Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits

S uccess can come when you least expect it. And, having bailed out of the Steve Miller Band in 1968 after their landmark psychedelic second album, Sailor, it must have been galling for Boz Scaggs to see his former boss hitting the top of the US chart with The Joker while he remained a critics’ darling, unable to translate great reviews into sales.

Then came Silk Degrees, an album that swept all before it in 1976. Just as The Bee Gees and Hall & Oates surfed the disco/dance wave to success with a brand of ‘blueeyed soul’ (if that term isn’t politically incorrect), so Scaggs found himself with a multiplatinum classic on his hands. With future AOR supergroup Toto playing together as Boz’s backing band, only the might of Stevie Wonder could keep …Degrees off the top of the US chart. Little wonder four tracks from Scaggs’ new Greatest Hits Live CD and DVD were first heard on that album.

The story has continued, with many a twist and turn – not least an eight-year break from music due to domestic problems and custody battles. But Scaggs, 60 this year, credits that enforced hiatus with saving his voice and ensuring that his enthusiasm stayed high. Talking from his San Francisco home, he looks back on a 36-year solo career that’s yielded …

by Michael Heatley
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