Michael McDonald didn’t do as many duets as some of his peers throughout his solo career. But when he did, the songs packed a punch. In 1986, McDonald and Patti LaBelle teamed up for the heartbreaking duet, “On My Own”. Written by hit songwriters Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, it appears on LaBelle’s Winner In You album.
A song about a relationship that has ended, “On My Own” says, “So many promises never should be spoken / Now I know what loving you cost / Now we’re up to talking divorce / And we weren’t even married / On my own / Once again now / One more time / By myself.”
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“On My Own” is McDonald’s first No. 1 single as a solo artist. The song stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks when it was released. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal, but lost to “That’s What Friends Are For” by Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder. That song is also written by Bacharach and Sager.
The Story Behind “On My Own” by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald
Bacharach and Sager promised LaBelle that she could record “On My Own”. Surprisingly, LaBelle’s producer, Richard Perry, didn’t like the song, so the two songwriters also produced the track. LaBelle and McDonald recorded their vocals separately. They also used a split screen to film the video.
LaBelle knew she liked “On My Own”. Still, she concedes that she had no idea the song would become one of her biggest hits.
“The success of ‘On My Own’ came as a shock,” LaBelle admits. “I don’t record for commercial value. With ‘On My Own’, I went into the studio thinking, ‘I’m gonna record something I love.’ Usually, if I love it, it bubbles under. And I was surprised it made a hit.”
Perhaps ironically, like Perry, Sager herself wasn’t sure the song was a hit after Bacharach played her the melody.
“Finally, just to appease him, I did,” Sager says of writing the lyrics. “He also had the title, ‘On My Own’, and it was unusual for him to hear actual words to his melodies. Every time he’d sing it for me, whatever he was playing on the keyboard made me think it was a Polynesian melody. I could imagine a group of female singers in native costumes, leis around their necks, swaying to Burt’s tune. It didn’t sound current, and it didn’t sound like a hit. But as I started to write the lyric, I began to like it. For one thing, Burt’s melody was, for once, spacious enough to give me room to say something.”
Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
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