Destiny (Chaka Khan album)

Destiny
Studio album by Chaka Khan
Released	June 14, 1986
Recorded	1985-1986
Genre	Rhythm and blues
Length	47:05
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Arif Mardin David Gamson Joe Mardin Robbie Buchanan Chaka Khan Philippe Saisse Beau Hill Reggie Griffin Russ Titelman Cengiz Yaltkaya
Chaka Khan chronology
I Feel for You (1984) Destiny (1986) CK (1988)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	(B) [2]

Destiny is the sixth studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1986.

Destiny was Khan's follow-up to the platinum-selling I Feel for You and was as high tech as its predecessor - symptomatically and characteristically for its period with more producers and sound engineers credited in the liner notes than musicians - but was musically more geared towards rock and pop than soul and R&B, most prominently on tracks such as "So Close", the self-penned title track "My Destiny", "Who's It Gonna Be" and "Watching The World" featuring Phil Collins on drums and backing vocals.

The album spun off five single releases, all with moderate chart success - at least in comparison to the million-selling "I Feel for You" - the first being "Love of A Lifetime", co-written, co-produced and featuring backing vocals by Green Gartside of British band Scritti Politti (US Pop #53, US R&B #21, UK #52). The second single "Tight Fit" was a midtempo R&B ballad, just like "Eye To Eye" from I Feel for You produced by Russ Titelman, which reached #28 on the US R&B chart. The satirical "Earth to Mickey" (When are you going to land?), featuring Khan both singing and rapping (and keyboardist Reggie Griffin rapping in the role of 'Mickey'), was released as the third single in early 1987 and only just made the Top 100 of the R&B chart, peaking at #93. The dramatic ballad "The Other Side of the World", written by Mike Rutherford of Genesis and B. A. Robertson and which had first been released as part of the White Nights soundtrack album in late 1985, reached #81. The fifth single "Watching The World" never charted. The Destiny album itself fared slightly better, reaching #25 on Billboard's R&B albums chart, but stalling at #67 on Pop and #77 in the U.K. Destiny however gave Khan another Grammy nomination in 1987 for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. The track "My Destiny" was used as the theme song for Richard Pryor's motion picture "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling".

The closing track, the heavily edited one minute thirty-nine seconds "Coltrane Dreams", a tribute to John Coltrane, had a backing track mainly made up of samples of Khan's voice. The actual full-length version of the track ( - 4:54) was only released as the B-side of the 12" single "Love of a Lifetime".

"Love of a Lifetime", "Tight Fit", "Earth To Mickey" and "Watching The World" were all released as 12" singles including extended remixes.

While the success of Khan's own single releases in 1986 was limited to the R&B charts, she appeared as featured vocalist/vocal arranger on two worldwide pop/rock chart hits that same year, Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" and Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love", on the latter she was however only credited for 'vocal arrangement' in the liner notes. The song was originally recorded with Khan sharing lead vocals with Palmer but due to contractual problems between Warner Bros. Records and Island Records her own vocals were removed for the final mix.^[3]

The Destiny album was transferred from vinyl to CD in 1986 and remains in print.

Track listing

1. "Love of a Lifetime" (David Gamson, Green Gartside) - 4:21
2. "Earth to Mickey" (Joshua Fried, Reggie Griffin, Arif Mardin, Charlie Singleton, Jeremy Wolff) - 5:37
3. "Watching the World" (John Lang, Richard Page, Steve George) - 4:44
4. "The Other Side of the World" (B. A. Robertson, Mike Rutherford) - 3:41
5. "My Destiny" (Chaka Khan) - 4:39
6. "I Can't Be Loved" (Glen Ballard, Randy Goodrum) - 4:30
7. "It's You" (Portia Griffin, Tony Patler) - 4:19
8. "So Close" (Richard Feldman, Marcy Levy, Pam Tillis) - 4:19
9. "Tight Fit" (Bunny Siegler, Marvin Morrow) - 4:39
10. "Who's It Gonna Be" (Gary Goetzman, Mike Picirillo) - 4:37
11. "Coltrane Dreams" (Chaka Khan, Julie Mardin, Arif Mardin) - 1:39

Personnel

• Chaka Khan - lead vocals, backing vocals all tracks, timbales & cowbell track: 10
• Mark Stevens - backing vocals tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, additional backing vocals track: 3
• Marcus Miller - bass guitar track: 1
• Fred Maher - drums track: 1
• Nick Moroch - guitar tracks: 1, 10
• David Lebolt - additional keyboards track: 1, synthesizer programming tracks: 3, 10
• David Gamson - synthesizer, programming track: 1
• Green Gartside - backing vocals track: 1
• Jason Miles - additional synthesizer programming track: 1
• Michael Colina - additional synthesizer programming track: 1
• Robert Gay - alto saxophone & solo track: 1, alto saxophone track: 9
• Scott Gilman - tenor saxophone track: 1
• Matthew Cornish - trumpet track: 1
• Sandra St. Victor - backing vocals tracks: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Arif Mardin - special effects editing track: 2
• Reggie Griffin - Mickey's rap, synthesizer, keyboards track: 2, guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, programming & sequencing track: 6, keyboards, programming, saxophone & guitar track : 7, synthesizer solo track: 10
• Pino Palladino - bass guitar track: 3
• David Rosenberg - additional drum sounds track: 3, drum sounds track: 6, drums track: 8
• Phil Collins - drums, backing vocals track: 3
• Dan Huff - guitar track: 3
• Joe Mardin - musical conductor, additional keyboards & sequencing track: 3, keyboards, synthesizer, programming, sequencing & additional percussion track: 6, keyboards & programming tracks: 9, 10
• Michael Brecker - tenor saxophone track: 3
• Tom Malone - trombone track: 3
• John Faddis - trumpet track: 3
• Marvin Stamm - trumpet track: 3
• Michael Mossman - trumpet track: 3
• Randy Brecker - trumpet track: 3
• Robbie Buchanan - synthesizer track: 4
• Anthony Jackson - bass guitar track: 5
• Steve Ferrone - drums tracks: 5, 11
• Randy Fredrix - guitar track: 5
• Philippe Saisse - keyboards & programming track: 5
• Cindy Mizelle - backing vocals track: 6
• Gene Orloff - concertmaster (strings) track: 6
• Paul Pesco - guitar tracks: 6, 9
• Tony Patler - additional keyboards track: 7, synthezier bass track: 9
• Reb Beach - guitar track: 8
• Beau Hill - synthesizer bass & keyboards track: 8
• Jimmy Bralower - drum programming track 9
• Bob Riley - drum programming track 10
• Thomas Oldakowski - drum programming track 11
• Sam Rivers - tenor sax solo track: 11
• Cengiz Yaltkaya - keyboards track: 11
• John Mahoney - Synclavier programming track: 11
• Ken Cummings - assistant Synclavier programming track: 11

