Pop Culture Retrospective Episode # 9 - Michael Bolton: The story behind one of the most successful and swoon-worthy artists of all time!

Episode # 9 - Michael Bolton

Picture it, Sicily, 1922.  I kid, I kid, we are not doing another show about the Golden Girls.  However, let’s picture something else:

• Ominous looking sky and clouds above, flashing quickly as they pass by
• Horses cascade across the setting sun on the horizon
• Flames, for some reason, burn randomly in the left hand corner.  There is no fireplace or campfire, just flames.
• A man, who seems to be maybe mid-late 30’s appears.  He has long, wavy, dirty blonde hair 
• The horses then come back as do the randomly placed flames
• A shot of a large lake at sunset appears
• Cut to the horses and flames again
• Then, our sultry star returns, this time with a knee-length beige suede jacket, his chest hair now exposed through his white collared, buttoned down shirt 

This is not a passage from a grocery store romance novel, but rather the first 30 seconds from the music video for the song- “Said I Loved You But I Lied” by Michael Bolton, which was probably my sister’s favorite Michael Bolton song.  I am not quite sure how my sister became such an empathic fan of his, but for some reason she developed quite the obsession with him toward the end of her life.  She played this song over and over again while my family and I were driving one of the last times that I saw her alive.  She kept making it seem like the next song she was going to play would be different, but she continued to put this song on repeat much to our dismay and her satisfaction.  Due to a medical situation my sister had, for the last few years of her life, she often sat in the front passenger seat of any vehicle she traveled in.  As a result, she was often in control of what music was played.  That was really a blessing and a curse.

One other example of her unrelenting desire to drive me nuts with her music choices came when she, myself and my mom, were driving to visit my grandfather (this was probably 7 or 8 years ago).  Although I’m sure I had used the facilities prior to our departure, let’s just say I probably drank too much water and coffee that day and suddenly needed to use the restroom really, really bad.  The train needed to pull in to Urination Station, there, I said it.  While on the way there, her phone was connected to the speakers in the car and she blasted the sound of rushing waterfalls and rain for the remainder of our ride there despite my demands and pleas, expressed while hunched over in liquid-induced pain, that she turn it off for the love of God.  She didn’t of course and with a sinister laugh, she played the B,B & B relaxation CD sounding music until we pulled in and I immediately ran out of the car to find the closest restroom.  This was classic Becky.  It was certainly frustrating in the moment, but absolutely hysterical in hindsight.  

Back to Bolton though.  At 67, Michael Bolton has led a life that is so much more interesting that you may think.  If ever there was a performer that was determined to succeed despite many, many setbacks.  An illustration of this is prior to his explosion onto the music scene, he had 9 FAILED albums in 18 years. On Today’s show you will learn all about the life of Michael Bolton, a man crush for middle aged women everywhere in the 1990s.  We will discuss his early life, his struggle to show the world his talents, his success and his humanitarian endeavors.  So put on your button up denim shirt, tuck it into your denim jeans and stand in front of the Grand Canyon with your fists clenched while singing to the heavens, here we go! 

……………….

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine. You are tuning in to Episode # 9 - Michael Bolton, one of the most successful musicians of the 1990s who is still going strong and honing his craft as he ages like a fine wine.  Although my sister was not middle-aged in the 1990s, she somehow became a huge fan of his toward the end of her life. After learning more about him, I can see why he became such a well-known and respected performer who has been in the music industry for about 50 years.  

In an article from the Jewish Virtual Library, written by a woman who, it sounds like, has quite the crush on him, penned quite the pre-interview romanticized report on Michael Bolton.  I imagine many of his die-hard fans view him this way. Forgive me as I am incapable of reading the following  excerpt in my normal voice, but have to do my sensual narrator voice:

His soft, kind eyes are as luring as a sky blue pool on a steamy summer day. You want to jump in-you want to luxuriate in the kindness they extend. But the warning sign soon becomes apparent: "Private property, no trespassers allowed."

If eyes are supposed to be the windows to the soul, Michael Bolton has drawn the shutters. Although a glow of the man comes through, they are, nonetheless, guarded, wise, discerning and savvy to the subjects of their scrutiny. If one desires to get to the essence of this singer/songwriter who has lyricized and vocalized humanity's most profound emotions, it won't be through his baby blues, but rather, his lips-the same lips that have kissed his three little girls good-night, the lips that have loved the world's most beautiful women, the lips that have told critics to kiss off, and the lips that advocate for vital humanitarian causes. But Michael Bolton offers no lip service-and puts his money where his mouth is.

