August 28, 2020 —– Chart #54
Hello Musical Friends,
It’s Friday again! Time for another Chart of the Day, number 53. I am taking some liberties on today’s chart of the day. The song was written and performed by a local boy, Boz Skaggs. William Royce “Boz” Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He became prominent for his series of albums in the late 1970s, and songs “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown” from Silk Degrees (1976), which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. One of the liberties I am taking today is calling Boz a home town boy. Scaggs was born in Canton, Ohio, the eldest child of a traveling salesman. Their family moved to McAlester, Oklahoma, then to Plano, Texas (at that time a farm town), just north of Dallas. He attended a Dallas private school, St. Mark’s School of Texas, where schoolmate Mal Buckner gave him the nickname “Bosley”, later shortened to “Boz”. That’s good enough for me, Boz belongs to Dallas! After learning guitar at the age of 12, Scaggs met Steve Miller at St. Mark’s School. In 1959, he became the vocalist for Miller’s band, the Marksmen. The pair later attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison together, playing in blues bands like the Ardells and the Fabulous Knight Trains.
Although Boz had songs that went further up the charts, I have chosen “We’re All Alone” as today’s chart of the day. Yes, Boz wrote this tune and it was first recorded by Frankie Vallie in 1976. Boz also recorded the song for his 1976 album Silk Degrees. Then in 1977 the song was released by Rita Coolidge and her version cracked the top 10. No matter who performs the tune, it remains a great song. In my early years I wore Silk Degrees out, what a tremendous album.
In 1976, using session musicians who later formed Toto, he recorded Silk Degrees, with Joe Wissert on producing duties. The album, which received a Grammy nomination for album of the year and a further nomination for Wissert as Producer of The Year, reached #2 on the US Billboard 200, and #1 in a number of other countries, spawning four hit singles: “It’s Over”, “Lowdown”, “What Can I Say”, and “Lido Shuffle”, as well as the poignant ballad and today’s selection “We’re All Alone“, “Lowdown” sold over one million copies in the US and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, which was shared by Scaggs and David Paich.
A sellout world tour followed, but his follow-up album in 1977 Down Two Then Left did not sell as well as Silk Degrees and neither of its singles reached the Top 40. The 1980 album Middle Man spawned two top 20 hits, “Breakdown Dead Ahead” (No. 15, Hot 100) and “Jojo” (No. 17, Hot 100); and Scaggs also enjoyed two more top 20 hits in 1980–81, “Look What You’ve Done to Me”, from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, and “Miss Sun”, from a greatest hits set, both reaching No. 14 on the Hot 100.
Scaggs took a long break from recording and his next album, Other Roads, did not appear until 1988. “Heart of Mine”, from Other Roads, is Scaggs’ last top-40 hit as of 2018. Also in 1988, he opened the San Francisco nightclub, Slim’s, and remained an owner of the venue through the club’s closure in 2020.
From 1989 to 1992, Scaggs joined Donald Fagen, Phoebe Snow, Michael McDonald and others in The New York Rock and Soul Revue. His next solo release was the album Some Change in 1994. He issued Come On Home, an album of rhythm and blues, and My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology, an anthology, in 1997.
If you are curious, here is Rita Coolidge in 1978: https://youtu.be/OvNdPewuXAQ
And if you are really curious, here is Frankie Vallie: https://youtu.be/om1ZAf2mfxw
Keep rockin’,
Stan