''Skin Dive'' is a
jazz vocal album by
Michael Franks, released in 1985 with
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...
. It was Franks' ninth studio album, and the first he co-produced himself. The single off this album, "Your Secret's Safe With Me", is his biggest
Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
hit, peaking at No. 4.
Michael Franks - Your Secret's Safe With Me , Billboard
/ref>
Track listing
Personnel
Vocalists and Musicians
* Michael Franks – vocals
* Rob Mounsey
Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger.
Music career
Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17, ...
– synthesizers, programming, backing vocals (2-4, 6, 8), Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units.
In the early 1980s, th ...
(8)
* Clifford Carter
Clifford Carter (born August 10, 1952) is an American keyboardist, musical director, composer and arranger.
Carter is known for his performances with such artists as James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Rosanne Cash, Michael Franks (mus ...
– acoustic piano (3)
* Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt (November 13, 1938 – August 19, 2022) was an American pianist in jazz, pop and classical music.
Early life
Bernhardt was born in Wausau, Wisconsin. His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to pian ...
– acoustic piano (9)
* Hiram Bullock
Hiram Law Bullock (September 11, 1955 – July 25, 2008) was an American guitarist known mainly for playing in jazz funk and jazz fusion, but he also worked as a session musician in a variety of genres.
Biography
Bullock was born in Osaka, Ja ...
– guitars (1, 6)
* Hugh McCracken
Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally ...
– guitars (2)
* Steve Khan
Steve Khan (born Steven Harris Cahn;
April 28, 1947) is an American jazz guitarist.
Career
Steven Harris Cahn was born in Los Angeles. His father, lyricist Sammy Cahn, "loved to hear any and all versions of his songs". He took piano lessons as a ...
– guitar solo (3)
* Jeff Mironov – electric guitar (7), acoustic guitar (7), guitars (8)
* Marcus Miller
William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonists Wayne Shorter and David Sa ...
– bass (1)
* Will Lee
William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hoope ...
– bass (2, 6), backing vocals (3, 6)
* Neil Jason
Neil Jason, is an American musician, songwriter, producer and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he has worked with some of the biggest recording artists, including John Lennon, Billy Joel, Roxy Music, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, ...
– bass (3)
* Mark Egan
Mark Egan (born January 14, 1951, in Brockton, Massachusetts) is an American jazz bassist and trumpeter known for his membership in the Pat Metheny Group and the Gil Evans Orchestra. He is co-founder of the jazz fusion band, Elements.
Biogra ...
– bass (8)
* Ron Carter
Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy Awards, and is also a Cello, cellist who has reco ...
– bass (9)
* Chris Parker – Simmons SDS-7 programming, Simmons drums, (1, 2, 4-6, 8), drums (3)
* Danny Gottlieb
Daniel Richard Gottlieb (born April 18, 1953) is an American drummer. He was a founding member of the Pat Metheny Group and was co-founder of Elements with Mark Egan.
Biography
Gottlieb was born in New York City on April 18, 1953. He took lesso ...
– drums (7), cymbal
A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...
s (7)
* – drums (8)
* Steve Gadd
Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American jazz fusion drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and most highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction i ...
– drums (9)
* Manolo Badrena
Manolo Badrena (born March 17, 1952, in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a percussionist most noted for his work with Weather Report from 1976 to 1977. He has made contributions to over 100 recordings that span jazz, world music, pop, and Latin music. ...
– percussion (8)
* Sue Evans
Sue Evans (born July 7, 1951) is an American jazz, pop, classical, and studio percussionist and drummer.
Career
She was born in New York, New York, United States. Evans played piano, violin and clarinet as a young child before switching to drums ...
– percussion (8)
* David Sanborn
David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...
– alto saxophone (4, 7)
* Bill Evans
William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...
– flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
(8)
* Ronnie Cuber
Ronald Edward Cuber (December 25, 1941 – October 7, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. He also played in Latin, pop, rock, and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he played tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet, ...
– baritone saxophone (9)
* 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 a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...
– tenor saxophone (9)
* Lawrence Feldman – alto flute
The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...
(9)
* George Young
George Young may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George Young (filmmaker), Australian stage manager and film director in the silent era
* George Young (rock musician) (1946–2017), Australian musician, songwriter, and record producer
* G ...
– alto flute (9)
* Dave Bargeron
David Wayne Bargeron (September 6, 1942 – January 18, 2025) was an American trombonist and tuba player who was a member of the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Life and career
Bargeron was born on September 6, 1942. He was lead trombon ...
– euphonium
The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...
(9)
* Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known ...
– flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...
(9)
* Jon Clarke – French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...
(9)
* Peter Gordon – French horn (9)
* Vivian Cherry – backing vocals (1, 2, 4)
* Frank Floyd – backing vocals (1)
* Babi Floyd – backing vocals (2, 4)
* Leslie Miller– backing vocals (2, 4)
* Brenda Russell
Brenda Russell (née Gordon; born April 8, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist. Russell has a diverse musical range which encompasses Rhythm and blues, R&B, pop music, pop, soul music, soul, dance music, dance, and ...
– vocals (5), backing vocals (5)
* Joe Caro – backing vocals (6)
* Kacey Cisyk – backing vocals (8)
Production
* Rob Mounsey – producer, arrangements
* Kevin Halpin – recording, remixing (1-5, 7-9)
* Ed Rak – recording, remixing (6)
* Ben Wisch – recording
* Blaine Cone – recording assistant
* Maureen Thompson – recording assistant
* David Young – recording assistant
* George Marino
George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.
Biography
Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...
– original mastering at Sterling Sound (New York, NY)
* Lee Herschberg – CD remastering
* Debbie DeMeo – production coordinator
* Laura LiPuma – art direction, design
* Barry McKinley – photography
References
Bibliography
*
{{Authority control
Michael Franks (musician) albums
1985 albums
Warner Records albums
Albums produced by Rob Mounsey