One Song - Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" with Stevie Mackey

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Why does “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” still light up dance floors decades later, and what makes Sylvester’s soaring falsetto pure legend?Diallo and LUXXURY get into the heart of this enduring disco anthem with renowned vocal coach Stevie Mackey, unpacking the vocal magic behind Sylvester’s unforgettable performance. One Song Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40SIOpVROmrxTjOtH7Q1yw?si=a7b373b5ca744390 Wayfair is your trusted destination for all things game-day, from coolers and grills to recliners and slow cookers. Shop, save, and SCOOOORE today at Wayfair.com Songs Discussed: “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” - C+C Music Factory “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Sylvester “You Send Me” - Sam Cooke “God Bless the Child” - Sylvester “Thank You” - Walter Hawkins “Dance (Disco Heat)” - Sylvester “It’s Raining Men” - The Weather Girls “Everybody Everybody” - Black Box “Thinking Right” - Sylvester “Do Ya Wanna Funk?” - Patrick Cowley & Sylvester Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No, no, no, no, no, I did a little bit better than you. Okay. Falsetto fight. Falsetto fight. Taking you down. Haya, higher, higher. Taking you down. So luxury today, we're covering one of my favorite disco tracks of all time.

We've been waiting to do this one for a while, and I'm pumped. Oh, my God, me too. I absolutely adore this song. And what would this song be without the infectious falsetto of trailways and queer icon Sylvester? Yes, which is why we have a very special guest to help us on our deep dive into the song. song by Sylvester and his incredible vocals. You don't want to miss it. We're talking one song, and that song is You Make Me Feel Mighty Real by Sylvester. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Dea LaRiddle. And I'm producer, DJ songwriter, and musicologist luxury, aka the guy

who whispers, interpolation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres, telling you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before. And if you want to watch one song, You can do so on YouTube and Spotify. While you're there, please like and subscribe. So today we have a special guest. He's a highly sought after vocal coach who's worked on NBC's The Voice for over 10 seasons. He's also worked with A-List talents such as Selena Gomez, J-Lo, Cole Play, and Lenny Kravitz.

Please give a warm welcome to Stevie Mackey. Yay! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, Stevie, you and Sylvester both grew up singing in the church. Absolutely. That's where we want to start.

What do you think gospel singing gives? gives a vocalist that's hard to get anywhere else. That's very true. That statement, you can't get what you get in church in a school or in any other form of education. You can't get it on the streets. Gospel came out of... Nobody ever says, I grew up singing in school. Right, right.

I mean, blues music split into gospel, and it was really the world and the church. The world went into more jazz, and you have scatting that developed out of that. Totally. Copping the horns. But then there was another road that went to gospel. Gospel was holy music. It wasn't like blues. You had a lot of copying keyboards.

And so you got what we call now as runs that came out of gospel music. Never thought of that. Hmm, yeah. Which was a mix of Negro spirituals and copying organs and keyboards. So there was an actual sound split that happened. And that didn't really rejoin. until Sam Cook and Ray Charles came together and Aretha, you know, in the 1950s and 60s and joined gospel with popular music. And gospel went to number one many, many times.

We just in different forms. But gospel was really one of the first American genres. I would say gospel birthed so many American genres. Absolutely. It is half talking and half singing. We're only three minutes in the episode. And I've never heard it put that running. is copying the keyboard. I knew this guy

it was copying the Trevice. I don't know how that missed me. Have you ever thought of that? I never thought about it that. I know. That's insane. It's humans copy instruments and then instruments copy humans. It's a very interesting cycle. How are blues and gospel related or different for that matter? What is the distinction between them or is there even one?

Well, briefly, one sings about the problem and one sings about the answer. You know, this woman's getting on my nurse. Oh, Lord, I don't know what to do with this child. You know, you have blues. dark, and then gospel's like, but Jesus, for all he'll fix it, I know he will. That's a great, great answer.

That's how you tell the difference. It's lyrical. It's the content more than it is the music. The music may be identical. It's just where you are, the day that it is, on a Sunday in this place, and the lyrical content may be the biggest distinction between blues music and gospel. Exactly. And when Thomas Dorsey coined the term gospel, it was really the good news.

It wasn't Negro spirits, spirituals anymore. There was a hope to it. Gospel has a light to it that spirituals didn't. And, you know, after slavery came out, there was some hope. You know, Civil War finished. You get the early 1900s, it blues, you. But then you come out of it. There's a road.

There's a path to the light. And that's what gospel is. Yeah, after some of where we had like five good years. We did. Reconstruction, we don't need this anymore. Before, hey, hey, hey, hey, we went way too far. You mentioned Sam Cook before, and there's obviously, there's a tension between gospel and R&B and souls.

Like those, there is a tension between them. So much so, that he had to change his name. Tell us a little bit about that tension and where the split is between those genres. Yeah, I grew up in a church family. It was church or the world. It was, you know, it was. Secular. Yeah, because many singers, especially in the mid-1900s, didn't believe you could sing about both.

You had to make up your mind and decide, I'm going to sing for Jesus. So you have Mahalia Jackson on one hand, and then you have Ella Fitzgerald on the other hand. Even though they might have grown up very similar. Donna Washington comes to mind. Yeah, exactly. And so you have decisive decisions. And when Sam Cooke came along, he did have a name change. And he sang with the Solstores on one hand.

Oh, there was a woman in the Bible days. Beautiful songs. And then he wanted to do something else. And that was a big decision that could get him ousted from Christianity as a whole. And then his... And part of the decision making was to reach a wider option. audience, right? Is that part of where this comes into play? R&B and soul being an opportunity to be... Or to just sing about love in general. I'm not just love to God, but R&B music is about love.

Yeah. And a lot of those race records didn't even break out of the black community, but I think it was an opportunity to speak to something more real. That's why you send me swinging was so special. Darling, you, honest you do, honest you, honest you do. It did go to number one worldwide popular charts. And that's when many people heard church runs for the first time. I credit Sam Cook with introducing the world to some of the runs that we hear today in R&B music. The sort of the idea of taking one note and stretching it, or one syllable, rather, one lyric even and stretching it into multiple notes. To make it mean more.