That being the case, Bolton has invested wisely. With indisputable talent, a love for singing, and a single-mindedness about his passion, his life's course was set since childhood.  Get a room lady!  If you love him so much, why don’t you marry him!  Anyways, speaking of childhood, let’s get to his early days…

Michael Bolotin, known professionally as Michael Bolton, was born on February 26, 1953 in New Haven, CT.   He was the youngest of 3 children born to parents Helen & George Bolotin who were of Jewish descent.  His brother’s name is Orrin and his sister’s name is Sandra.  Both his maternal and paternal grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. Michael’s father worked for the city of New Haven and his mother was involved with women’s organizations. In later years, she would work at a Crisis Center. He was raised in a very liberal home where his parents taught their children to love and respect people from all backgrounds, which has stayed with him his entire life. This is pretty progressive considering segregation was still happening until the mid-1960s.  Early on, Michael developed a love of music from all genres.  Part of that love came from his older brother who would often play music for him to help expose his little brother to all different kinds of music.  He developed a strong interest in Blues music, especially musicians from the city of Chicago. Around the age of 7 he started to play the Saxophone. By the age of 11/12 he started to really hear and learn lyrics from music as well as understand their melodies.  Reminds me of JT.  

His parents would eventually divorce and when Michael was 13, his father passed away.   

Around the age of 14, one of Bolton’s friends taught him a few guitar chords and shortly thereafter, Bolton learned even more chords on his own.  

Later in his teenage years he began playing music and singing in bars.  He really wanted to pursue a future in music. His mother was very supportive of his aspirations, she even allowed Michael to have a drum set in their basement apartment. During what would have been his Freshman year in high school, he was tutored and when he was 16, his mom signed off on the papers needed to withdraw from high school and amazingly, he signed his first record deal shortly thereafter.  His Mom actually had to co-sign on the record deal.  

His work ethic was apparent early on.  He wanted to make sure to make the best music possible and do everything he could to gain as much knowledge about music performance as he could.  Sadly, after just 1 year he was dropped from his first record company.  They softened the blow by saying “you are free to pursue options with another company.”  Reminds me of dating as a teenager where the eventual dumper says to the dumpee, “we should take a break” which really means, we are breaking up.

Beginning in 1975, he recorded 2 albums with RCA, he learned a ton along the way, spent a lot of time in the recording studio, but he was also dropped by RCA.  Also, in 1975 he got married to Maureen McGuire.  They would go on to have 3 daughters together (they would eventually divorce in 1990).  He was then picked up by a production company that would go out of business while he was signed to them.  He had already completed an entire album, but it was not released prior to their demise.  Michael struggled to provide for his family during this time.  He had to figure out how to somehow provide for his family and pay his bills.  So he started a side gig of writing commercial jingles and found success singing about “being all you can be in the Army” and advertisements for various soda companies including Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper and Pepsi.  He’s recalled a funny story a few times during interviews about how he opened up a cooler one time and realized he had sung jingles for all of the soda cans that were in the cooler.  Despite all of these setbacks, Bolton maintained a positive and optimistic attitude.  He felt that although he wasn’t a household name just yet, the experience he had developing music was invaluable and the networking opportunities were also important.

Changing course a bit, his manager connected him with someone who worked for a record company called Polydor.  Bolton eventually met with him.  He said he loved his music and loved his voice and he wanted him to be the lead singer of a rock band.  It was the late 1970s at this point and he was in his late 20s.  So, Bolton joined the group BlackJack.  It was a short-lived group lasting only 2 years, but they did release 2 albums and went on a small tour in the states.  They also opened for Black Sabbath.  I’ll post a link in the show notes to one of their music videos.  They look like a typical hair band, but it’s obvious that despite their lack of success and poofy hair, Michael Bolton really and truly has an amazing voice. 

During the time he was with Black Jack, he was also writing music for other musicians to perform.  Eventually someone from Columbia Records reached out to him and told him that he should give up the rock band and writing music for other artists.  He told Michael that he was the one that should be performing.  Apparently, Secretaries who worked for Columbia Records kept taking home Bolton’s demo tapes and let their bosses know how much they loved his voice and ultimately his talent for music.  

