Middle Man (album)

Middle Man is an album by Boz Scaggs that was released by Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs hired members of the band Toto as session musicians and shared songwriting credits with them, returning to the commercial, soul-influenced rock of Silk Degrees (1976).

Middle Man
Studio album by
Boz Scaggs
ReleasedApril 1980
Recorded1979
StudioStudio 55 (Los Angeles, California), Sunset Sound and Cherokee Studios (Hollywood, California)
GenrePop, rock[1]
Length41:27
LabelColumbia
ProducerBill 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

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[3]
Smash Hits5/10[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 another 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, 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"Lukather, Scaggs, Schnee3:56
Total length:41:27

Personnel

Production
  • Producer and engineer – Bill Schnee
  • Assistant engineers – Stephen Marcussen and Gabe Veltri
  • Mastered by Doug Sax and Mike Reese at The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, CA).
  • Design – Nancy Donald
  • Photography – Guy Bourdin
  • Management – Irving Azoff

Charts

Weekly Charts
Chart (1980) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[5] 11
U.S. Billboard 200 8
U.S. Billboard R&B Albums 36

Year-end charts
Chart (1980) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[6] 21
U.S. Billboard 200 37

References
  1. Koda, Cub. "Middle Man". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. Boz Scaggs Chart History, Billboard.com. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  3. Middle Man at AllMusic
  4. 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.
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