Greg Phillinganes
Encyclopedia
Greg Phillinganes is an active session keyboardist in Los Angeles
, California
. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan
.
Phillinganes was discovered by Stevie Wonder
who heard a cassette of instrumental renditions of his own songs done by Phillinganes. Wonder recruited Phillinganes for his Wonderlove band, where Phillinganes stayed from 1976 to 1981.
In 1981, he released his first solo album, Significant Gains. While the album itself was not very successful, he did manage to score a minor R&B hit with "Baby, I Do Love You." Three years later, he released his follow-up album Pulse, which featured another minor hit (and perhaps his best-known solo hit), a cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra
's song "Behind the Mask
" (with additional lyrics written by Michael Jackson
). This single was much more successful on the Dance music charts. When he later joined Eric Clapton
's backing band, Phillinganes would introduce the tune to Clapton, who covered it on his 1986 August
album. Amidst his solo recordings and touring with Clapton throughout the 1980s, he became well-known as a prominent session musician for a multitude of different artists, performing on many hit albums of the time. His session work has continued into the present.
In addition to Stevie Wonder, Greg Phillinganes has worked and toured with other notable musicians such as the Bee Gees
, Anita Baker
, Eric Clapton
, Donald Fagen
, Aretha Franklin
, Patti LaBelle
, Michael Jackson
, Richard Marx
, Paul McCartney
, Quincy Jones
and Stevie Nicks
among others, He was also the musical director for Michael Jackson's Bad
& Dangerous
concert tours. During 2004, Phillinganes acted as a replacement for David Paich
on tour with the band Toto
. In 2005, he joined the band and set to helping Toto with their new album. He continued to tour as member of Toto until the band broke up in 2008. When Toto reformed in 2010, Phillinganes was not part of the lineup.
He has been recruited as the musical director for Cirque du Soleil
's Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour
.
Track 4: "Countdown to Love" taken from Pulse
The sample was taken from Greg Phillinganes " Behind The Mask " 1984 for the Welsh rap artists.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan
Cass Technical High School
The Cass Tech Technicians football team is a high school football program in Division 1 Public School League, representing the prestigious Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI. Cass Tech High School has long been recognized nationwide for its extraordinary football program dating back to its...
.
Phillinganes was discovered by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
who heard a cassette of instrumental renditions of his own songs done by Phillinganes. Wonder recruited Phillinganes for his Wonderlove band, where Phillinganes stayed from 1976 to 1981.
In 1981, he released his first solo album, Significant Gains. While the album itself was not very successful, he did manage to score a minor R&B hit with "Baby, I Do Love You." Three years later, he released his follow-up album Pulse, which featured another minor hit (and perhaps his best-known solo hit), a cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
's song "Behind the Mask
Behind the Mask (song)
"Behind the Mask" is a synthpop song by electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, written by member Ryuichi Sakamoto and first produced in 1978 for a Seiko commercial. It was later released in 1979 as part of the band's Solid State Survivor album with English lyrics added by Chris Mosdell. The...
" (with additional lyrics written by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
). This single was much more successful on the Dance music charts. When he later joined Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's backing band, Phillinganes would introduce the tune to Clapton, who covered it on his 1986 August
August (album)
August is an album by blues rocker Eric Clapton, released in 1986. Primarily produced byPhil Collins, in association with longtime Clapton associate Tom Dowd, it became Clapton's biggest-selling LP to date....
album. Amidst his solo recordings and touring with Clapton throughout the 1980s, he became well-known as a prominent session musician for a multitude of different artists, performing on many hit albums of the time. His session work has continued into the present.
In addition to Stevie Wonder, Greg Phillinganes has worked and toured with other notable musicians such as the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
, Anita Baker
Anita Baker
Anita Baker is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit....
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Richard Marx
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard"...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
among others, He was also the musical director for Michael Jackson's Bad
Bad World Tour
The Bad World Tour was the first solo concert tour by American megasuperstar Michael Jackson that visited Japan, Australia, the United States and Europe. Sponsored by Pepsi and spanning 16 months, the tour included 123 concerts to 4.4 million fans across 15 countries...
