Songoftheday 10/18/14 - Now I know what loving you cost, now we're up to talking divorce and we weren't even married...

Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald - "On My Own"
from the album Winner In You (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is a pairing of a veteran soul singer with a soft-rock journeyman for a duet that had neither of them meeting the other during the recording. Originally intended for Dionne Warwick, "On My Own", written by legendary songwriters Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager was then given to Patti LaBelle, who had enjoyed a mainstream top-40 breakthrough in 1985 with her contributions to the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, sending "New Attitude" to the top-20 and almost getting a second top-40 hit with "Stir It Up". Feeling it worked better as a duet, she recruited Michael McDonald, who was last seen in the top-40 with the title track to his second solo album No Lookin' Back that same year. Recording separately, the pair sounded no different than if they were in the same room...

"On My Own" became the pair's first solo-credit #1 in June of 1986 (Patti had previously went to the top as part of LaBelle with "Lady Marmalade", while McDonald did the same as part of the Doobie Brothers with "What A Fool Believes"). The single also topped the "Black Singles" (or R&B) chart and went to #2 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada and #2 in England.

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In 1995, country star Reba McEntire released a cover of "On My Own", enlisting Martina McBride, Linda Davis, and Trisha Yearwood to collectively fill in for the duet role. The single made it to #20 on the country chart....

Five years later, Sheena Easton also recorded a disco-tinged "On My Own" for her Fabulous album...

..and finally, here's Patti and Michael McDonald singing together in L.A. in 2001...

Up tomorrow: The Material Girl survives to talk about it.