As a songwriter, Michael McDonald’s credits include songs for Alison Krauss, Paul Anka, Van Halen, longtime collaborator Kenny Loggins, Thundercat, and more. While in The Doobie Brothers, McDonald wrote and performed many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “Minute by Minute,” and “What a Fool Believes.”
In 1997, McDonald also teamed up with legendary singer Brenda Lee to write a song for Wynonna Judd‘s fourth album, The Other Side. With 51 charting hits between 1959 and 1973, including 13 top-ten hits and two songs reaching No. 2 in 1960—”I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted”—along with her 1958 holiday classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Lee hit the charts more than the songwriting book.
When Lee and McDonald got together, alongside co-writer Dave Powelson, who also wrote songs for Lee, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell, and more, they came up with “The King of Fool Love Makes,” a tender ballad for Judd, tapping the vulnerabilities of falling in love and taking a chance on it anyway.
Anyone can read the signs
Or the writing on the wall
It’s all right there to see
Except someone like me
Who can’t see the truth at all
It takes a special kind of fool
To stand out in the rain
Somewhere in between
Nothing left to lose
Nothing to be gained
What kind of fool does it take
To go on loving alone?
Like there’s some answer in the ruins
Some silver lining to be found
An even bigger fool might think
That you would care if my heart breaks
Before the time that I admit
I’m just the kind of fool love makes
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[RELATED: How Michael McDonald Helped Van Halen Finish Writing a Track From ‘1984’]
A year before releasing “The King of Fool Love Makes,” Judd and McDonald first collaborated with a performance of the 1964 Buck Owens classic “Together Again.”
“And here I am singing on a stage with a man whose voice I knew in my teenage years,” said Judd. “Michael McDonald is awesome–period.” Judd added, “Something magical happens when two people with a gift come together and harmonize.”
Reunions and Kenny Rogers’ Cover
In 2005, Judd reunited with McDonald on the charity single “Heart of America,” written by Tim and Edra Blixseth. Recorded by Judd, McDonald, Eric Benét, and Terry Dexter, the song was released in support of the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Nearly two decades later, Lee was part of the all-star cast of performers on the 2023 Christmas at the Opry Special, hosted by Judd.
“She is so sassy,” Judd told American Songwriter of Lee. “You would expect that from her, right? So, you go in, and you’re standing next to her, and I’m talking to her about life, and she’s the most delightful little piece of energy. She’s the kind of personality when she comes into a room, she literally—and I mean literally—lights up a room.”
“The King of Fool Love Makes” was only covered one more time after Wynonna’s release. In 1999, Kenny Rogers released his rendition of “The Kind of Fool Love Makes” on his twenty-third album, She Rides Wild Horses.
Photo: Michael McDonald (Clay Patrick McBride)
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