I want you to know, oh, oh, you know, that kind of stuff. It's just like it's this roller coaster, but it's not new. You know, it was in classical music. It was in all types of music, but it was just the communication. Yeah. It's a pleading. Right. That's true.

about opera we have. Yeah, the baroque period. Single syllables that do multiple. Yeah, George Frederick. It's nothing new, but it's just... The context. So we talk a lot about on this show, how genre has almost, has very little oftentimes

to do with the musical content. And so much more to do with the context of who the performer is and who the intended audience is. Who the marketplace is. It's a very interesting line. Yes. Yeah. Because we've just identified how blues, jazz, gospel,

R&B, and soul share potentially 80% of the content. Right. It's true. And I think America itself has ungenreized music. Genre was based on what was around you, instruments that were around you, sounds that were trees. You make things out of drums. I make metal. I'm going to, you know, Adolf Sax, coming with the saxophone, and then all these people coming with their instruments to places, bringing all of their genres and then stirring it up. That's why we had jazz. Well, let's stir it up a little bit. We want to hear a little bit of Sylvester's gospel. Here is a clip of Sylvester singing, God bless the child.

Hallelujah. God bless the child that's God is all. Just so all of our listeners are on the same page, and actually I have a question, can you maybe break down the distinction between falsetto and head voice and talk about why they're so special and distinctive as singing styles? Yeah, falsetto is an Italian word for a false voice. It's just a, it's not realistic, but it was a place where you didn't speak. It wasn't your primary voice.

Yeah, it was just, I talk here, but I can go up here. And it's just a lighter place with different vocal, you know, chords. It's just a different area of your voice. It's like an attic in a house. That's why I think about it. Sometimes you go up there, sometimes you don't, but you live downstairs. But it's a choice you make to think to go there. You have to open the door.

It should be. Yeah, it's a choice. It's a choice. And how is head voice different than from falsetto? Some people say it's not different. Okay. And so these are just made up words to describe something that's very hard to put words too. It doesn't have to do with the breaths, how the vocal chords are stretched

versus not or something. There's a technical term. I would say no. I would say other terms for falsetto or head tone, head voice. That's what we would use in school all the time and say, go to your head voice, ha, but now when you say mix, there could be a distinction. Mix contains elements of chest voice and falsetto. So that's louder because it sounds morphal, but it's not. It's a mix between falsetto and chess voice. So I would say there's a distinction there. Okay. That was an expert.

Amazing. Example, by the way. Thank you. So you mentioned school. Let's pretend for a second in the luxury and I are students. Okay. How would you coach us to sing,

you made me feel mighty real? We've been proud to sing. You want us to get us started going. You make me feel. Oh, see? Here we go. I already, I already ate it. Right.

Come on, let me one more chance. You make me feel. Oh, my. So he's got so much more richness already. How do I get more like that and more like you, for that matter? You're just a little airy. It's too airy. You.

Yeah. Yeah. You. Yeah. Sorry. I'm not mad. Give me a you. You.

Make me feel. Make me feel. Yeah. I would put you up a little higher. Yeah. I'm glad we split it up that way because I can't do the verse of this song. finding in the car. Yeah, it's too low for you. It's too low for me. Your falsetto gets kicked in higher.

It kicks in a little higher. Yeah, your attic is your... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Now, stop. This is what I'm hearing. I'm hearing when you say that. Well, as you see, most men have falsetto. Is it true that women don't have falsetto? I heard that one time. I'm like, that's impossible. No, it's not true. It's not true. Some women have voices that are very similar to men's voices. Right. But some women also have like a middle voice that kind of bridges between their falsetto so they can do different things.

But I would say, I'll say most many popular female voices are a lot like men's voices. Like Whitney and Mariah, they have very clear chest voice, a very clear falsetto. Oh my gosh. The range. Wait, so while we're on the subject, you know, because we were talking about his falsetto, more challenging or more strenuous, I had actually heard, and this might just be social media rumor, that the reason my question. used to talk like this was he was trying to save his voice. Now, is there any, is there any truth to that? Have you had you ever heard that?

Because we know that Michael had the other voice too. There's a, singers have so many people in them. There are a lot of people trying to be one person. And so you'll find singers talking all kind of ways. The old opera singers had transatlantic accents and they talk like this. And they'd say, well, you know, no matter where they're from, they'd be born in Italy, France, America. And they're putting on a character.

And I can't wait to work with, with DeMille. Maria Callis to Leotene Price. Yes. You know, Kathleen Battle, but they become something. And they become, they have a tall sound like this when you sing opera. Or singers, pop singers generally kind of sit up here because they know when it's time to record, they have to be a little bit more right here. What is right here? Like higher input, like above the music?

Yeah. Pop American pop music sits in the high register of his chest voice. I was, we've said many times on the show like Drake and Jay-Z, like most of the pantheon of really big rappers, Tyler being a notable exception. they tend to wrap up here. So you can hear them over the beat. Yeah, and have intensity. When Ariana does it too. She kind of talks, you know, she has a voice that floats around. People talk about it all the time.

Oh, she's in this voice. But it's a singer thing. I do it when I have to sing. I talk a little higher, but my natural voice is right here. I'm really like more of a baritone. But when I have to start singing, I kind of talk up here. But there's also voice rest and voice saving techniques that a lot of singers walk around, right? They want the temperature.

The temperature should be a certain. It's ice cold in here. I would never have my house this cold. It needs to be warm. It's crazy. Also, I don't usually talk before noon, and I don't talk on the phone. Can I just tell you? I used to work on late night with Jimmy Fallon before he took over the night show.

And we had Aretha on. And Aretha came into the studio. I'm sorry. You know what they're going. I'm already. Sorry. So Quest and the roots are all there. They're in suits.

And she's like, oh, it's way too cold in here. It's way too cold. Did she walk out? She left. Yep. And then they turned off the air conditioning, which was in minutes with all those huge lights, like the roots are melting. And then she comes out with

a fur on. You got to keep the queen happy. You already do this about her. I know this story a hundred times. People don't consider singers. Our instrument is right here behind this. We don't protect it. We don't have fat and skin really covering the vocal cord.

It's right there for air and everything to pass by. She said, no, you guys going to have to cut this air off. I'll be bad. It's true. I have a thermometer by my bed with a humidifier and And it tells me there's humidity in the room. I keep it right at a certain temperature when I sleep. That's a lot of hours of breathing that you got to consider.

And you wake up with no voice. You wonder why. You got to watch it. Who is on your Mount Rushmore of falsetto performances? Maxwell. Okay. Great. Marvin Gay.

Yes. Oh. Boy, this is a tough. By the way, when we were listening to that, God bless the child from Sylvester, I heard some Marvin Gay-esque falsetto. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Prince. Yeah. From the first moment I saw it. You know, Prince is like... Yeah, Prince. Don't forget Barry Gibb. Come on. Of course.

Give it up. See, you notice a time period in this. This is Sylvester, too. From 70, from 69. Mid-70... To like 84. Yeah, 70s to early 80s. That time was like, you know, Ronald Lysley.

