Recording Just Good Friends with Stevie Wonder, Russ, 1987, Gearslutz forum

“Just Good Friends” is one of my fondest memories. I was standing in the control room right next to Stevie as he laid down the most ripping keyboard solo, and watched Stevie tell Bruce to burn the 1st take, that he’d give him a better one, and that’s what happened. How could Bruce go wrong with Stevie Wonder at the keys to make him look good.

When we recorded the vocals, it was duet style w/ Michael & Stevie singing together facing each other. This was the one song on the album that was recorded with the lights ON, I’m sure that was more for Michael, than for Stevie’s benefit. However right in the middle of a take, we noticed that a homeless guy had heard music coming from a Studio cartage door which had apparently be left unlocked, and he wandered into the tracking room, crapped his pants probably, but remained quiet up against the wall. I remember this like yesterday, once he was discovered and escorted back outside. How’s that for a story?