& Dangerous
Dangerous World Tour
The Dangerous World Tour was the second worldwide concert tour by American megasuperstar Michael Jackson. The tour, sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, included 69 performances to an audience of 3.5 million. All profits were donated to various charities including Jackson's own "Heal the World Foundation". The...
concert tours. During 2004, Phillinganes acted as a replacement for David Paich
David Paich
David Frank Paich is a session musician, keyboard player, recording producer, arranger, vocalist and main composer of the Los Angeles-based rock/pop band Toto. David is the son of the late jazz composer, musician, and arranger Marty Paich...
on tour with the band Toto
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
. In 2005, he joined the band and set to helping Toto with their new album. He continued to tour as member of Toto until the band broke up in 2008. When Toto reformed in 2010, Phillinganes was not part of the lineup.
He has been recruited as the musical director for Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
's Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour
Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour
Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour is the official theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil which uses the music and vision of Michael Jackson along with Cirque du Soleil's signature acrobatic performance style to create a realistic concert experience. The arena show—which is very similar to...
.
Solo
- 1981 Significant Gains
- 1984 Pulse
Session work
(Partial List)- 1976 Songs in the Key of LifeSongs in the Key of LifeSongs in the Key of Life is the 13th album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released September 28, 1976, on Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums. An ambitious double LP with a 4-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and...
(Stevie WonderStevie WonderStevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
) - 1979 Off the WallOff the Wall (album)Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by the American recording artist Michael Jackson, released August 10, 1979 on Epic Records, after Jackson's critically well received film performance in The Wiz. While working on that project, Jackson and Quincy Jones had become friends, and Jones agreed to...
(Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
) - 1981 The DudeThe Dude (Quincy Jones album)The Dude is a 1981 album by American music impresario, conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer and trumpeter Quincy Jones. The album featured the debut of vocalist James Ingram on the singles "Just Once" and "One Hundred Ways," which reached no. 17 and 14, respectively, on the...
(Quincy JonesQuincy JonesQuincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
) - 1982 The NightflyThe NightflyThe Nightfly is the first solo album by Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen, released in 1982. It was one of the first fully digital recordings of popular music...
(Donald FagenDonald FagenDonald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
) - 1982 ThrillerThriller (album)Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...
(Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
) - 1983 Hearts and BonesHearts and BonesHearts and Bones is the sixth solo album by Paul Simon. It was released in 1983.The album was originally intended to be a Simon & Garfunkel reunion album called Think Too Much, following their Central Park reunion concert in 1981, and the world tour of 1982 - 1983. In fact, some of the songs...
(Paul SimonPaul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
) - 1983 Can't Slow Down (Lionel RichieLionel RichieLionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
) - 1986 AugustAugust (album)August is an album by blues rocker Eric Clapton, released in 1986. Primarily produced byPhil Collins, in association with longtime Clapton associate Tom Dowd, it became Clapton's biggest-selling LP to date....
(Eric ClaptonEric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
) - 1987 BadBad (album)Bad is the seventh studio album by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic/CBS Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album...
(Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
) - 1987 E.S.P.E.S.P. (Bee Gees album)E.S.P. is the Bee Gees' seventeenth original album. Released in 1987, it was the band's first studio album in six years, and the first album they released under their new contract with Warner Bros...
(Bee GeesBee GeesThe Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
) - 1989 JourneymanJourneyman (album)Journeyman is an album by blues/rock musician Eric Clapton, released in 1989.The album has an electronic sound, mostly influenced by the '80s rock scene, but it also had blues songs like "Before You Accuse Me", "Running On Faith", and "Hard Times"...
(Eric ClaptonEric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
) - 1991 Dangerous (Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
)
- 2006 Falling In BetweenFalling In BetweenFalling in Between is the 12th studio album by veteran American rock musicians, Toto. The album was released in February 2006 on the Italian label Frontiers Records, with a world tour to follow. It was the band's first studio release since Through the Looking Glass in 2002, and the first to include...
(TotoToto (band)Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
) - 2007 Falling In Between LiveFalling in Between LiveFalling in Between Live is the fourth live album by American band Toto, released in 2007 . It was recorded live at Le Zénith, Paris, France....
(TotoToto (band)Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
) - 2009 More to Say (Terri Lyne CarringtonTerri Lyne CarringtonTerri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...
)
Soundtrack
- 1984 Streets of FireStreets of FireStreets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...
Track 4: "Countdown to Love" taken from Pulse
Sampled work
- 2004 Your Mother's Got a PenisYour Mother's Got a Penis"Your Mother's Got a Penis" is a song by the Welsh Rap act Goldie Lookin Chain from their Greatest Hits album, released In November 2004. The song reached #14 on the UK Singles Chart on 06/11/2004....
(Goldie Lookin' Chain)
The sample was taken from Greg Phillinganes " Behind The Mask " 1984 for the Welsh rap artists.