We Were Lonely - a duet I had never heard

[vermicious knid]

This is completely new to me, and it's quite good! It was done with her 1984 band-member Todd Sharp on his 1986 solo album.

The version on Sharp's website is far superior in sound quality to the one that is on youtube: https://www.toddsharp.com/music

I know I couldn't be the only one who had never heard it, so I wanted to share.

[BLY]

Wow, nice song and another great reason to release a Christine box set.

[aleuzzi]

Thank you for posting this! I never heard it before. Their voices are eerily similar in places. When he first began singing, I thought it could be Christine singing at a higher register.

But once she comes in, there's no mistaking that warm, smooth voice.

The vocals sound like they were recorded live, like they were for the 1984 album. Her voice was in good form.

[vermicious knid]

This may well already be in the Christine tributes thread, but it fits here.


Former Cleveland guitarist Todd Sharp ‘shocked,’ ‘heartbroken’ over Christine McVie’s death

Published: Dec. 01, 2022, 5:38 p.m.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In 1983, a dream came true for former Cleveland musician Todd Sharp when Christine McVie invited him to play lead guitar and help her write songs for a solo album she wanted to record while Fleetwood Mac was on hiatus.

“I did a double take,” Sharp said Thursday (Dec. 1) in a phone interview from his home in Nashville, Tenn. “I was like, ‘Did you mean me, actually?’

“At that point, Christine McVie could have written or recorded with anybody, and I’m certainly grateful that she invited me to do that with her. Of all the things I’ve had the opportunity to do in my career as a musician and guitar player, that’s at the top of my list.”

Sharp, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, said he was shocked and heartbroken when he learned that McVie -- the longtime co-lead vocalist, keyboard player and songwriter for Fleetwood Mac -- died Wednesday (Nov. 30) at age 79.

A cause of death was not released, but McVie’s family said in a statement that she died at a hospital after “a short illness.”

“I don’t know how she died; I don’t know what happened,” Sharp said. “If she was ill, I didn’t really know about it.”

Sharp added that when he heard the news, he texted his friend, Mick Fleetwood -- Fleetwood Mac’s co-founder and drummer -- and said, “I’m absolutely heartbroken.”

He said Fleetwood replied, “I don’t have any words right now.”

“And I said, ‘Neither do I; let’s talk when we both do,’” Sharp said.

Sharp said the last time he spoke to McVie, she told him that she had moved to a new home -- he believes in London -- and that she probably would not be touring anymore as a performer.

“It sounded like she was definitely quieting things down,” he said, adding that was probably around last Christmas.

Sharp said he considered McVie a special friend and said they kept in touch over the years.

“I think that there was just a real honesty about her, an undeniable honesty of who she was and the way she sang and the kind of songs she wrote,” he said.

“Christine really was a love song artist. She was a very easy-going person, very easy to be with. There really just wasn’t a whole lot of bull---- about her.”

Sharp, 66, said he grew up a fan of Fleetwood Mac and had admired McVie’s work with her previous band, Chicken Shack, which formed in 1967. He said he also owned her first solo album, titled “Christine Perfect,” her maiden name before she married Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie.

“Christine had a really special quality (as a singer),” Sharp said. “The tone of her voice and phrasing were just really warm and friendly, and it was distinctive.

“It was very smooth and honey coated, very mellow sounding. She had a blues singer approach, but a little more melodic.”

A memorable album

In addition to playing lead guitar on McVie’s second solo album, titled “Christine McVie,” released in 1984, Sharp wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the album.

Five of them were co-written with McVie, including two top-40 singles: “Got a Hold on Me” -- which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit -- and “Love Will Show Us How.”

A third single from the album, “I’m the One,” was written by Sharp alone, but did not chart.

“The song ‘Got a Hold on Me’ was written in pieces, and it came together in probably 30 minutes,” Sharp said. “It was just like, ‘boom.’

“As soon as I heard the first verse, I was like, ‘There we go; that’s Christine McVie pure hit song stuff right there.’ That was in her wheelhouse.”

Sharp said he believes one of the reasons McVie invited him to write with her for the album was that he had recorded some demos of songs he wrote, a few of which he had played for her and she liked.

“One of them was ‘I’m the One,’ and she said: ‘Can I have that song? I want to record that,’” he said. “Of course, I said, ‘yeah,’ and it’s on the album.”

Two other songs that Sharp co-wrote for McVie’s album were “Who’s Dreaming This Dream,” which he wrote with Danny Douma, and “Keeping Secrets,” which he wrote with Alan Pasqua.