Oh, hell yeah. You have so many guys going up there. It was a cool thing to be up there. Earlier, but, oh my God, Superfly. Curtis Mayfield. Yeah, Curtis. Curtis Mayfield. Oh, my goodness.

Wow, that's really interesting. Earth went and fire. Hello. Yeah, Philip Bailey. Philip. King Philip. Woo. I'm glad he bring up Maxwell.

By the way, he's mentioned so many artists that we've covered on this show. Like, we just mentioned Marvin Gay and Prince. We would love to do a Maxwell episode. But, like, I think that some of these later artists who do falsetto, DeAngel used to do a lot more falsetto early on. Yeah. DeAngelo. Yeah, like it is interesting to see how falsetto definitely had like a thing.

thing in the 70s. Yeah. Early 80s. And I think NeoSol came out of that thing. Totally. Because a lot of it's building on the previous one of their heroes. Marvin Gay was one of their heroes. Exactly.

So there's so many artists, we love their falsetto incredibly, but we think that the difference with Sylvester is it wasn't just a vocal tool. It felt like it was a means to express himself, like his full self, his full identity. And we feel like that makes his use of falsetto take on a whole different meaning. I agree. I think that's who he. he was. Some people, when they're performing, that's more of who they are. And they've made up a character and they're more comfortable being this thing. Which is fair, yeah. And they create

themselves. Some people have to find themselves and some people create themselves. And they're more comfortable being that thing than anything. And I think that was his way to express who he felt he was and who he admired. Right. You were talking earlier about finding a character, how singers find a character or have different characters they can choose to be. It seems as though when Sylvester James found falsetto, he became Sylvester. He became Sylvester. That's exactly how I think about it. That's him on the stage.

That's him. And he would dress like it. And he would give you everything he felt. He would turn into this being of light. He would just go, I mean, of course, he's church boy. You know, you have the Love Center up there, Walter Hawkins and, you know, Daryl Coley. So many greats coming out of the Bay Area experience. Lots of, there's a Bay Area gospel sound.

There's a Bay Area. What is the Bay Area Gospel Sound? I'm from San Francisco. It's gospel with hippie influences mixed in. There was a lot of resistance and defiance and revolutionaries. You have so many people and types of people coming around. And I think it was just shocking to people, the sound that came out of it. There was a rock and roll edge to it.

Absolutely. We did on a Sly episode, like, you know, the fact that, like, Sly started off in the church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that influence the rock that he was doing. It was. When you hear Walter Hawkins and Edwin Hawkins singing, and thank you, Lord, for all you done for me.

Thank you for your power. And they would just go, and they'd be, like, it was rock and roll. It's rock and roll. It's rock and roll. It was so amazing. They've all blended. All the sounds were included. That's why I say there's no bad sounds.

It's all content. So let's play another Sylvester track, and let's talk about the role of his amazing background vocalist. Let's hear a little bit of dance disco heat. Those of you watching it home, you'll notice one, you know, kind of clean-cut white dude on the since. That's Patrick Hawley, who plays a big. part of the song we're about to talk about today. And he does those little swooshes here in the background.

Doodoo do, do, do, do. Yeah. That's very true. This is the time where you're transitioning from live instruments to computerized instruments, too. Yeah. So there's a lot of experimental sounds in here. Sounds like going to space. Absolutely.

So we're going to go into that. But we do want to call out supporting Sylvester up there on the stage in addition to Patrick are Martha Wash and Azora Armstead, who later went on to become the weather girls and had a hit with its raining men. Hi, where the weather girls? All of our size are going to be Are going to be precipitation themed

And someone's like Hey, we can release a hundred albums, y'all Really milked this thing Oh no, we've run out of things to talk about Oh my God Listen, if you haven't heard It's Randy Ben, you're probably under 30 It's one of the best music videos

In the world Yes I stand by it It's just incredible You can't help but just love it It's just everything. It's like Mario Brothers mixed with,

Mario Brothers won. Mixed with, I don't know. I don't know what else. It's just amazing. It's like Mario Brothers came to church. It's back when they were green screens. They were blue screens.

Hey, but yes what? Even if you haven't heard of, it's raining men, you may have heard Martha's voice on Everybody, Everybody. And gonna make you sweat everybody dance now.

Everybody dance now. I did a little bit better than you. Oh, okay. Unfortunately. Falcito fight. Falsetto fight. Taking you down there. Hire, higher, higher.

Taking you down there. Falsetto fight. Don't get me starting. I'm trying to be good. I'm just trying to get to a sketch, though. So fast. So listen, I mean, I've already demonstrated several times that my falsetto needs a little work.

However, it has been in my tool set. Luckily, I'm not coming from a church background. I'm coming from more of a punk background where, like, anything goes. Look, he's trying to play. Give it good to him. I have found, though, that when performing, I have had many, terrifying nights where I have lost my voice on stage. It has happened before. It is very scary. Do you have any tips for performing falsetto on stage? Because it is so thin. It is so hard to get power.

It is so hard to get volume. What should I do next time? It starts days before. Yeah. It starts way before, you know, the three nights leading up to it, make sure you're sleeping eight hours a night. Make sure eating good. Eat good. Eat a plate of food. I eat before I have no appetite before it shows. That's interesting. You said you have no appetite before again. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I need to put food in there anyway.

It doesn't matter. Okay. Time to eat. Why does food relate to voice? You need nourishment. Okay. And you need nutrients. Okay.

For all of your muscles. Yeah, yeah. And you'll burn them out. You think you're okay. And then they burn out halfway through the show because you're out of fuel. You need a piece of chicken, some rice and some vegetables and some, eat a plate of food. Just a plate of food with some grease in it. Royo, God, Royal.

Okay. It's just, yeah, it's just something about an hour and a half before and you'll be fine. You know, protein shake, if nothing. Okay. A protein shake. Is there an alcohol that helps? Probably no alcohol. No alcohol helps.

I would guess there are zero alcohols that don't dry your voice out. You know, mentally, I don't know what it can do for you, but not. I'm just flashing back to it. I'd literally get a gig in Birmingham in England, and my voice gave out on stage, and they didn't end up paying me. I was chasing the promoter down all night long with no voice, and the rest of the band was mad at me because we didn't get paid. It was one of the worst performances ever. I really, I just flashed back. I'd block that memory out, but it just came back.

That's crazy. Yeah, I hated that. So Sylvester's saying, you know, famously in falsetto, but there were some instances where he sang in his natural range, which apparently was quite low. Just for comparison's sake, let's hear how he sounds on Thinking Ring. What is that? Wow.

I've never heard this. That beat is hot. Sounds like a good. That beat is a good singer. after disco demolition. So it seems like maybe the label wanted him to not be associated with disco. But then the very next story, he's like, screw that.

