Time Magazine once proclaimed producer David Foster “the true King of Pop”. and it’s true, Foster is among the most commercially successful producers and composers in popular music. there’s no denying the popularity of Foster-produced hits like Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, Earth Wind and Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone”, Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” and the list goes on and on. but as you can see from his trail of hits, he seems to be fixated on sappy ballads. even Foster’s own solo albums are filled with soft, syrupy ballads. check out Foster’s duet with Olivia Newton-John titled The Best of Me on youtube. wow, now that’s some big 80’s cheeze! and even though he’s got a long list of hit songs and a room full of grammies, that doesn’t necessarily mean Foster’s exempt from flops or from making bad decisions. he’s made a ton of bad choices. come on, his recent stint on reality shows (The Princes of Malibu, Celebrity Duets, Star Tomorrow) weren’t really highlights of his career. and some of the questionable artists he chose to work with in the past include: All-4-One, Color Me Badd, El DeBarge, Night Ranger and oh, remember Voices That Care? i dare you to watch that youtube video without cringing!! …you can’t can you? har, har.
well, here’s another cringe-worthy example. did you know that Foster worked with Paul McCartney in the mid-eighties? yup, they recorded three songs together. one, you may or may not know about, “We Got Married” which appeared on McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt album after some tweaking/overdubbing by Neil Dorfsman. and sadly, the collaboration really didn’t work. the mid-eighties was a “lost period” for McCartney. he bounced around from producer to producer trying desperately to get his muse back and things really didn’t click for him until 1989 when he released the Flowers in the Dirt album. the Foster-McCartney sessions took place in the fall of 1984 at McCartney’s newly built home studio on his farm in Sussex, England. Foster played keyboards during the session while McCartney handled the bass, and electric guitar. Dave Mattacks came in for drums overdubs and David Gilmour was on hand to overdub the lead guitar in the song “We Got Married”. listen to the 1984 version of “We Got Married”
the other two songs were titled “Lindiana” and “I Love This House”. the track “I Love This House” sounds VERY dated with Foster’s signature mid-eighties synth-bass sound upfront throughout the track. McCartney’s lyrics are totally inane and unispired. “I Love This House” is just utter crap and they both knew it. the track remained in the vaults until the mid-nineties when it surfaced as a B-side. listen to “I Love This House”
and as for “Lindiana”… well, there’s not much to say. the song has a nice, easy-going melody but McCartney again ruined it with cringe-tastic lyrics. and as producer of the sessions, Foster should have had the balls to tell McCartney that his material sucked and to go back to his room to work on them some more before putting these embarrassing ditties to tape. but apparently, Mr. “Ballad-supreme” Foster wasn’t “man” enough to criticize Mr. “thumbs-aloft” Macca’s crappy songwriting. “Lindiana” remains unreleased. the general music buying public is safe from Lindiana at least for now.
if you’re a glutton for punishment, you can listen to “Lindiana” right here:
and if your ears start bleeding, you can’t say i didn’t warn you…
—————- David Foster albums are available at amazon.com.
