Producer and Solo Performer
Bristol left Motown in 1973 to join CBS as a producer. He worked with a number of emerging singers that included Randy Crawford, for whom Bristol wrote "Caught in Love's Triangle", as well as producing established performers such as Marlena Shaw, Johnny Mathis and Boz Scaggs. Now in his early 30s, he was anxious to resume his own recording career, and when CBS/Columbia showed little enthusiasm he signed a recording contract with MGM.
At MGM, Bristol recorded two successful albums and charted with several singles, notably "Hang on in There Baby" (1974, #8 US Pop, #2 US R&B chart and #3 UK), "You and I" (1974, #20 US R&B), "Leave My World" (1975, #23 US R&B) and "Do It To My Mind" (1976, #5 US R&B). He also recorded the original version of "Love Me for a Reason", later a major hit for The Osmonds. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975 for Best New Artist, ultimately losing out to Marvin Hamlisch.
Bristol then recorded two albums for Atlantic, Bristol's Creme (1976) and Strangers (1978). One track from the Atlantic period, "Strangers In The Dark Corners," has become popular on the European rare-soul scene. He maintained a parallel role as a producer during this period, working mainly for artists signed to Columbia Records, including Boz Scaggs. Bristol can be credited with creating Scaggs' blue-eyed soul sound for the Slow Dancer album (1974). Bristol also produced Tom Jones' 1975 album, Memories Don't Leave Like People Do, which included five covers of Bristol's songs, including the title track. He continued to be held in high regard as a producer, and some of the other acts with whom he worked included Tavares, Margie Joseph and The Jackson Sisters.
Bristol's main market was in Europe by the early 1980s. His duet with Amii Stewart on a medley of "My Guy - My Girl" reached #39 in the UK Singles Chart in 1980. A deal for Ariola/Hansa saw him score with club hits "Love No Longer Has a Hold on Me" and "Take Me Down". An accompanying album failed to consolidate his status, and it would be eight years before new product by Bristol appeared, with a 12" single "I'm Just a Musician" for Hansa. An affiliation in 1989 with the UK record label Motorcity Records was brief, but did result in one of Bristol's most popular releases, "Man Up in the Sky", and a cover of the Bristol-penned "What Does it Take to Win Your Love", originally a hit for Jr. Walker & the All Stars.
Bristol's last releases were a 12" single in 1991 for Whichway Records, "Come to Me", and an album, Life & Love, released for the Japanese market in 1993. The latter included Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's The Way I Feel About You" as a duet with his daughter, Shanna J. Bristol. The album received a US release three years later under the title Come To Me.
Bristol died in his Brighton Township, Michigan, home on 21 March 2004, of natural causes, at the age of sixty-five.
A comprehensive article on his career is contained in issue 51 of the music magazine, In The Basement.
Bristol was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Bristol
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