He says, do you want to funk? Disco went out fast. It was like, oh, that. It was like, once, you know, everybody did it. It was this overdone. People did not like it. Yeah. They were tired of it.

In theory. Yeah. Because I'd always argue that that 80s buggy, that like that 80s, you know, R&B sound is like, it's like disco then shifted over here. It's cut time. Yeah. It's like it.

Nobody really stopped liking it. Listen, off the wall, like, those are disco solvers. And the rest of the world didn't have disco demolition. So they continue to listen to the answer. The rest of the world, you had to make your money. But I want to point out, his voice here is super low. So I talk about a house theory. You have downstairs and upstairs.

Yeah. He had... He's in the basement. Right, right, right. I imagine his house had a lower ceiling downstairs. And then once he got upstairs, he had a lot of room. And that's why you're saying it's hard for you to jump down. to the low falsetto part.

Because I think you have a high ceiling downstairs and then a smaller attic up here that's high. Interesting. So I think if everyone's voice is like a house with a distinction in the middle. And some people's voice flip into falsetto lower, some people's flipping higher. And his flips in low.

He's a baritone here. Yeah, he's hitting this note. Yeah, he's living right here. And then he flips over. And when he gets up, he can get to his falsetto low. and then, oh, and they go up there. All the way up.

So he has a lot of attic space up there. Does he have anything missing? It sounds like he's like a pretty complete range. Does anything left out? You know, he doesn't have anything left out. I don't know. You know, when it comes to chest voice, full voice stuff like, I never hear him do that.

That's where there's always something you got to get. That's why he's got the two tons of fun for the belting parts. They have that part. They've got enough support back there. I grew up with ladies like that in church. Yes. Oh, yeah. By the way, it is so fun to see you sing.

It is so effortless. You're like, hitting these nose, but hitting these nose, I sing. More comfortable than I talk. I'd much rather sing than talk. I'll do the rest of the podcast with singing. I think so.

Just singing's the easiest thing for me to do. Well, listen, we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're going to hear all those incredible driving sense and those mighty real vocal stems from none other than Sylvester when we get back. By the way, luxury, I have to say, I am so excited that my team, Los Angeles Football Club,

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every style, every home. Welcome back to What's on. We're here with the incredible vocal coach, Stevie Mackey, and we're about to get into the stems of Sylvester's. You make me feel, parentheses, mighty real. I think the other thing other than falsetto that we've lost in the 70s is there aren't enough parenthetical

titles anymore. So important. Don't drop them. The drawn out. Yes. Yeah. Just to make sure you know it's this version and not someone else.

We are the people of the world, parentheses, parts one and two. That was just such a thing. They don't do that anymore. It doesn't all fit into your MP3. Luxury, you mentioned you found a little surprise at the top of the stem. That's right. So at the top of the stems, there's a little surprise. I'll play it for you in a second.

But first, let me build a little context for it. So the song was actually written originally by James Tip Wurrick, who's the guitar player on the song, gets co-writing credit, gets co-producer credit, who wrote the music at home on his guitar. And originally, it was sort of more of a mid-tempo, like, R&B ballad, is how he described. it in an interview I saw. But what happened was when he was playing it for Sylvester, who had come late to rehearsal. So the band is playing this sort of slower version of it. Sylvester hears it, impatiently waves his hands for the band to stop, writes lyrics for it, but only after he says,

you got to speed the thing up. Unfortunately, we don't have the original rehearsal tape that Sylvester might have heard with that version of the song. But on the album, there is a slow version and a surprise that I found in the stems was... We think this might be. We think that could be it, or it could just the reprise, the epilogue version, the slower version of the song on the album, but let's listen. I'm so sorry that I'm going to say good times, but that is how it's gospel. There's a hallelujah in there and everything. While you were playing that, you said, what did you say?

From what I know, this is the way it was originally written. Totally, yeah. Piano-based gospel style. It might be, but the reason why we're just saying we're not sure is because on the album, there is a slow version, which I think is this one. and it was, I think, re-recorded to be this good quality. But it could be the original demo. We're not sure.

The fun part is that it's just a little snippet. That's all I had as part of these multi-tracks. It's always like a little archaeological dig when you get these things. So that's all there was, this little fragment. And just to isolate, because this is our only weather girls we're going to hear. Here are some weather girls isolated. Yes. In the morning, in the morning.

Yeah. That happened fun. That is straight up a Negro. spiritual. I like you. And I will say that. It is. In the morning, in the morning, you're thinking about something that's going to come, a good time that might happen. And the humming, you know, some people just know how to hum. I have to teach a lot of people how to humming. Humming is an impressive sound. Anything hums when you beat it or tell it. No, it's just a, hmm. It's a dark sound. I like what you're saying about humming, because it's a lot like that scene where Delroy Lindo's character in sinners is recounting something very dark. And then he starts humming. I think that scene and what you're saying, they totally make the point that that that humming can come from real emotion. When there's no words left to express. Just say, hmm.

And so that's a church thing. And that and that found its way into gospel. And now that we've heard the Sylvester song in his lower register, I wouldn't have thought before that that was Sylvester at the beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the morning in the morning. Yeah. Right? Oh, yeah.

That's him. That's him down there. And he's singing all the parts. You know, he's doing background, front ground. He sounds a little bit like sly there, right? Is it just me? Like, there's a little bit of slide. He does.

He does. So, ostensibly, that's what Sylvester might have heard, something like that, a slower version of what ends up being the song. But he's like, no, no, no, no. And he starts stomping his foot real fast because this song is really fast. This is 132 BPM tune. He's like, no, no, no, what are you doing like this? And this is what we heard.

Starting with the drums. This is Randy Merritt, playing a 132 BPM drumbeat, disco, all the music. the way. That's what he plays. That's the tune. Of course, there's a little iconic failure here a few times. Straight 16th notes.

It's so good though. Why does quadrupling and the beats work so much? I'm just, I'm on this road and then all of a sudden he's going to do. It's a very gratifying. I'll give you the full rhythm stack because there's also conga's claps and some fun stuff in the claps.

I'll isolate in a second. And that's David Fraser playing percussion. So really the full beats sounds like this. Let's just double back for a second to those claps because we found some fun stuff in there when you isolate them. So that's like in the in the clap track. Yeah.

Yeah, of course. Because they're having fun. They're people playing. Dudes in the 70s just had like some big hands. You just hear that. That's a loud clap. It made your clap better when you're saying with it, though. Just clap.

