Charlie Puth has a healthy respect for the great musicians who came before him, which is why two of them appear on his new album, Whatever’s Clever.
Charlie says in an Instagram video that he loves Yacht Rock, the term for smooth-sounding, jazz-inflected, highly polished soft rock hits from the ’70s and early ’80s. As an example, he plays a snippet of the Doobie Brothers‘ “What a Fool Believes,” sung by the band’s then-lead vocalist Michael McDonald, and co-written by McDonald and Kenny Loggins.
“And I thought to myself, how am I gonna make a new album and not have Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins on it?” Charlie continues. “The answer is, you can’t. So what did a music lover like myself do? I called up Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins and they came over to my house.”
Charlie details how they all recorded a song together: Kenny played guitar, Michael played keyboards and they both sang on it. “Hearing his voice makes me wanna cry,” Charlie says of Michael’s soulful pipes.
After playing additional elements he recorded for the song — an orchestra, drums and background vocals — Charlie notes, “You put it all together and you have Yacht Rock in 2026 with the guys who invented it.”
Charlie concludes the video by playing a snippet of the unnamed song.
Whatever’s Clever is due March 27. His world tour starts in April.
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