Mark Doyle

I got this gig because Bob Clearmountain was co-producing the record. I was at Power Station in Studio A with Tom Dowd doing Meat Loaf’s record, and Bob and Bryan were in Studio B. Bob had always loved the background vocals that I sang on Melanie Cries, a great song from the David Werner Epic album, and had played it for Bryan. When they were working on Straight From The Heart they both thought that the middle could use a vocal treatment like that, and since I was next door. . .

My session with Meat ended around 6, right when theirs started, so I went over and Bryan, Tommy Mandel and I did the vocals. I would teach them each part, then we all would sing unison. We’d do the next part the same way. It went so well that they asked if I was free for the rest of the night. I said okay, so we proceeded to do Cuts Like A Knife. Then they said “We’d like to do Keith’s guitar on this, can you hang around?” I said okay (assuming that I was still “on the meter”). They took a while to get the guitar part, then we did the gang vocals on “This Time”. Next, Bryan wanted to add a guitar to that – would I mind hanging around? I thought, “this is great, I’ve done a double session (6 hours) with Meat Loaf and now this is turning into a double session.” I could feel my bank account getting fatter. So I hung around til the wee hours, doing some more vocals, waiting around, more vocals, etc.

A few weeks later I heard from Bob that Lou Gramm came into Power Station one night, and since Bryan had always dreamt of singing with Lou (Foreigner were riding high at that time and Bryan was just beginning to catch on), they ended up re-doing all of the background vocals except Straight From The Heart with Lou and Bryan. And that “fat” session check I was expecting? When I got down to the union to collect it, after deductions I ended up clearing $100. I could’ve protested, but let it go. Which was good because years later I got a call out of the blue from Peter Wolf, who said “I’m sitting here at the bar in The Four Seasons (Boston) with Bryan Adams and he tells me you’re a great guitar player. Can you come to Boston tomorrow and try out for my band?” And the credit on the record was a great thing to have.