Destiny (Chaka Khan album)

Destiny is the sixth studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1986.

Destiny was Khan's follow-up to the platinum-selling I Feel for You and was as high tech as its predecessor—symptomatically and characteristically for its period with more producers and sound engineers credited in the liner notes than musicians—but was musically more geared towards rock and pop than soul and R&B, most prominently on tracks such as "So Close", the self-penned title track "My Destiny", "Who's It Gonna Be" and "Watching the World" featuring Phil Collins on drums and backing vocals.

The album spun off five single releases, the first being "Love of a Lifetime", co-written, co-produced and featuring backing vocals by Green Gartside of British band Scritti Politti (US Pop #53, US R&B #21, UK #52). The second single "Tight Fit" was a midtempo R&B ballad, just like "Eye to Eye" from I Feel for You produced by Russ Titelman, which reached #28 on the US R&B chart. The satirical "Earth to Mickey" (When are you going to land?), featuring Khan both singing and rapping (and keyboardist Reggie Griffin rapping in the role of 'Mickey'), was released as the third single in early 1987 and only just made the Top 100 of the R&B chart, peaking at #93. The dramatic ballad "The Other Side of the World", written by Mike Rutherford of Genesis and B. A. Robertson and which had first been released as part of the White Nights soundtrack album in late 1985, reached #81. The fifth single "Watching the World" never charted. The album itself fared slightly better, reaching #25 on Billboard's R&B albums chart, but stalling at #67 on Pop and #77 in the UK. Destiny however gave Khan another Grammy nomination in 1987 for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. The track "My Destiny" was used as the theme song for Richard Pryor's motion picture Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.

The closing track, the heavily edited one minute thirty-nine seconds "Coltrane Dreams", a tribute to John Coltrane, had a backing track mainly made up of samples of Khan's voice. The actual full-length version of the track (4:54) was only released as the B-side of the 12" single "Love of a Lifetime".

"Love of a Lifetime", "Tight Fit", "Earth to Mickey" and "Watching the World" were all released as 12" singles including extended remixes.

While the success of Khan's own single releases in 1986 was limited to the R&B charts, she appeared as featured vocalist/vocal arranger on two worldwide pop/rock chart hits that same year, Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" and Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love"; on the latter she was only credited for 'vocal arrangement' in the liner notes. The song was originally recorded with Khan sharing lead vocals with Palmer but due to contractual problems between Warner Bros. Records and Island Records her own vocals were removed from the final mix.

Track listing

 * 1) "Love of a Lifetime" (David Gamson, Green Gartside) – 4:21
 * 2) "Earth to Mickey" (Joshua Fried, Reggie Griffin, Arif Mardin, Charlie Singleton, Jeremy Wolff) – 5:37
 * 3) "Watching the World" (John Lang, Richard Page, Steve George) – 4:44
 * 4) "The Other Side of the World" (B. A. Robertson, Mike Rutherford) – 3:41
 * 5) "My Destiny" (Chaka Khan) – 4:39
 * 6) "I Can't Be Loved" (Glen Ballard, Randy Goodrum) – 4:30
 * 7) "It's You" (Portia Griffin, Tony Patler) – 4:19
 * 8) "So Close" (Richard Feldman, Marcy Levy, Pam Tillis) – 4:19
 * 9) "Tight Fit" (Bunny Siegler, Marvin Morrow) – 4:39
 * 10) "Who's It Gonna Be" (Gary Goetzman, Mike Picirillo) – 4:37
 * 11) "Coltrane Dreams" (Chaka Khan, Julie Mardin, Arif Mardin) – 1:39

Personnel

 * Chaka Khan - lead vocals, backing vocals (all tracks), timbales and cowbell (track: 10)
 * Mark Stevens - backing vocals (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9, 10), additional backing vocals (track: 3)
 * Marcus Miller - bass guitar (track: 1)
 * Fred Maher - drums (track: 1)
 * Nick Moroch - guitar (tracks: 1, 10)
 * David Lebolt - additional keyboards (track: 1), synthesizer programming (tracks: 3, 10)
 * David Gamson - synthesizer, programming (track: 1)
 * Green Gartside - backing vocals (track: 1)
 * Jason Miles - additional synthesizer programming (track: 1)
 * Michael Colina - additional synthesizer programming (track: 1)
 * Robert Gay - alto saxophone and solo (track: 1), alto saxophone (track: 9)
 * Scott Gilman - tenor saxophone (track: 1)
 * Matthew Cornish - trumpet (track: 1)
 * Sandra St. Victor - backing vocals (tracks: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
 * Arif Mardin - special effects editing (track: 2)
 * Reggie Griffin - Mickey's rap, synthesizer, keyboards (track: 2), guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, programming and sequencing (track: 6), keyboards, programming, saxophone and guitar (track: 7), synthesizer solo (track: 10)
 * Pino Palladino - bass guitar (track: 3)
 * David Rosenberg - additional drum sounds (track: 3), drum sounds (track: 6), drums (track: 8)
 * Phil Collins - drums, backing vocals (track: 3)
 * Dan Huff - guitar (track: 3)
 * Joe Mardin - musical conductor, additional keyboards and sequencing (track: 3), keyboards, synthesizer, programming, sequencing and additional percussion (track: 6), keyboards and programming (tracks: 9, 10)
 * Michael Brecker - tenor saxophone (track: 3)
 * Tom Malone - trombone (track: 3)
 * John Faddis - trumpet (track: 3)
 * Marvin Stamm - trumpet (track: 3)
 * Michael Mossman - trumpet (track: 3)
 * Randy Brecker - trumpet (track: 3)
 * Robbie Buchanan - synthesizer (track: 4)
 * Anthony Jackson - bass guitar (track: 5)
 * Steve Ferrone - drums (tracks: 5, 11)
 * Randy Fredrix - guitar (track: 5)
 * Philippe Saisse - keyboards and programming (track: 5)
 * Cindy Mizelle - backing vocals (track: 6)
 * Gene Orloff - concertmaster for strings (track: 6)
 * Paul Pesco - guitar (tracks: 6, 9)
 * Tony Patler - additional keyboards (track: 7), synthesizer bass (track: 9)
 * Reb Beach - guitar (track: 8)
 * Beau Hill - synthesizer bass and keyboards (track: 8)
 * Jimmy Bralower - drum programming (track: 9)
 * Bob Riley - drum programming (track: 10)
 * Thomas Oldakowski - drum programming (track: 11)
 * Sam Rivers - tenor sax solo (track: 11)
 * Cengiz Yaltkaya - keyboards (track: 11)
 * John Mahoney - Synclavier programming (track: 11)
 * Ken Cummings - assistant Synclavier programming (track: 11)