You got to ad lib and clap the same time. No, exactly. My, it just, it works. Even with no instrumentation, that sounds. like a party. That sounds like a good ass party. Now to really make this a disco song, however, you need to get that octave bass thing going, which is what Bob Kingston did. What's happening in the base? What's happening in the base? You say, well, let me tell you. Bob Kingston is having a little workout with a little fill right here. That's one of the hooks of the tune.

Oh, yeah. Oh, the first. It's disco fire right there. I really got to stress the speed of this tune. This is at 132. It's so fast. The top of the disco range. Do you think he was influenced by Donna Summer? Would it come out right at the same time?

This is actually before Donna's like hot stuff. Before hot stuff. But there was another... Are you thinking about I feel love? I feel love. You're absolutely right. We're going to talk... We're going to be talking a lot more about that song in just a minute

when we get to the Pat Cali of it all. But great connection. You're totally nailed. Got it. Giving you your promise. It's dessert. All right. So I'm just going to build a little.

rest of the instrumental track. Just remember one thing. So James Tip Warwick on guitar, what you're about to hear, is the co-writer of this song. And again, the original version just had bass, drums, guitar, and keyboards. So we're going to build those, and then we'll pause for a second. Here is James's guitar part, which I love, by the way. Some Rhodes. Michael Finden. That's some piano, but I think this is Sylvester. Playing? I think that Sylvester playing. Yeah, he's credited. And put that bass back in. So good. That's so good. I mean, that just sounds like it's Saturday night. It's about 7 p.m. You're trying to get ready. You're trying to figure out what clothes you're going to put on. I mean, like, if you can distill a feeling into a song, like that is energy. That's that. That's when I play this song. I wonder if they knew that at this point when that like, guys, we got it.

You know, according to the telling, they did not. They just sort of thought of this, the instrument. players who were interviewed. The bass player in particular was saying, like, we didn't think anything of it. Even Sylvester himself didn't bother to write the lyrics down, he says, because he was just like, yeah, kind of a throwaway in their minds. They didn't really realize until we're about to get to until in just a moment. But in the moment, what you're hearing was made to them, it was just sort of like, yeah, we're trying for disco because it's popular and on the charts. And we want one of those hit records right now. But they're not necessarily thinking, this is special. We've captured something people will be talking about in 50 years.

50 years is right That sounds so good Can you play a little isolated roads before we move on? I'm so glad you asked you. I'm so going to hear the roads by itself. Both of those keyboards actually. Let's start with the roads. That whole step jump is crazy.

So this is Michael Finden. He's credited with Rhodes electric piano. And I'm going to isolate the piano because we think this is Sylvester playing piano. Wow. And when you listen to it, it sounds kind of wonderfully. Amateur is not an insult.

There's something punk rock about it, but he's not hitting everything perfectly. Yeah. But it is perfect for the song. it is. Church. It's real church. It's so gospel.

Bang you on the channel. Oh yeah. The old church ladies would play like that. Just whatever. Just whatever. I'm done. Take that.

This is what it is. I'm not fixing it. And in the mix, it doesn't really matter. And if anything, you listen to the show, you'll know that having these human things that aren't perfectly life

makes it that much more special. And that all locks in with the drums. I need that. I need that. I need these two. So good. I know. I kind of want to have an instrumental that I can just coast down the street. I want to make my own version of this song.

Yeah. We've been talking about the vocals. Let's hear some Sylvester vocals. Yeah. First one, Sylvester James. You make me feel mighty real. When we're out there dancing on the floor, darling, and I feel like I need some more. And I feel your body close to my. Thoughts on what you're hearing. He just saying that straight through. Yeah.

No, there's no punches in that. He just sang it straight through. Single tracks, too. But he's also channeling some... It's very aretha to me. Oh, interesting. He will like... That's...

That's... That's... This whole song is very aretha-coded to me, vocally. Yeah. And it's all blues. Those are all blue... He's singing blues notes.

He's not really on the note so much. He's giving each note a pitch center. Okay. And swimming around it. I love that. Yeah. And that is soul music. 101.

I like that he didn't leave any gaps in there. It's like, da, dun, dun da, dun da, dun da, and I,

uh, what I mean by that is auto tune would ruin this song. Yeah. It would ruin it. These aren't notes. These are just, uh,

you know, you get to. You're kind of riding the beat too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just noticed too that he's right rhythmically,

he's playing off the roads. He's playing the same rhythm as the roads. Let's just put those two things together and hear how that matches. And I feel like I need the more. And I feel your body close to mind and I know my love. I love how they interplay, actually, because they match the first half. I wonder who did it first.

And the second, I was thinking the same thing. I wonder who decided to play off of the different thing, to decide that some is going to align in the other. Yeah, it won't. I can't tell. I can't tell either. I mean, you just mentioned Aretha Franklin. I think that he cited Aretha and Patty as influences.

What elements of their voices do you think that he was able to echo? In soul music, it's all about the slides. you're so human and less piano-like. So you want to complement the instruments and not sound like an instrument. You want to sound like a human complementing instruments. And when you sound like a piano, you sound like this. But when you sound like a person, you sound like the...

So I... There's no instrument that can do that. It's very human at the core of us. That's what soul is. It's breaking a rule instead of following it. And for the most part, too, there's a connection there. again, the lineage is going back to all things connected with blues and jazz, et cetera, but this is distinct from what would be called the European tradition,

where actual note placement and perfectionism doesn't, there's certainly, there are arias and recitative, etc. You will find versions of it perhaps in the European, the classical canon. But for the most part, it is more likely that you will find precision of note placement and going from one note to the next without hitting anything in between as being what is there. It's the American thing. Freedom. Yes.

It's not the composer's idea, and the composer brings in a singer. This is new. The singer is a part of the composition, and that's something that we kind of built here in America, the singer-songwriter. That came after the roaring 20s and all that, you know, you had the ASCAP and the composers' unions. These are the writers of the great songs. And it was done in the European way. And then music changed so much. You have another company, BMI, who had to start by the broadcasters, that took blues music in and jazz music.

That was a little confusing. We don't know who wrote it. It took elements of this and that. And it got everyone paid. So you have the stylistic music of America with the writers being part of the production that changed everything. But they confused publishing forever, you know. And just to be clear, when you say American music, this is music whose tradition has roots in African music. and black performers and black artists.

That is one of the main distinctions. It was that, but it doesn't sound like African music, I would say. This is American because it has a darkness to it. American black music has a darkness that's special. We went through a lot to sound this good. There's a struggle in it that doesn't exist everywhere. Maybe I should ask it differently. I think what you're saying is so interesting, and I'm learning a lot from it.

