“On My Own,” a soulful duet by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, was written by songwriting duo Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach during their marriage. Originally intended for LaBelle, the song faced some resistance from her producer, Richard Perry, who wasn’t initially convinced. As a result, Sager and Bacharach decided to take on production duties themselves. After recording the instrumental backing, LaBelle laid down her vocals solo. However, it wasn’t until Michael McDonald was brought in to add his part that the song truly found its emotional core.
The lyrics center on two people reflecting on a broken relationship. While the details are somewhat abstract, the sense of loss and reflection is clear. One line likens the breakup to a divorce, even though the couple was never married—highlighting the depth of the emotional separation.
Interestingly, LaBelle and McDonald didn’t record their parts together. LaBelle recorded in Philadelphia and filmed the video in New York, while McDonald worked out of Los Angeles. The music video visually emphasized their physical and emotional distance using split-screen effects.
Both vocalists brought strong musical legacies to the project. Patti LaBelle had previously found fame with the group Labelle, which had a chart-topping hit in 1975 with “Lady Marmalade.” Michael McDonald rose to prominence with The Doobie Brothers, known for their number-one hit “What a Fool Believes.”
LaBelle later told NME in 1986 that the success of “On My Own” caught her off guard. She said she didn’t record songs with commercial success in mind—her focus was on passion and authenticity. To her surprise, this deeply personal song resonated widely and became a hit.
That same year was especially successful for Sager and Bacharach, who also penned the chart-topping “That’s What Friends Are For.” Their personal and professional partnership lasted through much of the ’80s, with their marriage spanning from 1982 to 1991. Prior to that, Bacharach had been married to actress Angie Dickinson.
Sager admitted in her memoir They’re Playing Our Song that she initially didn’t believe the melody Bacharach had composed was a potential hit. She even described it as sounding like a tropical tune, imagining women in leis swaying to its rhythm. Yet, once she began crafting lyrics to it—at first just to appease her husband—she grew fond of the song, appreciating the open structure that allowed her the space to write something meaningful.
Despite collaborating on such an intimate duet, LaBelle and McDonald didn’t meet in person until they performed “On My Own” live on The Tonight Show in 1986.
Adding to the song’s lore, legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, a close friend of both LaBelle and Sager, happened to be in the studio during LaBelle’s vocal session. According to LaBelle, Taylor was so fond of the track that she even phoned in requests to radio stations—using her own name. In her autobiography Don’t Block the Blessings, LaBelle joked about what must’ve happened on the other end of the line: “Either they played the song right away or laughed while hanging up on her.”
