Category Archives: Rod Temperton

Michael McDonald: Sweet Freedom (Extended)

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It’s always a nice surprise when a classic 1980s track suddenly appears on streaming services out of the blue.

Michael McDonald’s ‘Sweet Freedom’, written by Rod Temperton and co-produced by Temperton, Bruce Swedien and Dick Rudolph, is one such single, but the only version currently available is the superb seven-minute extended mix.

It was a good period for McDonald (weird that he wasn’t involved with ‘We Are The World’?). Despite a now-very-dated 1985 album No Lookin’ Back, he had recorded fine duets with James Ingram, Patti Labelle and Joni Mitchell. Hot off the back of Thriller, Temperton worked on Spielberg’s ‘The Color Purple’ soundtrack then ‘Running Scared’, nowadays a pretty-much-forgotten Billy Crystal/Gregory Hines vehicle.

Recorded at Westlake in Los Angeles, where most of Thriller was laid down, ‘Sweet Freedom’ was the movie’s key song and arguably Temperton’s final masterpiece. The verses owe a little to Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’ and Temperton finally gets his ‘starlight’ motif into the middle eight.

The extended version is a brilliant little pop/soul symphony, with every performer getting a feature. Greg Phillinganes adds his special sauce on keys and there’s some beautiful backing vocals from Siedah Garrett. The horn section (Bill Reichenbach, Chuck Findley, Jerry Hey, Larry Williams) contribute brief solos as does guitarist Paul Jackson Jr.

It would have been nice to have heard a real rhythm section (JR Robinson and Nathan East?) let loose on this but no matter. And people who say McDonald isn’t a soulful singer need to hear this extended version, despite his generally erratic solo career.

Released in June 1986, ‘Sweet Freedom’ reached #7 in the US and #12 in the UK.

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ Video Premiere: 40 Years Ago Today

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“‘Thriller’ made MTV. ‘Thriller’ created the home video business. ‘Thriller’ created so many things.”
John Landis

It’s hard to overestimate the cultural impact of the ‘Thriller’ video. Frequently parodied and ripped-off but still powerful, it premiered on Channel 4 and MTV 40 years ago today.

In the UK, it was shown (without any end credits) during a special late-night edition of ‘The Tube’ just before midnight on Friday 2 December 1983. I recall being allowed to stay up and watch it. It was one of the most exciting things I’d ever seen on TV, and also one of the scariest… Here’s how the special ended:

Let’s rewind to July 1983. The Police’s Synchronicity had just bumped Jackson’s Thriller album off the top of the Billboard charts. Jackson’s label Epic quickly formulated a plan to reinstate Thriller, reluctantly suggesting that its title track be released as a single (executives reportedly believed it to be a ‘novelty’ record!).

The catalyst for the groundbreaking video, which was part-financed by MTV, was Jackson phoning director John Landis in August 1983. He professed his love for Landis’s ‘An American Werewolf In London’, told him about the impending single release of ‘Thriller’ and then uttered the immortal words: ‘Can I turn into a monster?’

The rest is history. The video helped double Thriller’s album sales almost overnight, arguably broke down racial barriers in popular entertainment and helped raised the music-video format into a serious art-form. It also has to be said: it’s probably the last time Michael seemed relatively ‘normal’ (though his line ‘I’m not like other guys’ still raises a titter…).

“The only video we ever paid for was ‘Thriller’. We were playing it every hour, and announcing when it would next air. It brought people to MTV for the first time, and it made them stay and watch it again and again. Now everybody was into MTV.”
Bob Pittman, MTV executive

“When MTV started, it wanted nothing to do with Black artists. I thought, Wow, are we gonna miss out on this? But then I gave them ‘All Night Long’ after Michael had broken down the door. And from then on I was on MTV.”
Lionel Richie

“Michael Jackson had taken hold of the video form and shown everyone what you’re supposed to do with it. We all thought: Oh, OK – dancing!”
Rick Springfield

Let us know your memories of watching ‘Thriller’ for the first time.

All quotes are taken from the excellent book ‘I Want My MTV’.

Check out Anthony Marinelli’s YouTube channel for lots of great muso stuff on the making of the Thriller album.

Book Review: The Invisible Man (The Story Of Rod Temperton) by Jed Pitman

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You could count on one one hand the British songwriters who have made their living exclusively in soul/funk/R’n’B.

It shows just how singular and important Rod Temperton’s career was until cut short by his death in 2016. Though never ‘flavour of the month’ (i.e. not ‘rock’), he has to be in the pantheon of great songwriters, Brit or otherwise.

Jed Pitman is first out of the traps with a biography of the Cleethorpes-born melody maestro who came out of the somewhat unprepossessing mid-’70s Midlands soul scene to somehow write (or co-write) ‘Thriller’, ‘Rock With You’, ‘Sweet Freedom’, ‘Give Me The Night’, ‘The Dude’, ‘Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)’, ‘Ya Mo Be There’, ‘Love X Love’, ‘Always And Forever’, ‘The Lady In My Life’, ‘Razzamatazz’ and ‘Boogie Nights’.