He would go on to release his first album with Columbia Records entitled Michael Bolton released in 1983, this was his first time recording under his stage name Bolton instead of Bolotin.  On the album cover  he looks a bit like a male version of Cher with wavy, black hair and bangs, but it included his signature exposed chest hair, this time flanked by a black leather jacket.  Features song such as “Fools Game” which was probably the most popular song on the album as well as a cover of the Supreme’s hit song- “Back in my Arms Again.”  

• Guitarist (Bruce Kullick) from Kiss played on this album

Everybody’s Crazy was released in 1985, this album cover again finds Michael Bolton in a leather jacket, with a knee length red button-up shirt (no chest exposure) and black leather pants. It wasn’t a huge hit, but the song, Everybody’s Crazy was featured in the film ‘Back to School’ starring Rodney Dangerfield.  Reviews of the album were quite mixed but I think most critics and the public in general, all agree that MB has a unique and powerful voice.  

• Bruce Kullick would join MB again on this album

The Hunger was released in 1987 and is viewed as MB’s breakout album.  For once, the album cover does not show him in a low cut shirt, but rather in a black and white photo of him walking.  His hair is clearly now lighter in color.  His long locks are being blown back by a gust of wind (or a large fan, depending on where the photo was taken which isn’t clear).  It features the hit ballad “That’s What Love is all About.” He also did a cover of Ottis Redding’s hit song- “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” which his widow allegedly approved of.  This album has sold over 2 million copies.  

• Members of the band Journey played music for this album
• Randy Jackson played bass on a few songs 

Soul Provider was released in 1989, the album spent an incredible amount of time on the Billboard charts, almost 4 years! It peaked at #3.  Some of the hit songs on this album included:  Soul Provider, How Can we be Lovers, and How Am I Supposed to Live Without You. How Am I Supposed to Live Without You is another memorable music video of his as he spends most of it dressed in a black pant suit, which has clearly has shoulder pads in it.  He also belts out the lyrics while sitting on a wooden bistro chair faced backwards.  Really adds to the dramatic emphasis. Another successful song, that faced some criticism as it was a cover, was “Georgia on my Mind.”  Originally this song was recorded with a musician by the name of Michael Brecker playing saxophone, but his part was eventually cut out and played by none other than Kenny G.  

• Fun fact about Kenny G, did you know that he is incredibly popular in China?  The reason is because one of his songs, entitled “Going Home” is played to signal the end of the business day at various locations throughout the country including gyms, malls and train stations.  

1991 saw the release of Time, Love and Tenderness and produced a slew of relatively well-known hits including:  Love is a Wonderful Thing, Missing You Now, Time, Love and Tenderness and a cover of Percy Sledge’s hit ballad When a Man Loves a Woman.  Percy Sledge, in case you didn’t know is a multi-million selling recording artist who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.  He was an orderly in a Hospital before making it big as a singer.  Jim Carey did a pretty hilarious parody of Bolton’s version of this song on the show In Living Color.  He has on a long, blonde, curly haired wig on as well as an oversized white pant suit with shoulder pads.  He basically sings about how Bolton swiped this song from another artist and profited from it.  Carey belts out some modified, sarcastic lyrics which are starting to really strain his vocal chords and all of a sudden his head explodes off and lands in the audience and women are starting to fight over the various parts of his decapitated body.  It’s kind of morbid, but hilarious all at the same time.  I will post a link to this video in the show notes. 

Greatest hit albums followed in 1992 and 1993.

Bolton’s 9th album, The One Thing was released in 1993 and features my sister’s favorite MB song, “Said I Loved You But I Lied” which reached #6 on the Billboard Charts.  It was not as successful as some of his previous albums, but for die hard Bolton fans, it was an excellent piece of work.  It sold over 3 million copies in the US alone. 

A Christmas Album was released in 1996 and All that Matters was released in 1997.  It didn’t achieve as much success as previous albums which some critics feel is due to the popularity of Pop Music at this time.  Some of the biggest pop/hip-hop music names around 1997 include:  Jewel, Backstreet Boys, Puff Daddy (later P Diddy), Spice Girls, and a few of my personal favorites including:  Aaliyah, Missy Elliot, 112 and Lucious Jackson. 

Many other MB albums have been released in the 30 years since his major success with Time, Love and Tenderness which by the way, has sold over 10 million copies.  There have been live albums, additional greatest hits albums, a Frank Sinatra covers album, a duets album and an album with songs from hit movies.  His most recent album was released in 2019 and it is called “A Symphony of Hits.” 

