Back in the High Life by Steve Winwood

Back in the High Life, released on Island on 30 June 1986, is where Steve Winwood stopped being a one-man band and started throwing parties. On his two previous albums he'd played every note himself; this time, with Russ Titelman co-producing, he opened the doors to Joe Walsh and Nile Rodgers on guitar, JR Robinson on drums, and a line of star backing singers: Chaka Khan lifting "Higher Love", James Ingram on "The Finer Things", James Taylor on the title track.

The sound is sleek, expensive and very much of its moment, layered synths and electronic drums in the style Winwood had worked out on Arc of a Diver, but his soul voice keeps it warm, and he folds gospel, folk and Caribbean flavors into the rock and R&B. It paid off: five hit singles, three Grammys, and "Higher Love" gave him his first Billboard Hot 100 number one, two decades after he first hit that chart with the Spencer Davis Group.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.