#5- 10 White Singers We Once Thought Were Black

 Michael McDonald

Just a heads up, if you were thinking this was going to be one of those posts that idolizes “blue-eyed soul singers” or says folks are out here trying to “sound black” (as if there’s one way to sound black), you’re mistaken. This is a list about a few individuals with voices that we accidentally assumed at one point and time belonged to black people. It wasn’t until videos popped up for some of our favorite jams that we didn’t see a black man or woman, but a white man or woman–and it surprised the hell out of us. A lot of these singers are probably your personal favorites by now, some you may have never heard of, but don’t lie, you know you were telling your friends at one point or another, “Oh snap, I just assumed he/she was black…”
You’re not the only one.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, McDonald played in several local bands (such as Mike and the Majestics, Jerry Jay and the Sheratons, the Reeb-Toors, the Del Rays and The Guild) while attending McCluer High School in his hometown of Ferguson, Missouri, now a city of some 25,000 people in St. Louis County, Missouri. McDonald was discovered while playing with a group called Blue and consequently moved to Los Angeles in 1970.
Michael McDonald became one of the many in-studio adjunct members of the group Steely Dan, providing back-up vocals on tracks for 1975's Katy Lied. He would return on subsequent Steely Dan recordings including 1976's The Royal Scam and 1977's Aja. He also played keyboards on some Steely Dan tracks. McDonald continued to do background vocals for Steely Dan through their 1980 release, Gaucho. He was part of Steely Dan's last touring band in the 1970s, playing keyboards and singing backup.

McDonald co-wrote Van Halen's Top 20 hit "I'll Wait", from their landmark 1984 album. McDonald co-wrote "You Belong to Me" with Carly Simon.
McDonald's 1990 album Take It to Heart featured a minor hit with the title song, co-written with Diane Warren. The following year he joined the New York Rock and Soul Revue, put together by Steely Dan's Donald Fagen. 1991's "Ever Changing Times" with Aretha Franklin, a duet on Arista Records, had moderate success and radio play (peaking at #19 on US R&B charts). In 2003, he earned two Grammy nominations for his album Motown, a tribute to the Motown sound.
In 2008 McDonald released his SoulSpeak album which (in addition to including three new songs penned by McDonald) featured his interpretations of 11 carefully selected soul-inspired songs. Ranging from universal evergreens like Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By" and Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City" to lesser-known numbers like Van Morrison's atmospheric "Into The Mystic" and the late 60s Chicago soul of Tyrone Davis' "Baby Can I Change My Mind".^[2]

McDonald has reunited as a guest performer with the Doobies several times since their initial dissolution in 1982 and joined Steely Dan on their 2006 summer tour, both as the opening act and as part of the band.^[3]