Fun Facts:

• He does an excellent Rodney Dangerfield impersonation
• He is a vegetarian and has been for over 45 years.  He has reportedly said he made the decision to do this to stay healthy and thus, maintain his voice.
• He has written over 100 songs for other musical artists, including, but not limited to:  Jay Z, Cher, Kanye West, KISS and Babra Streisand.
• Oprah is one of MB’s heroes 
• MB has been romantically involved with actress Nicolette Sheriden off and on over the years, they were initially introduced by Kenny G! 
• In 1993 he started the Michael Bolton charities with the goal of aiding women and children who are the victims of domestic violence or are coping with poverty or street violence.  That organization is still active today.
• He is also the honorary chairman of Prevent Child Abuse America and is the National Chairman for This Close for Cancer Research.
• He has written a book aimed at children called The Secret of the Lost Kingdom with Disney’s publisher, Hyperion. 
• At 15 years old he began studying buddhism and is interested in learning about various religions while still respecting that he was raised in a Kosher household
• Michael isn’t the only musician in his family….allegedly his mother played the piano and his older brother, Orrin was really into music like we discussed earlier but apparently he is involved with music as a career as well.  He looks almost exactly like Michael, just a bit older!  
• Racism was not tolerated in Bolton’s household growing up.  MLK was looked at with the utmost respect and was idolized by his family.  Later as an adult, Bolton often took his daughters to the Atlanta-based King Center to learn about Civil Rights as they were growing up.  He actually got to meet King’s widow Corretta Scott King during the 25th anniversary of his passing.  He has also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the Congress of Racial Equality.  Further, he has received a Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. 
• MB had 9 failed albums in 18 years, but he never gave up and thankfully he didn’t as he would go on to sell over 65 million albums in his decades-spanning career 
• He has performed with the likes of BB King, Luciano Pavarotti and Ray Charles.  
• He has 6 grandchildren
• Michael Bolton is a character in the cult classic film “Office Space.”  In the movie, the character of Michael Bolton is very frustrated that he has the same name as the crooner.  He’s often asked if they are related or if he likes his music and he always angrily responds with no.  The comedy video site, Funny or Die.com did a remake of some of the infamous MB scenes with real-life MB reciting all of the famous lines and other classic scenes.  It’s pretty funny, I’ll post a link in the show notes. 
• In 2011 he starred in a Digital Short on SNL called Jack Sparrow.  It has been viewed over 200 Million Times on YouTube and is hysterical.  Essentially it’s a music video about two completely separate things.  Andy Samberg and his friends are singing about meeting women in a club and MB keeps coming in with a hook completely un-related to the song about movie plots.  I’ll post a link in the show notes.  Just a warning that the lyrics in the video are not children-friendly. 
• In 2013 he released a biography called the Soul of it All:  My Music, My Life.  It has 4 ½ stars on Amazon and they currently only have 1 copy left as of the recording of this show! Order it now! 
• He has his own fragrance called Time, Love and Tenderness.  It can be found on his website Michael Bolton.com and can only be shipped in the United States (my apologies to the show’s international listeners).  It is described as:  Capturing the essence of one of Michael’s hit albums and songs, TIME, LOVE & TENDERNESS is a three-piece fragrance collection designed to be both delicate and romantic. A soulful fragrance for women.
• And finally, I think my favorite MB interesting story:
  • In 1993, MB played in a charity softball game which aired on TV.  It pitted his team, the Bolton Brothers which was comprised of the man himself and his bandmates against Jordan’s Air Force which was comprised of Michael Jordan and a team of famous celebrities including:  Tom Selleck, Chris Chellios, Magic Johnson and MC Hammer! They were coached by the amazingly gifted athlete Bo Jackson.  Michael Jordan’s team LOST!  MB’s team won! 7-1! 

I hope you have enjoyed this look back at the life and career of Michael Bolton, a world famous musician who embraces his past filled with long hair, shoulder pads, controversial cover songs and undeniable drive and talent.  Although I would never describe myself as a Bolton Buddy which is allegedly the nickname for superfans, I think it’s hard to argue that not only does MB have a pretty amazing voice, he actually does a lot to try and make the world a better place which is quite refreshing to hear when the world feels so dark at times.  I also think MB is not given enough credit for all of the writing he has done both for himself and other artists.  Further, MB has been so harshly critiqued throughout his career and poked fun at countless times, but he doesn’t seem to take that to heart, he just keeps moving forward and working hard.

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I hope you will join me for my next show, where we will be discussing the fascinating life of RuPaul Andre Charles, known on stage as simply RuPaul.