But maybe phrased a little differently, do you think that one of the distinctions that maybe I'm hearing is a result of so many of these musical traditions that are American coming from black Americans or black art forms, the black art forms that are jazz, blues, all of these are uniquely American traditions that came from people of color. Yes, but it took everyone. You needed instruments that came from, you need the organs, you need the saxophone, the horns. It's the soup. it's the gumbo that makes it special. And that's including every single type of person that was brought here, dragged here, chose to come here. It's the stew of everything.

I got to say as a member of ASCAP, BMI, I did not know that Baxter. I didn't know that ASCAP was Tim Panelli and all that. And that BMI purposely made sort of it easier for. Yeah, by 1939, when BMI started, I believe there were only six black. That's crazy. Composers or publishers involved in. that were getting paid for music. Insane.

And BMI changed that. But specifically in soul music like this, you hear certain elements like singing from the ground up. There's a pulling up sound that comes from soul music. Like you may be down, but I'm going to pull you up. There's that element that I hear in here. And there's the hums, the humming and the melody being super important. That's so great.

I'm so happy you're here because this is such a level of detail about vocal analysis that I just don't have in my background, in my experience, so I'm learning a lot for me. Thank you. I would love to hear the chorus. You stopped us before we got to the chorus. I'm not sure you're allowed to hear. Are we allowed? Do you think we're, do we deserve to hear the chorus? You ready for it? I think we might be ready. Let's hear the chorus. Ready dance. You made me feel. Come on. My. You. My.

I mean, it's so good. I mean, like, who would think mighty? He stretched out that eye. They're so good. Ma. Ma. My. He puts the my in mighty. Yeah. Because he's real.

And I just, I got to keep going back to. He was riding the groove, almost like a percussive instrument, kind of like the rose. Rhythmically, what do you think he's doing with his voice? I think he's the least rhythmic thing happening in the song.

There were only four instruments, but they were all playing different rhythms. Right. They're all playing different rhythms. That's really cool, too. Locked in by the drums. And by his voice, anchored by the top and the bottom of the whole sort of stack.

Right. And you notice this song doesn't stay the same tempo the whole song. It doesn't. It fluctuates a lot. And there was no click track. And that's something I try to get away from. Wow. I didn't know that. People just humanly feel sometimes the chorus should be a little slower. Sometimes it should be a little faster. But the song drives. That's what we call it. It's driving. And just like driving, it can take off. Earthwind and Fire would do it all the time. Bands would do it all the time. And the end of the song is nothing like the beginning. And if you're on the voice or a show and they're trying to say, well, this song is at 1.30. that's nice to think, but then by the end of the song, it doesn't feel right.

Yeah, it gets a 135. Because it drives. And you've got to take an account where the song goes. When you're doing tempo mapping for these songs, you have to make a map because it changes. I love the speed of the song. Yeah. I love the... Runaway train.

It's a runaway train. I love it. It's a fun tempo, man. I mean, as we were saying, as we were prepared for this episode, it's hard to find any songs of almost any genre other than me. maybe like some punk in this in this sort of 132 to 140 range by the time you're 140 you're right back into sort of like the slowest hip hop because that's like 70 but like seriously like 132 is like so incredibly fast that's fast that was faster than like ain't no mountain high enough

and some of the familiar songs at the time move on up you know is a little fast you know but it's but it's not a dance song in the same way yeah it was gospel so this one this one feels like 132 full-on dance so we hear verse two let's see the second verse my note for verse two is so cute. When we get home darling and it's nice and dark and the music's in me and I'm still real hot and you hauss me there and it feels real good and

I know you'll love me like you shoo he steamed up he took his time to get to the top and eye. I love it. Always start from the bottom in soul music. You just build it up. Luther does that a lot. He'll go

I love it. All right. And chorus, too, is a little different, too. He gets from wrapping up the energy here, too. Come on. This is perfect. It's perfect. It's slightly stronger than the first one.

There's a little bit of difference, but you can still sing along. It's perfect. Part of the perfection of songs of this era, too, is how imperfected. It is in terms of inconsistency. Yes. In terms of little slight variations and changes across it. Yes.

Don't fly your second chorus. We're not flying it in. We're not copying and pacing anything. Singing it again. A little different, it's a little bit. The difference is part of what makes it charming. Just at the end, when it goes to the main, it builds up to this. It does this big climax.

Oh, you make me feel. Right there. That was right. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. mad me feel. Yes. I think he's making this whole thing up.

Oh, yeah. I don't think he planned one thing. I don't, I think he's just, he's having fun, and it just went into it. Yeah. And sometimes he doesn't know what note he's going to go to, and it's always right. It can't be more right. You can't fix this. You can kind of tell, right?

You can kind of tell. Yeah, he's in between, you know, which one to land. And sometimes he doesn't quite decide fully. Right, right, right. And that's just fine. It's just fine. Oh, I love it. One recurring theme on this show is that people will spend two weeks on this song

that they just know is going to be, you know, that song. And then they'll be like, okay, we got 15 minutes left. You want to do one more? And that's the song. That's the take. That's the take. That's the song. Because they're hungry and they've got to go somewhere.

I made a note here. This is the getting dirtier part. Let's see what that means. That goes on for quite some time. We've gotten a long way from the church. Yeah, this is Sam Cook. He's having a Sam Cook moment. He's breaking away?

He can't be like, Corinthians. That doesn't sound appropriate. No, no, no, no. This is a whole different level. It's a weird relationship. Mighty real. There is someone who we have to mention, who is an unsung hero on this track,

and that is Patrick Cowley. The story goes that he heard a demo of You Made Me Feel Mighty Real, and then added those beloved sense that we all know on this song. So what we basically have up to this point, is what Patrick probably heard on the demo. Luxury, can you play us back what we've heard so far? So this is obviously the final recording, but here's what Patrick might have heard

in terms of the instruments that would have been in the demo that he heard. Right? So it's just the drums and percussion and then bass guitar keyboards and Sylvester singing. So just a little bit about Patrick Pat Cowley, the unsung hero of our episode.

He's born in 1950 in Buffalo. He was a drummer who moved to San Francisco in 1971. And he was a lighting technician at a disco called City Disco. And it's around this time that he starts making his own bootlegs, basically. He took some electronic music classes at City College of San Francisco, and he had access in the early 70s to these new, brand new machines, these brand new synthesizers.

