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Though Mac Davis was primarily a pop and country performer as a recording artist, he had a little soul to him, too. Mac Davis, “Kiss It and Make It Better” (1973) Davis frequently told the story that the idea for the song came after producer Rick Hall, unhappy with the material Davis was providing in the studio, told him to write a song with a “hook.” “Baby,” a catchy song about waving off a woman’s affection before she gets too attached, likely wouldn’t fly in 2020 with such lyrics as “don’t start clinging to me girl ‘cause I can’t breathe’ and ‘I’ll just use you then I’ll set you free,” but it hit all the right notes in 1972 as Davis took the song straight to No. Mac Davis, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” (1972) That’s what music is about,” he told Billboard. I did use that line in there: ‘Lift your voices to the sky, God loves you when you sing.’ That epitomized the whole song. “I still have the original paper from the hotel. He replied “I believe in music,” and wrote the song that night. Davis wrote the song while in London after Lulu and Maurice Gibb asked him if he believed in the occult. With the simplest of statements - a belief in the power of music to bring peace and happiness - Davis scored one of his earliest hits in 1970, with a tune that became a staple for school choral groups across the land. “I said, ‘Nope.'” Original title intact, the song reached No. “ called up and said, ‘Could I change this to “Watching Danny Grow?” We’ve it, but my son’s name is Danny,” Davis told the Tennesseean in 2014. It just so happened that Goldsboro was in town the next week, so Davis handed over the song, but still felt it personally enough to reject certain proposed changes to it. “ That’s mah boy.” Davis’ touching and lovingly detailed ode to his five-year-old son was deemed a poor fit for his own catalogue by producer Jerry Fuller, who suggested the song might work better in the more adult-contemporary hands of Bobby Goldsboro.
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Mac Davis and Helen Reddy, Music and TV Pros Who Died on the Same Day, Had Very Similar Career Arcsīobby Goldsboro, “Watching Scotty Grow” (1970) Musically, the song veers from soft verses to an explosive chorus as the passion rises and ebbs and rises again for our young lovers. The smell of love is in the air, and its flames are burning brighter and brighter in this smoldering 1970 hit for Rogers and his then-backing band. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, “Something’s Burning” (1970) Davis wrote the song based on memories he had of his Texas childhood, and realizing the different treatment his Black friend received based on the part of town he lived in. This trenchant social commentary still stands out more than 50 years later for its bold stand on racial inequality and inner-city poverty, and became Presley’s song most associated with Davis, reaching No. “They had asked for a song about looking back over the years, and oddly enough, I had to write it in one night,” Davis told Billboard in 2015. Maybe a little too frisky at times, as the chorus demands of “Hold your mouth and open up your heart and baby, satisfy me” have aged fairly poorly - but the rest of the song is still electric enough that it became a hit a second time around in 2002, when a much-synced Junkie XL remix returned it to the Hot 100.Ĭo-written with Strange specifically for Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special, this nostalgic, wistful ballad of romantic days gone by became Davis’s first major hit as a songwriter, reaching the Hot 100’s top 40. (This song was previously a hit for Kevin Johnson (1973) and Terry Jacks (1974).Mac Davis, Iconic Artist & Elvis Songwriter, Dies at 78Įlvis Presley, “A Little Less Conversation” (1968)Ī slice of southern-fried funk unlike quite anything he’d ever recorded before, Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” married a slithering drum-and-bass groove with jagged guitars and some of The King’s friskiest lyrics, courtesy of Mac Davis and co-writer Billy Strange. Rock N' Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life) 1974.(This song topped both the Adult Contemporary and Pop/Rock charts.) This will take you to a list of links to CD and/or MP3 product pages from one or more online merchants that have sound samples. To listen to a song clip, click any song title that has a speaker icon. Please note that these are referral or affiliate links from which may receive, at no additional cost to you, a commission if you should make any purchases through them. Best known songs include "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" (1972) and "Stop And Smell The Roses" (1974).ĭisclosure: The following links will take you to various online merchants outside of that sell recordings and other merchandise for the performing artist featured on this page.