CoronaVinyl Day 414 (S): . . . Too by Carole Bayer Sager

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "S," and included in my most recent haul of records from my neighbor were two Carole Bayer Sager albums.  I went with her second studio album, 1978's . . . Too.

Sager is one of those artists who you may not have ever heard of, but you have definitely heard a lot of her songs, as she has primarily been a songwriter throughout her long career in the music industry.  When she was still in high school, she co-wrote the song "Groovy Kind of Love" -- in 20 minutes, no less -- which became a #2 hit for Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders in 1965 and then a #1 hit for Phil Collins in 1988.

She released three solo albums between 1977 and 1981, though none of them were big hits in the U.S.  One song, 1981's "Stronger Than Before," was her only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.  However, 1977's "You're Moving Out Today" did go to #1 in Australia.

. . . Too is mainly easy listening pop, which isn't my bag.  Sager did have an all-star cast on the album, though.  She co-wrote every song with other songwriters and artists, including Alice Cooper (!), David Foster, Melissa Manchester, Bruce Roberts, Peter Allen, Marvin Hamlisch, and Johnny Vastano.  Backing musicians on the album include the ubiquitous Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, and Steve Porcaro of Toto (who seem to have performed on about a thousand albums from the mid '70s to the mid '80s), former Derek & The Dominoes drummer Jim Gordon, veteran session drummers Jim Keltner and Russ Kunkel, veteran session bassist Lee Sklar, EGOT winner Hamlisch on piano, Foster on keyboards, and many others. Backing vocal contributions are from Cooper, Michael McDonald (another one who seems to have been on nearly every album released for a few years there), Luther Vandross, Manchester, and future Chicago member Bill Champlin, among others. Despite all this, I'll probably never play this record again.

Through she stopped making her own music after 1981, Sager continued writing for others and wrote or co-wrote some huge hits, including "Arthur's Theme (The Best That you Can Do)" by Christopher Cross, which won Sager an Oscar for Best Original Song, "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Elton John, which won Sager a Grammy for Song of the Year, and "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, which won Sager a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.  Other songs she has written have been recorded by Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Kanye West, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and dozens of others.

In 1982, Sager married Burt Bacharach, though they divorced in 1991.  She has been married to Robert A. Daly since 1996.  Among other things, he was the CEO of Warner Bros. and CEO of the L.A. Dodgers.  Sager was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "It's The Falling In Love"
This is a little more uptempo and disco-y than the other songs, and McDonald and Champlin provide backing vocals, so that's nice.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "I Don't Wanna Dance No More"
Then why did you make dance song?