Ride Like The Wind

The idea for this post started with an article that you can read HERE. It mentions that the producer of the first Christopher Cross album, was Michael Omartian.

Steely Dan Fans know Michael on Steely Dan albums, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied and Aja. He was working at ABC Dunhill (the place where Steely Dan recorded for the better part of the 70's). He moved over to Warner Brothers as an A and R man and one of the first things he heard in a meeting about what project to do next, was Christopher Cross and the tunes Sailing and Ride Like The Wind. He immediately told the meeting he liked the sound of those songs and they approved him moving forward with the project. They flew Christopher out to meet Michael and Christopher Cross was less than impressed with him. That was, until he heard who Michael had worked with. It turned out that Christopher's absolute favorite records were, you guessed it, Steely Dan's.

Michael, having worked with many session men, called upon several Steely Dan alumni, to work on the album. Most famously, the choice of Michael McDonald on the background vocals.

On that subject, HERE is a little humor. Click the link, before you continue.

Do you think he was running to add vocals to Peg, next? :-)

What made me stand up and take notice, as I read the article at the top, is that back at my old lot at KCET I worked a lot of Saturday afternoons. As I worked I had my computer set to the Internet radio station, Jack FM that comes out of Vancouver, Canada. One day they played Ride Like The Wind and as a Steely Dan fan, it amazed me how much it reminded me of the musicality of Steely Dan. Well, Michael doing those background vocals definitely connected it in my mind. I remember even mentioning it to my work Steely Dan fan and he just brushed me off.

So Michael worked on it, Christopher loves Steely Dan and many other session players, including Michael McDonald (all of Steely Dan Fame) were utilized in the production of Ride Like The Wind.

For me, case closed. The sound was definitely influenced, in some way, by Steely Dan.

A final coda. Here is a nice version of the song, with Michael McDonald as guest vocalist. You can view itHERE.