Pitman’s book evolved from a BBC radio programme and as such does at times feel somewhat like a transcription, with lots of verbatim interview material but fairly limited authorial insight. But that’s nitpicking when one considers his interviewees: Quincy Jones, Siedah Garrett, Michael McDonald, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Bruce Swedien, Greg Phillinganes etc. etc. The only major absentee seems to be Michael Jackson.

Pitman builds up a more vivid picture of this rather geeky guy writing his funky, hook-laden tunes on a cheap keyboard in the weird town of Worms, Germany. The groundbreaking disco/funk band Heatwave were of course the first recipients of his signature tunes, but the book’s great success is forging a line through all of Temperton’s work, identifying common traits and signposts. All those little synth and vocal motifs were clearly planned well in advance – it’s also clear that he worked from the bassline up.

The other really pleasing aspect of ‘The Invisible Man’ is discovering some of the more obscure avenues of Temperton’s career – collaborations with Herbie Hancock and Bob James, ‘The Color Purple’ soundtrack, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. The book also places a lot more emphasis on his arranging work than is commonly known.

But we never quite work out what makes Temperton tick musically. Who were his main influences? The anecdotes seldom go beyond: ‘He was the real deal’. And Pitman rather glosses over the leaner last 20 years of his career – it would have been interesting to find out more about his view on the more technology-led/minimalist R’n’B of recent years.

But on the whole this is an extremely readable, valuable book, and the world is a better place for it. It certainly had me scurrying to various streaming services to check out everything in Rod’s illustrious songbook. (Incidentally, the cover of ‘The Invisible Man’ is pretty ghastly but apparently a very accurate portrayal – almost every interviewee speaks of his obsession with the cigs…)

‘The Invisible Man’ is published now by The History Press.

Rod Temperton (1949-2016)

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When MJ and Quincy are requesting your songs, you know you’ve made it.

Rod Temperton’s compositions are timeless, uplifting, full of detail and subtleties, with lots of vamp-busting major-7th/9th chords and joyful melody lines. It’s also important to note that he arranged all his own tunes for Jackson and Quincy too, outlining the rhythm, vocal and keyboard parts.

Like many kids of my age, I was kind of obsessed with Rod’s ‘Thriller’ during the mid-’80s. It was a perfect musical storm. Jackson’s red-hot vocal performance, the killer groove, brilliant horn arrangements, silly but spooky horror-movie lyrics, intriguing sound effects and Vincent Price’s rap/monologue all left an indelible mark.

But there was much more to Rod Temperton’s career than that obvious highlight. He was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, beginning his public life playing keyboards and writing songs for Heatwave, writing every song on their 1977 debut album Too Hot To Handle including ‘Boogie Nights’ and classic ballads ‘All You Do Is Dial’ and ‘Always & Forever’.

This led to his work on Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall album for which he wrote the title track, ‘Rock With You’ and ‘Burn This Disco Out’.

Temperton started the 1980s contributing to George Benson’s Quincy-produced Give Me The Night, composing the title track, ‘Love X Love’, killer disco/jazz instrumental ‘Off Broadway’ and the extraordinary ‘Star Of The Story’.

There were other classic Rod compositions and arrangements around this time for Patti Austin, The Brothers Johnson, Rufus, Herbie Hancock, Karen Carpenter and Bob James, as well as the classic Donna Summer floorfiller ‘Love Is In Control’.

He contributed to Quincy’s fine 1981 solo album The Dude, supplying the title track, ‘Somethin’ Special’, ‘Turn On The Action’ and of course the stunning ‘Razzamatazz’:

Then came the epochal Thriller. Temperton was all over the record, composing and arranging ‘Baby Be Mine’, soul standard ‘The Lady In My Life’ and of course the title track.

He famously wrote most of Vincent Price’s rap/monologue in a car whilst being rushed over to Ocean Way Studios to join Price’s vocal session. In fact, he was so prolific that he found time to write a third verse for the monologue, edited from the album version but available in outtake form here:

In the mid-’80s, Rod supplied three more classic compositions: Michael McDonald’s ‘Sweet Freedom’, McDonald’s duet with James Ingram ‘Yah Mo B There’ (co-composed by Ingram, McDonald and Quincy) and also the underrated ‘Spice Of Life’ by Manhattan Transfer featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica.

Rod enjoyed somewhat of a songwriting/arranging/producing renaissance in the early ’90s, including some great work for Mica Paris’s Whisper A Prayer album and also Q’s Jook Joint. His contributions to music won’t be forgotten, and he was by all accounts a lovely fellow too.

Rodney Lynn Temperton, 9th October 1949 – October 2016