Sharp got to know McVie after he joined Bob Welch’s band as a guitarist in 1978. Welch was a former Fleetwood Mac member and played on five albums with McVie as a bandmate.

“We toured constantly (with Welch’s band) from 1978 through about 1980, and I believe we opened for Fleetwood Mac all the stadium shows we did over those two years,” Sharp said.

“So being on all those gigs together, I got to know (the members of Fleetwood Mac) a little bit.

“Danny Douma was a great friend of mine and a great songwriter. I was doing some overdubs on his records, and Fleetwood Mac was in the studio next door recording ‘Tusk.’

“Christine came in for a few nights and did overdubs, and we kind of hung out together, and that’s how I really got to know her.”

Sharp said McVie was a “super-friendly, fun person” and a “very comfortable rock star.”

“She’d call my wife, Angela, and say, ‘Why don’t you guys come over and have dinner?’” he said. “She was a very social person and always pretty down to earth.

“She seemed to enjoy (her success) in a really healthy way, for the most part. She just was who she was; she never really tried to be somebody different.”

After Sharp toured with McVie’s band in support of the “Christine McVie” album, he said he didn’t have any more opportunities to tour with her.

“This was all done during a hiatus from Fleetwood Mac,” he said. “I think Christine was like, ‘I did my solo album, and now I’m going back to Fleetwood Mac.’”

McVie released only one more solo album, “In the Meantime,” in 2004.

“I was invited to maybe be a part of that (album), and for whatever reason, I wasn’t involved in it,” Sharp said.

A ‘largely unknown’ song

In 1985, Sharp received a record deal from MCA Records and recorded an album released in 1986 titled “Who Am I.” He noted that McVie sang on a few tracks.

“One of the songs is a duet with her; it sort of featured her, and it’s largely unknown,” he said. “It’s really good, especially when she starts singing.”

The song, written by Sharp, is titled “We Were Lonely.”

“I asked Christine if she would come in and sing on it, and she said, ‘Yeah, sure, of course,’” he said. “I mean, that was Christine; she was a generous person.”

But MCA “didn’t really get behind” the album, and “We Were Lonely” was never released as a single, Sharp said.

“That was really unfortunate,” he said.

Sharp, who attended Cleveland Heights High School, said he has lived in Nashville for about 25 years. Since 2016, he has owned and operated a business in Nashville, Todd Sharp Amplifiers, for which he designs amplifiers for electric guitars.

He still performs and writes music -- his last performance in Cleveland was in 2019 -- and is working on a musical project he hopes to launch in the near future.

“Hopefully (it will be) a regular live show that would be either streamed or on one of the streaming networks,” he said.

Wednesday night, Sharp posted a moving tribute to McVie on Facebook, which he closed with this message for her:

“Your music and voice will live on forever. I will never forget the opportunity you offered me and the confidence you instilled in me.

“I will never forget your beautiful soul, your grace, friendship and generosity. I wish I could have had the chance to tell you that one more time.”

A native of the United Kingdom, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Fleetwood Mac, in 1998.

She wrote and/or sang lead on many of the group’s hits, including “Over My Head,” “Say You Love Me,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Don’t Stop,” “Hold Me,” “Everywhere” and “Little Lies.”

[HomerMcvie]

Here's a pic he posted of them, on March 1st, 2019.

[Macfan4life]

Really cool stuff. I always loved Todd for his humbleness and his humor. I can see why Chris gravitated towards him. His influence on her 1984 album was so profound. Not so much the writing but the sound. I'm the one is definitely not the kind of song Chris would write and it brought her out of her comfort zone. But the overall sound had this country feel to many of the songs like So Excited, Love Will Show Us How and I'm the one. For someone that started out with the blues, then went pop rock, it was such an interesting turn for her. Their voiced blend together really well too.
There is a great clip from Todd on youtube that was posted many years ago when he talks about meeting Clapton while working on her album. BTW, I love the studio pic of these 2 with the standard drink in hand

[jbrownsjr]

I had this album. I remember the record store cashier tell me that he knew Todd when I bought it.

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by vermicious knid

This is completely new to me, and it's quite good! It was done with her 1984 band-member Todd Sharp on his 1986 solo album.

The version on Sharp's website is far superior in sound quality to the one that is on youtube: https://www.toddsharp.com/music

I know I couldn't be the only one who had never heard it, so I wanted to share.

Thanks for sharing. I listened to some songs off Sharp's 1986 solo album on YouTube and wasn't impressed, although this tune is the one standout.