Kenny Loggins unnappreciation

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Loggins & Messina toured with Fleetwood Mac for a while there, and I've read that Kenny chose to record the song with Stevie because they had become friends. I don't think it was as calculated as you made it sound.

Besides, even though Stevie was pretty popular at the time, there were certainly bigger "names" that he could have chosen as his duet partner.
Not to mention the fact that "Midnight Blue," "Just Too Many People" and "Don't Cry Out Loud" were all huge hits for Melissa at the time... so Loggins could have just as easily picked her, if it was solely commercial appeal he was after.

Having actually been around and already a Fleetwood Mac/Stevie fan then (I had just turned 16 when the song was a hit)I can say that the only female artist in Rock that was bigger at that time than Stevie , was Linda Ronstadt..and not by much. Stevie had come in a close second to Linda in the annual Rolling Stone reader's poll for best female rock singer earlier that year(1978). Kenny was also going after the FM rock station airplay as well as AM .The FM AOR stations would not have played Melissa, she was not thought of as a rock singer .So I think commercial considerations as well as hipness quotient were very much involved with his decision to use Stevie.