Michael Bolton with Blackjack and “Love Me Tonight,” 1979

Michael Bolton, right, with Blackjack.

Yes, Micheal Bolton — an “adult idol” adored by the female-driven, U.S daytime television Oprah Winfrey-set — before he was an oozy-sexy, soulful crooner who seem to come out of nowhere to storm the radio and retail charts: he was a long-suffering, kick-ass rock ’n’ roller.

So . . . if those now married-with-children women responded with an analogous fervor as young girls and teenagers in 1975 when the then Michael Bolotin issued his debut album at the age of 22 . . . we would be having a different conversation.

Today’s “Soul Provider” scored his first recording contract at the age of 15 in 1969 when his band, the Nomads, signed a two-singles deal with Epic Records. By 1975, Michael was a 22-year-old singer and songwriter recording in New York with a deal through RCA Records (and label mates with Pittsburgh’s David Werner) based on demo tapes he cut at Leon Russell’s Tulsa-based label, Shelter Records (that worked with Tom Petty’s early band, Mudcrutch, which became Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). Boltin’s self-titled, 1975 debut, and his 1976 sophomore effort, Every Day of My Life, flopped at radio and retail.

Teaming with guitarist Bruce Kulick — yes, of later fame and fortune with Gene Simmons and Kiss — and music attorney Steve Weiss as their manager — who oversaw Bad Company’s and Led Zeppelin’s legal affairs — and producer Tom Dowd in the studio — who took Eric Clapton, Cream, the Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd to the top of the charts — the duo signed with Polydor as the hard pop-rock concern: Blackjack.

Unfortunately, even with high profile tours opening for Peter Frampton and Ozzy Osbourne, singles from their related albums, Blackjack (1979) and World’s Apart (1980), failed to connect with radio or retail.

 

First Epic. Then RCA. Then Polydor. It was time for a career reboot.

Now, under the Micheal Bolton name we know, he continued in the same hard pop-rock vein with two albums for Columbia Records. His third solo album — but fifth album overall, 1983’s Michael Bolton, fared better courtesy of MTV’s support of its single, “Fool’s Game,” but the rocking title cut from 1985’s Everybody’s Crazy repeated the sophomore jinx that plagued Blackjack.

Then, when Laura Branigan scored an international smash with the Bolton-penned, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” it opened the door for him to provide songs for charting albums by Kiss, Kenny Rogers, and Barbra Streisand, in addition to collaborating with esteemed songwriters such as Eric Kaz, Barry Mann, Diane Warren, and Cynthia Weil. Thus, a new, chart-topping multi-platinum career was born . . . and we’re back to his breaking hearts of women across America — and the world — on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The now 71-year-old Michael Bolton cancelled his annual Valentine’s Day concert for 2025 as result of his 2024 brain tumor surgery . . . but plans to return to the stage, soon, where he belongs.