmen in the early 1960’s. Following his work with Miller on the guitarist’s San Francisco-based 1968 albums Children Of The Future and Sailor, he made his first, self-titled album late that year, with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Scaggs’ breakthrough happened with his 1976 album Silk Degrees, which had among his backing musicians the future members of Toto. That album spawned two significant hits, “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown”, plus minor hits like “It’s Over” and “What Can I Say”; “Lido Shuffle” was later featured on the soundtrack of the 1978 cult comedy-drama film FM. During the spring of 1980, Scaggs released a slightly less commercially successful, but still successful, album The Middle Man. The first of the two hits off of it was an R&B-style shuffle, “Breakdown Dead Ahead”, which Scaggs co-wrote with Canadian-born keyboardist, and later mega-producer, David Foster, and which features, on the track, Rick Marotta and Don Grolnick, who were known for working with Linda Ronstadt. “Breakdown Dead Ahead” peaked at a highly respectable #15 on the Hot 100 during the first week of May 1980. “JoJo” followed it into the Top 20, peaking at #17 that summer; and Scaggs had a further hit later in 1980 with “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, from the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy. Scaggs took seven years off and came back in 1988 with the R&B ballad “Heart Of Mine”, which peaked at #35. It was his last hit to date, although he continued to release significantly successful albums of R&B and jazz standards into the 21st century.
BREAKDOWN DEAD AHEAD (Boz Scaggs; CBS; 1980)— Canton, Ohio native Boz Scaggs’ hit-making days of the period between 1976 and 1981 are only part of the story of his lengthy career. Indeed, his own mix of R&B, pop, rock, and blues began with his joining Steve Miller’s group The Marksmen in the early 1960’s. Following his work with Miller on the guitarist’s San Francisco-based 1968 albums Children Of The Future and Sailor, he made his first, self-titled album late that year, with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Scaggs’ breakthrough happened with his 1976 album Silk Degrees, which had among his backing musicians the future members of Toto. That album spawned two significant hits, “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown”, plus minor hits like “It’s Over” and “What Can I Say”; “Lido Shuffle” was later featured on the soundtrack of the 1978 cult comedy-drama film FM. During the spring of 1980, Scaggs released a slightly less commercially successful, but still successful, album The Middle Man. The first of the two hits off of it was an R&B-style shuffle, “Breakdown Dead Ahead”, which Scaggs co-wrote with Canadian-born keyboardist, and later mega-producer, David Foster, and which features, on the track, Rick Marotta and Don Grolnick, who were known for working with Linda Ronstadt. “Breakdown Dead Ahead” peaked at a highly respectable #15 on the Hot 100 during the first week of May 1980. “JoJo” followed it into the Top 20, peaking at #17 that summer; and Scaggs had a further hit later in 1980 with “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, from the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy. Scaggs took seven years off and came back in 1988 with the R&B ballad “Heart Of Mine”, which peaked at #35. It was his last hit to date, although he continued to release significantly successful albums of R&B and jazz standards into the 21st century.