Production

 * Arif Mardin - record producer (tracks: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10), producer and musical arranger (tracks: 2, 11), producer and arranger for horns (track: 3), producer and arranger for strings (track: 6)
 * David Gamson - producer and musical arranger (track: 1)
 * Green Gartside - producer (track: 1)
 * Ray Bardani - sound recording (track: 1)
 * Bruce Robbins - assistant engineer (track: 1)
 * Ed Garcia - assistant engineer (tracks: 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10), mix assistant (track: 3), additional recording (track: 6)
 * Bruce Robbins - assistant engineer (track: 1)
 * Iris Cohen - assistant engineer (track: 1)
 * Steve Boyer - assistant engineer (track: 1)
 * Steven Carthy - assistant engineer (tracks: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)
 * Wayne Warnecke - assistant engineer (track: 1)
 * John "Tokes" Potoker - mix and drum recording (track: 1), mix (track: 7)
 * Phillip Namanworth - project supervisor (tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
 * Reggie Griffin - musical arranger (track: 2), producer, arranger and mix (track: 6), producer and arranger (track: 7)
 * Ellen Fitton - assistant engineer (tracks: 2, 9)
 * Michael O'Reilly - recording and mix (tracks: 2, 3, 10), recording (re-recording) and remix (track: 4), additional recording (tracks: 6, 11), recording (track: 9)
 * Mike Ging - assistant engineer (track: 3)
 * Paul Gommershall - assistant engineer (track: 3)
 * Joe Mardin - producer and arranger (tracks: 3, 10), producer, arranger and mix (track: 6), arranger (track: 9)
 * Simon Sullivan - additional recording (track: 3)
 * Hugh Padgham - recording of Phil Collins segment (track: 3)
 * Robbie Buchanan - producer (track: 4)
 * Mike Ross - assistant engineer (track: 4)
 * Philip Castellano - assistant engineer (track: 4)
 * Steve MacMillan - assistant engineer (track: 4)
 * Rod Hui - recording (re-recording) (track: 4), recording and mix (track: 6), additional recording (track: 7)
 * Jack Joseph Puig - recording and mix (track: 4)
 * Chaka Khan - producer (track: 5)
 * Philippe Saisse - producer (track: 5)
 * Acar Key - assistant engineer (tracks: 5, 7, 10)
 * Craig Vogel - assistant engineer (tracks: 5, 9)
 * Dave O'Donnell - assistant engineer (track: 5)
 * Eric Calvi - mix (track: 5)
 * Glen Ballard - additional arranging, additional sequencing (track: 6)
 * Randy Goodrum - additional arranging, additional sequencing (track: 6)
 * David Harrington - assistant engineer (track: 6)
 * Ellen Fitton - assistant engineer (tracks: 6, 9, 11)
 * Ira MacLaughlin - assistant engineer (tracks: 6, 8)
 * Stephen Benben - assistant engineer (track: 6), re-recording (track: 8)
 * Rod O'Brian - recording (track: 6), additional recording (track: 7), assistant engineer (track: 9)
 * Bob Rosa - recording (track: 7), assistant engineer (track: 10)
 * Beau Hill - producer and arranger (track: 8)
 * Bobby Warner - additional recording (track: 8)
 * Russ Titelman - producer (track: 9)
 * Barbara Milne - assistant engineer (track: 9)
 * Ernie Wilkins - assistant engineer (track: 9)
 * Jeff Lord-Alge - assistant engineer (track: 9)
 * Jill Dell'Abate - production co-ordinator (track: 9)
 * Chris Lord-Alge - recording (track: 9)
 * Steve Peck - additional recording (track: 9, assistant engineer (track: 10)
 * Tom Lord-Alge - recording and mix (track: 9)
 * Jimmy Douglass - assistant engineer (track: 10), recording and mix (track: 11)
 * Cengiz Yaltkaya - producer (track: 11)
 * Hugo Dwyer - additional recording (track: 11)
 * Michael Morongell - additional recording (track: 11)
 * Mark Pawlowski - assisting engineer (track: 11)
 * Jeri McManus - art direction
 * Lynn Robb - design and lettering
 * Christy Allerdings - production coordinator
 * Leyla Turkkan - assistant production coordination
 * Burt Zell Management - direction
 * George Holz - photography

Non-album tracks and remixes

 * "Love of a Lifetime" (extended dance version) – 6:09
 * "Coltrane Dreams" (long version) – 4:54
 * "Tight Fit" (extended version, remixed by Tom Lord-Alge) – 6:18
 * "Earth to Mickey" (extended version) – 6:48
 * "Earth to Mickey" (instrumental version) – 3:17
 * "Earth to Mickey" (a cappella voices) – 0:51
 * "Earth to Mickey" (CK's Duet Space Rap) – 5:22
 * "Watching the World" (extended remix) – 6:11