Middle Man (album)

Last updated
Middle Man
Middleman.jpg
Studio album by
Boz Scaggs
ReleasedApril 1980
Recorded1979
Studio
Genre Pop, rock [1]
Length42:02
Label Columbia
Producer Bill Schnee
Boz Scaggs chronology
Down Two Then Left
(1977)		Middle Man
(1980)		 Hits!
(1980)
Singles from Middle Man (album)
  1. "Breakdown Dead Ahead"
    Released: 1980
  2. "Jojo"
    Released: 1980

Middle Man is the ninth studio album by Boz Scaggs, released by Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs hired members of the band Toto as session musicians (as he did for Down Two Then Left and Silk Degrees ) and shared songwriting credits with them, returning to the commercial, soul-influenced rock of the latter. It would take him eight years to release his following album Other Roads , again retaining the personnel of the three preceding it.

Contents

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
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [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 any other international or US charts, indicating that Canadian audiences had embraced Scaggs' 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]

Track listing

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

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Jojo"Foster, David Lasley, Scaggs5:51
2."Breakdown Dead Ahead" 4:33
3."Simone" 5:05
4."You Can Have Me Anytime" 4:56
5."Middle Man" 4:51
6."Do Like You Do in New York"Scaggs3:44
7."Angel You" 3:38
8."Isn't It Time"Scaggs4:53
9."You Got Some Imagination" Steve Lukather, Scaggs, Bill Schnee 3:56
Total length:42:02

Personnel

Production

Charts

Weekly Charts

Chart (1980)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [5] 11
U.S. Billboard 200 8
U.S. Billboard R&B Albums36

Year-end charts

Chart (1980)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [6] 21
U.S. Billboard 20037

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References

  1. ↑ Koda, Cub. "Middle Man". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. ↑ Boz Scaggs Chart History, Billboard.com. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Middle Man at AllMusic
  4. 1 2 Hepworth, David. "Boz Scaggs: Middle Man". Smash Hits (May 1–14, 1980): 29.
  5. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 266. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
  6. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 432. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.

Further reading

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