So one of the experiments he does is he takes one of our favorite songs of all time and the one that you mentioned earlier. He takes Donna Summers, I feel love, again, possibly the greatest song of all time. And I don't want to say he makes it better, but he definitely makes it different. And he enhances it in this really interesting way that I'll play for you, now. And that includes doubling its running time to 15 minutes. This is Donna Summers' I feel love mega mix with Pat Callie overdubbing on top with his

synths. So he's adding that and he's soloing on top of it. Wow. And again, to be clear, he didn't have the multi-tracks. He didn't remix it. Right. No. No. He added on top of it. Just on top of what was there. But this becomes a legendary white label that all the DJs, it blows up on the underground disco scene in San Francisco, it gets put out by the famous DiscoNet series, which was an early

record pool that all the DJs would get the hot tunes from. And then Casablanca eventually puts it as an official release. And I saw that it's copyright in 1977. I think that's so, that's always been an interesting confluence culturally for me that Star Wars comes on in 77 and you have all this spacey disco. All this came from us going to space. I think, by the way, 1969, we as Americans went to space and we celebrated it so hard because we beat China and Russia and everybody else to space. And out of that comes everything space. You have LAX being built with the space thing and the thing. Encounters.

You know, the Jetsons and all this. It was everything was space. Star Trek, Star Wars. You have tons of space. It's thing. Disneyland, Futureland, you know, Tomorrowland. Everything is space. And so the Theraman is a popular new thing that makes weird sounds. So it took any spacey idea of what space sounds like, which space has no.

sound, but we gave it a sound. So if you were pitching an idea, you'd be like, so it's called space. They're like, yes. So Pat Cowley, this is a legendary underground dance song that he has created as a bootleg. So Sylvester meets him at Cabaret in San Francisco at Gay Disco, having known that

he's done this legendary tune and invites him to come add something to Mighty Real. So let's listen. So this is Patrick Cowley having heard and that demo. What he's adding to it, very similar to what he did with the Donna Summer remix. is he took his scents.

He took his EML, Electro Comp 101. These are really early and rare scents, by the way. They're monophonic. And he had this early sequencer. He had stuff that nobody had. And he knew how to use it. Again, this is 1978. There's Georgesio Moroder. There's Mark Sorone. There's craftwork. It's still new to have

this in disco, this integration of things. And it's happening very literally on this song when he adds in particular this bouncy baseline, which again, I think is the EML or sequenced with an Oberheim from 1974. So think about how that's merged with the baseline. Interesting to hear them together, right?

There's two baselines in the song. You're kind of different times. Yeah. It's so good. And the drums are what locked them together. But that's one incredibly special thing that in 1978 sounded like space. Like that sounds like...

Oh, no, it sounds like an advertisement for a Tandy computer. It's like, now you've got a gigabyte of memory. But there's another synth part that I'll play for you now, which is him going just apeshit. And that's happening under this. It's like avant-garde, experimental. This is in the song? It's in the track.

So he recorded a whole take, basically, of him just messing around. And they ended up finding a couple of bars a little bit later of that. But you're hearing the entire performance of him just, like, jamming. You know, the record label was like, Patrick, be brushing into it. one thing. Yeah.

You're doing this weird shit. That is so cool to hear him feel it out. We also have this echoey thing, which is just this percussive effect, which if you didn't know better, might think it was somebody just shaking something. But that's a simple. Right. I always thought that was a guitar. And it just is part of the rhythm section.

It is. I thought it was a guitar. It's different. Wow. It does what a tambourine does. And later on, it is a tambourine. Really? Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, it is that tambourine. It's like having two tambourine players. I wonder if that's a song. Robesster playing tambourines. I'd like to think that it is. I don't even want to look it up. I don't even want to look it up. I can just see him, give me that.

He's jumping between piano tambourines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are church instruments. One instrument, I feel we all play with great confidence. Yes. Yes. Nobody's like, my tambourines slobie. You won't get one because tambourines are given by God.

They're given down from, you know, you don't go to the store and buy it. They appear. Where have you ever seen a tambourine on? For sale. No, you get it from the pew. The church, it just, it's, it's, it's, it's, gets dropped off of the church. Nobody asks me a question and bring it inside.

If you've earned it. If you've earned it. Well. Listen, you were talking about space sounds before. There's a pretty important space sound on this. Yes. Yes. That's what I'm waiting.

Here it is. That. I've been waiting for you to play that. Not only is that a space sound, but it's like a 60s. It's 60s. It's 60s sci-fi. I just took off in a rocket that can't go to space. Yeah.

So NASA is launching my ship. There's a 50-50 chance I make it to space. It's me and they send me next to a dog and a monkey. I don't know how much faith they have in this shuttle. The day the earth stood still. Tomorrowland, right? Disneyland. It's so tomorrow land.

The rocket that's just on a stilt that just builds up. Oh, that's so good. There's another one too. There's also this sound you probably were thinking of. Sounds like reading rainbow. Sounds just like reading rainbow. Yeah, you're right. Or like a year.

European airport sound a little bit time. That could be that. Yes. And the show that came on after reading me. I'm thinking of Mutual of Omaha's Animal Kingdom. It's like, and now it's time for the show. These sounds are so evocative of these eras because that's when the machines

were made and first used. So once they're used in those old recordings, we just associate with the time period. Exactly. Yeah. Well, Stevie, now that we've heard the song, what do you think the legacy of you make me feel mighty real and really

Sylvester's legacy at large is? I mean, anytime you're at a party or at a club and you turn on and you hear Madonna, you hear a share, you hear, you know, you hear great party music. Every once in a while this song comes on and you're like, this is probably the oldest song that's being played tonight. Still getting played, yeah. And that's how you know what song leaves the biggest legacy. And it's been included in so many list of best songs. Best songs, movies. Yeah, Rolling Stones list of best songs at one point, I think, 2000.

2021 and different dance list. It is always cited because it was so crazy and innovative. And it sounds like the party. It sounds like this picture. Everyone who knows knows that this is the cookout sandal. That's the cookout sandals. This means fun. I'm about to barbecue.

I'm about to party and have fun. And the drink is falling because she's kicked it over. I don't know what's in this party drink. That drink looks horrible. It looks like it'll make you awake for three weeks. barefoot, so she's been at the party for a while. She's been there for a while. You'll be awake for a fortnight drinking that. And then you have

the sock in the pants. This is the party. That's the party. You knocked it over. And that's the song. This is the peak of the party, because after that breaks and she steps on it because she has no shoes on. Party's moving into phase two. It's on the downward slow. But that's the peak of the party right there. But it sounds like this. It's just everything. It gets the party

started. And I wish people would play the stems more. That is so cool. I love hearing the stems by themselves. Earlier, you were making a comment about today's singers. And I almost asked you this then, but I'm going to ask you now, what can today's singers learn from how Sylvester approach this song? Oh, my goodness. So much.