Production

• Arif Mardin - record producer tracks: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, producer & musical arranger tracks: 2, 11, producer & arranger (horns) track: 3, producer & arranger (strings) track: 6
• David Gamson - producer & musical arranger track: 1
• Green Gartside - producer track: 1
• Ray Bardani - sound recording track: 1
• Bruce Robbins - assisting engineer track: 1
• Ed Garcia - assisting engineer tracks: 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, mix assistant track: 3, additional recording track: 6
• Bruce Robbins - assisting engineer track: 1
• Iris Cohen - assisting engineer track: 1
• Steve Boyer - assisting engineer track: 1
• Steven Carthy - assisting engineer track: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9
• Wayne Warnecke - assisting engineer track: 1
• John "Tokes" Potoker - mix, recording (drums) track: 1, mix track: 7
• Phillip Namanworth - project supervisor tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
• Reggie Griffin - musical arranger track: 2, producer, arranger & mix track: 6, producer & arranger track: 7
• Ellen Fitton - assisting engineer track: 2, 9
• Michael O'Reilly - recording & mix tracks: 2, 3 10, recording (re-recording) & remix track: 4, additional recording tracks: 6, 11, recording track: 9
• Mike Ging - assisting engineer track: 3
• Paul Gommershall - assisting engineer track: 3
• Joe Mardin - producer & arranger tracks: 3, 10, producer, arranger & mix track: 6, arranger track: 9
• Simon Sullivan - additional recording track: 3
• Hugh Padgham - recording (Phil Collins segment) track: 3
• Robbie Buchanan - producer track: 4
• Mike Ross - assisting engineer track: 4
• Philip Castellano- assisting engineer track: 4
• Steve MacMillan - assisting engineer track: 4
• Rod Hui - recording (re-recording) track: 4, recording & mix track: 6, additional recording track: 7
• Jack Joseph Puig - recording & mix track: 4
• Chaka Khan - producer track: 5
• Philippe Saisse - producer track: 5
• Acar Key - assistant engineer tracks: 5, 7, 10
• Craig Vogel - assistant engineer track: 5, 9
• Dave O'Donnell - assistant engineer track: 5
• Eric Calvi - mix track: 5
• Glen Ballard - additional arranging, additional sequencing track: 6
• Randy Goodrum - additional arranging, additional sequencing track: 6
• David Harrington - assisting engineer track: 6
• Ellen Fitton - assisting engineer track: 6, 9, 11
• Ira MacLaughlin - assisting engineer tracks: 6, 8
• Stephen Benben - assisting engineer track: 6, re-recording track: 8
• Rod O'Brian - recording track: 6, additional recording track: 7, assistant engineer track: 9
• Bob Rosa - recording track: 7, assistant engineer track 10
• Beau Hill - producer & arranger track: 8
• Bobby Warner - additional recording track: 8
• Russ Titelman - producer track: 9
• Barbara Milne - assistant engineer track: 9
• Ernie Wilkins - assistant engineer track: 9
• Jeff Lord-Alge - assistant engineer track: 9
• Jill Dell'Abate - production co-ordinator track: 9
• Chris Lord-Alge - recording track: 9,
• Steve Peck - additional recording track: 9, assistant engineer track: 10
• Tom Lord-Alge - recording & mix track: 9
• Jimmy Douglass - assistant engineer track: 10, recording & mix track: 11
• Cengiz Yaltkaya - producer track: 11
• Hugo Dwyer - additional recording track: 11
• Michael Morongell - additional recording track: 11
• Mark Pawlowski - assisting engineer track: 11
• Jeri McManus - art direction
• Lynn Robb - design & lettering
• Christy Allerdings - production coordinator
• Leyla Turkkan - assistant production coordination
• Burt Zell Management - direction
• George Holz - photography

Non-album tracks and remixes

• "Love Of A Lifetime" (Extended Dance Version) - 6:09
• "Coltrane Dreams" (Long Version) - 4:54
• "Tight Fit" (Extended Version, remixed by Tom Lord-Alge) - 6:18
• "Earth To Mickey" (Extended Version) - 6:48
• "Earth To Mickey" (Instrumental Version) - 3:17
• "Earth To Mickey" (A Cappella Voices) - 0:51
• "Earth To Mickey" (CK's Duet Space Rap) - 5:22
• "Watching The World" (Extended Remix) - 6:11

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r10813/review
2. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Destiny review". Robert Christgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=5134. Retrieved 2011-10-09. 
3. ^ Interview, thestar.com February 9, 2008

External links

• Destiny at Discogs