In the early 1970s, Michael McDonald was tasked with putting together a New Year’s Eve party at Universal Studios that doubled as a wrap party for the TV series Emergency! McDonald’s girlfriend at the time was a bassist and was asked to put a band together for the bash, but had to turn it down for a gig in Las Vegas and left the job in his hands. Responsible for getting musicians booked and more in time for the party, he procrastinated.
“Typical to my behavior patterns, I waited until the last minute,” said McDonald in a 2016 interview. who found himself with a week to pull everything together and only a saxophone player for the band. “I thought this is horrible,” recalled McDonald. “I’m going to mess this up, and she’s never going to forgive me.”
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‘Talking Book’ and Toto
While hanging out listening to Stevie Wonder‘s 1972 album Talking Book, and smoking pot, McDonald was telling the saxophonist how stressed he was about the situation. “He said, ‘Oh man, let me help you out with this, I know some guys,’” remembered McDonald. The sax player called on some of the younger session guys who worked town, and McDonald was sold when he found out that they’d most likely play the gig for free.
“Turns out the guys he called were Jeff Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, and David Paich came down and played some keyboards,” says McDonald of the future Toto band members.
From there, McDonald started writing down chord charts and lyrics for as many songs as he could pull from his girlfriend’s record collection, and the party went off without any hitch. The makeshift band, including McDonald, ended up playing for two and a half hours, repeating many of the songs on the set.
“Everyone was so drunk by then they didn’t know the difference,” said McDonald. “They just wanted to dance.”
Steely Dan
In between smoke breaks on the lot that evening, McDonald chatted with Jeff Porcaro, who mentioned he was playing on an album by Steely Dan, which was McDonald’s favorite band at the time. Porcaro was working on the band’s 1974 album Pretzel Logic.
A year after the gig, Porcaro reconnected with McDonald and asked him if he could come down to the studio while he was with the band. “He [Porcaro] said, ‘Hey man, can you get down here today to Modern Music [studio] and bring your piano and just bring enough gear to play?’”
Steely Dan was playing around with some new configurations for their touring band, and Porcaro said McDonald could sing some of the background parts and play keyboard. “I wasn’t much of a keyboard player, especially then,” said McDonald. “I was more of a songwriter who could plod along in a couple of keys.”
McDonald added, “So I went down to these things and thought ‘What am I doing?’ I just couldn’t resist.”
After his audition, McDonald ended up touring with Steely Dan and playing on several of their albums throughout the ’70s. McDonald first appeared on the band’s 1975 album Katy Lied with “Bad Sneakers,” marking the first Steely Dan song featuring his vocals. He went on to provide backing vocals on three more Steely Dan albums: The Royal Scam (1976), Aja (1977), and their 1980 release Gaucho.
McDonald reunited with Steely Dan in 2006 as the opening act during their tour, then joined them again during the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Photos: Clay Patrick McBride
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