So much. So much. I think, of course, everyone under 20 is born with the idea of perfect notes make perfect songs. They were born into an amazing pop revolution, but then everything they heard after that was pretty much tuned. And it's amazing what a voice can do when it's when it's a little bit to the left or right or underneath or, you know, we can add so much emotion by not being perfect. I agree.

And playing a song and singing it from the beginning to the end, when I get in the studio and vocal produce, I make the artist sing the song through one good time. I don't care how well you know it. Just sing it all the way through. Let me feel what happens to your voice and to your person as you sing the song from beginning to end. Instead of comping sections.

And yeah, I don't mind going back in comping. Sure. But I don't want to, I compare it to the version that song all the way through and make sure we got there. That's what we just heard. We just heard Sylvester. That was one. It sounded like one take all the way through. Yeah.

It probably was just like. Because if it wasn't, they would have fixed, quote, some of the things that were in perfect. Exactly. Exactly. They just left it. And you find some of the greats doing that in their song, Luther and them, they just, they knew the song when they got in the studio and they sang it. And I would even implore singers to get in the same room and record. I don't care if it bleeds.

I don't care of it bleeds. and working with Colplay, Chris does that a lot. Chris Martin will be in a room and we'll be singing and he'll be banging spoons over here and a cup or we'll laugh and he keeps it in the track. And he understands the importance of feeling in a record. And I love that about him. And so artists need to just record and not be afraid.

Recording an SM58 if you have to. Just record and sit around. These mics, you know, weren't better than this one. It makes it more musical because the energy of the performance is there. Yeah. You're playing off of what else is happening around you. Yeah, let it bleed in, record, look at each other, laugh, you know, move with it and see what happens with that version. If you want to fix things, go back and do it later.

But you're so right, the standard of perfection that people are born into now is so high and sterile. Yeah. Let the piano go flat a little bit. Okay, before we end the show, we want to play a game with you. It's called What's One Song? Here are the Rules. We'll ask you a question and you'll give us a one song answer. Here's the trick. Don't overthink it.

Answer as quickly as possible. What's one song that inspired you? to become a singer. If I should say, just one song that blew me away. All right, exactly. I was modulating. That was my own.

Wow, that was a punk version. I love it. Please release that. Release it meaning delete. What's one song that always gives you chills? I'm going to make a change. For once in my life. I love this song.

It's such a good song. It's just, it's everything about it is right. The choir, the responsibility, the words, every single thing about that song is right. What's one song you could listen to on repeat forever? Ain't a mountain high enough Diana Ross. There you go. Love it.

I love that song. What's one song that surprises people when they learn you love it? Every theme song I play in my house. I love theme songs. CD songs? Yes. I grew in California. Theme songs.

I have playlists of them. What's the best? That's a great TV theme to you. There's a time to love and a time for a chance. All of them and then cheers. Is that great? It's making your way in the world today. It takes everything you got.

And thank you for being a friend. There's so many great theme songs. And having ADD, I didn't have the attention span for a whole song. I'm walking on there. I love them all. I love them. Can I say one of my personal? favorites. I never watched the show, but WKRP in Cincinnati as, baby, if you ever

wondered, wonder what game of me. And then the very he says, I know that you and me were never meant to be. It's like, wait a second. Yes. Say that to the end of the song. Like, that's so weird. And what about Bob James on taxi? Like, classic. What? They would never do that nowadays. It's gorgeous. D-da-da-da-da. And things have a lot of key changes and stuff in a short time. Yes. To keep your interest. Oh, these are the masterful sets of musicians of the day. I just like that a show like Law and Order Still has the same theme

That's my name had going all the way back to the 80s Mike Post just counting checks Every song I get is a case So I'm like this is what it is Dung-Dun Duh Where did that come from It's amazing We're actually talking about doing a future episode of this show

Where we just break down some TV themes Just invite me to sit in the corner We have to have him on so we can sing them I'll just be want to just put me somewhere on the shelf. He'll be like, Charlie's Angels. Lost. I'll show you my list, too. It's great.

Lost has one note. It's got him on a song. What's one song? We have to break down on a future episode of one song. And if we don't have the stems, will you gum in here and recreate all the parts vocally for us? That's a great question. I'm going to say, Quincy Jones.

To Mia, you put a move on my heart. Let's go. I don't have them. You're in. Coming in. The backgrounds on that song. Samia slept on. I know.

She's a great singer. She's great. She's an excellent, excellent singer. You have worked with so many legends, and yet sitting here with you, your voice is fantastic. And you have a great look. So my question to you is, are we going to have your albums to purchase and buy coming soon? Absolutely. Okay.

Absolutely. For many years, I liked being in the background more than the front ground. but I'm not afraid of being in the front. I love to sing. I want to do like a Disney album of my favorite songs, maybe a Disney R&B album, a Negro Spirituals album. I love spirituals.

I mean, I love anthems. I love standards. Yeah. I love cinema music. Yeah. I would do that. I want to make different albums with different themes. Yeah.

And I think every year from now and I'll come out with a different album with a different theme, and I don't even care where it goes. I wanted to just go into the universe and live wherever it wants and just make music and put it out. Where can the people find you? on social media? I'm on Instagram a lot.

Steve Mackey and TikTok. I love social media. I love what I make it to be. And I think it's helped every single person who wants to be an artist. They have a voice and they have a way to do it now that I didn't have when I was 18 years old. It took a lot of effort to do what's very easy now. So there's no excuses. Get online, get it, control it, do what you want.

But you let people see you if you want them to hear you. Let people hear you. Make him hear you. So I'm Stevie Mackey. I'm on all the stuff. And yeah, check me out there. Stevie, thank you so much for coming on one song. Thank you so much.

You're absolutely welcome. I had so much fun. I had so much fun. I could do this all day. Well, good, because we have five more episodes to do. Oh, Lord. As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, DIA, L-O-L-O,

and on TikTok at Vialo. And you can find me on Instagram at L-O-L-L-L-O. And you can find me on Instagram at luxury and on TikTok at luxury X-X. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at at one song podcast for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube and Spotify. Just search for One Song podcast.

We'd love it if you'd like and subscribe. Also be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all of the songs we discussed in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, we think that means you like the show. So please don't forget to give us five stars. Leave a review and share us with someone who you think. think would like it. It really helps keep the show going.

Luxury help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and music ologist, luxury. And I'm actor-writer-director and sometimes DJ Diallo Rittle. And this is one song. We will see you next time. This episode is produced by Melissa Duanez. Our video editor is Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo, mixing by Michael Hardman, and engineering by Eric Hicks, production by Rosak Boykin, additional production support from Z. Taylor. The show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric while and Leslie Guam.

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Mia. Mia. No, yeah.