Alex Henderson

Michael Henderson
Wide Receiver  (Expanded Edition)

It isn’t hard to understand why Michael Henderson was a quiet storm icon in the late 1970s. Many of the songs he was known for—including “You Are My Starship,” “Valentine Love” and “We Both Need Each Other” on drummer Norman Connors’ releases and “Take Me, I’m Yours,” “Be My Girl,” “In the Night Time” and “At the Concert” on his solo albums—were romantic ballads and slow jams. And the fact that he performed so many romantic duets with female singers (including “We Both Need Each Other” with the late Phyllis Hyman, “Valentine Love” with Jean Carn, “At the Concert” with Roberta Flack and “Take Me, I’m Yours” with Rena Scott) certainly didn’t hurt his standing in the quiet storm market.

But in 1980, another side of Henderson’s artistry enjoyed a great deal of exposure when the title track of his fifth solo album, Wide Receiver, became one of his biggest hits. A quirky, infectious slice of hardcore funk along the lines of Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins, “Wide Receiver” soared to #4 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart and definitely wasn’t a quiet storm offering. Some of the people who knew the Mississippi-born, Detroit-based singer, bassist, songwriter and producer for “At the Concert” or “Take Me, I’m Yours” claimed that the “Wide Receiver” single represented a change of direction for him, but truth be told, funk had always been a part of Henderson’s solo career. All four of his previous solo albums on Buddah Records—Solid in 1976, Goin’ Places in 1977, In the Night Time in 1978 and Do It All in 1978—contained some funk. In fact, the 1977 single and funk treasure “I Can’t Help It” (from Goin’ Places) was one of his best songs. So no, “Wide Receiver” did not signal a change of direction for Henderson. But it did mark the first time he had a Top 5 R&B smash with a funk song.

Uniting Henderson with many of his musical allies from Detroit (including Sylvester Rivers on acoustic piano, Ray Parker, Jr. on guitar and Ollie E. Brown on drums), the self-produced Wide Receiver sold respectably and reached #6 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart. Certainly, the success of the title track played a major role in the album’s popularity, although it wasn’t Wide Receiver’s only single. Buddah also released “Prove It” (another infectious funk classic) and a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David ballad “Reach Out for Me” as singles. “Prove It” (a cynical commentary on the entertainment industry) reached #27 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, while “Reach Out for Me” stalled at #78 on that chart but enjoyed some exposure on quiet storm programs. The quiet storm DJs of the early 1980s were also fond of “What I’m Feeling (For You)” and a cover of the Four Tops’ 1965 hit “Ask the Lonely.” 

Other highlights of Wide Receiver range from the gritty funk groove “Make Me Feel Better” to a passionate cover of soul singer Lou Courtney’s 1974 single “I Don’t Need Nobody Else.” FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded 2014 edition of Wide Receiver boasts five bonus tracks, which range from a short version of the title track to the 7” single versions of two songs from 1981’s Slingshot: the funky “We Are Here to Geek You Up” and the quiet storm ballad “Can’t We Fall in Love Again” (another duet with Hyman). 

Although some people were surprised to see a quiet storm icon like Henderson having a major hit with a hardcore funk song back in 1980, that didn’t come as a surprise to Sylvester Rivers (sylvesterrivers.com). The Detroit-born pianist/keyboardist and arranger (who moved to Los Angeles in 1974) worked with Henderson extensively back in the day, appearing not only on this album, but also, on In the Night Time, 1983’s Fickle (Henderson’s last album for Buddah) and 1986’s Bedtime Stories on EMI Records. And Rivers, during a December 30, 2013 interview, had a lot to say about Henderson’s versatility.

“Michael and I did a lot of recording together,” Rivers recalls. “As a matter of fact, I was co-writer on the title cut of his gold album, In the Night Time. So we used to record together all the time. Generally, we recorded at United Sound in Detroit, but we did some recording out here in L.A.—although not for the Wide Receiver album. Michael is one of the most creative guys I know, and he was particularly prolific at that time in history. He was writing songs virtually every day.”

Before he became famous for his singing, Henderson had a long list of accomplishments as a bassist—and they ranged from backing Stevie Wonder, the Dramatics, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin to playing instrumental jazz-rock fusion with trumpeter Miles Davis, who featured Henderson on a long list of albums that included A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Live-Evil in 1970, On the Corner in 1972 and Agharta and Pangaea in 1975. Jazz enthusiasts who know a lot about Davis’ history know that the electric fusion he recorded in the 1970s was a big departure from the straight-ahead acoustic jazz he was known for during the 1940s, 1950s and first half of the 1960s, and Henderson was an excellent choice for his band.

“Michael was extraordinarily creative, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Miles Davis hired him,” Rivers asserts. “Miles, as you know, was always reaching and stretching and always trying to go to the next place. Miles never wanted to rest on his laurels or look back. He would try to have the most creative of the younger guys around him all the time, and in that regard, Michael definitely fit in. Michael and Miles got along famously.”

Rivers remembers that when Henderson became famous for his vocals, he was pleasantly surprised by just how well he sang. “I knew Michael before he started singing,” Rivers explains, “and it surprised me when he started singing because I had known him as an instrumentalist and a bass player. It surprised me that Michael had such a voice.”

From sweaty funk to romantic ballads and quiet storm gems, Wide Receiver clearly holds up well after all these years.

—Alex Henderson, January 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Salon.com, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.