''Keep the Fire'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

, released in 1979. It is perhaps best known for the hit single " This is It". The song was co-written by Michael McDonald, who also performed on the track.

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

sings backup vocals on the track "Who's Right, Who's Wrong".

Track listing

Personnel

* Kenny Loggins – lead and backing vocals, guitars,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(7) * Brian Mann – keyboards, horn arrangements (1, 3–6, 8, 9), accordion solo (5) * Michael McDonald – acoustic piano (3), harmony vocals (3) * Max Gronenthal –

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

programming * Mike Hamilton – guitars, backing vocals, harmony vocals (3, 8) * Fred Tackett – acoustic guitar (8, 9) * George Hawkins – bass guitar, backing vocals, harmony vocals (2, 3, 8) *

Tris Imboden Gregory Tristan "Tris" Imboden (born July 27, 1951) is an American rock and jazz drummer. As a performer, he has been in studio sessions and on tour with some of the most notable and highest-selling musicians of all time. He was the drummer fo ...

– drums, percussion *

Milt Holland Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percus ...

– percussion * Paulinho da Costa – percussion (3) * Jon Clarke – tambourine, English horn, flute, oboe, recorder, saxophone, horn arrangements (2, 7) * Vince Denham – cabasa, saxophone, flute *

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...

– tenor sax solo (6) * Richard Stekol – harmony vocals (2) *

– harmony vocals (6) *

Richard Page Richard Lewis Page (born 22 February 1941) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and from December 1979 to 2005. Early life Born the son of Victor Charles Page, he went to the independent H ...

– harmony vocals (6) * Jeff Bouchard – harmony vocals (8)

Production

* Producer – Tom Dowd * Engineer – Steve Gersky * Second Engineer – Michael Carnavale * Recorded at

Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...

Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood Wally Heider Studios was a recording studio founded in San Francisco in 1969 by recording engineer and studio owner Wally Heider. Between 1969 and 1980, numerous notable artists recorded at the studios, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jeff ...

, CA, and Santa Barbara Sound Recording (Santa Barbara, CA). * Mastering – Mike Fuller at

Criteria Studios Criteria Studios is a recording studio in North Miami, Florida, founded in 1958 by musician Mack Emerman. Hundreds of gold, platinum, and diamond singles and albums have been recorded, mixed or mastered at Criteria, for many notable artists and ...

(Miami, FL). * Guitar Synthesizer Technician – Wayne Williams * Visual Coordinator – Tony Lane * Design Concept – Kenny Loggins and Scott Thom * Cover Painting – Scott Thom * Cover Photography –

Ed Caraeff Ed Caraeff (born April 18, 1950) is an American photographer, illustrator and graphic designer, who has worked largely in the music industry. He has art directed, photographed and designed more than 400 record album covers from 1967 to 1981 for ...

* Sleeve Photography – Eva Ein Loggins * Crew – Mitch Miller, Johnny Pace and C. Wolfstock Wittenberg. * Management – Larson & Recor Associates

Reception

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine described it as "the new sound of Southern California: a sophisticated, diffuse, jazz-inflected pop rock performed by an augmented rock band in which guitar and keyboards share equal prominence" and "churning romantic atmosphere constructed around a matinee idol's voice".

Legacy

The award-winning short film, "Keep the Fire" by Jake Rice serves as a fictionalized "Behind the Album Cover" story, detailing the origin of the glowing white orb in Kenny's hands on the cover and the people who were involved in the creation of his hit record. The film includes computer graphics enhanced dramatizations depicting Michael McDonald, Tom Dowd, George Daly, Scott Thom, and Eva Ein. It features musical performances of "This Is It" and the acoustic version of "What A Fool Believes" as performed by Loggins and McDonald on the live recording "Outside: Live From The Redwoods".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 1979 albums Kenny Loggins albums Albums produced by Tom Dowd Columbia Records albums Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios