Audio Autopsy, 1985: Ambrosia Singer/Guitarist, David Pack Solo LP, "Anywhere You Go"

It's the coulda-been Yacht Rock classic no one heard. With guests Michael McDonald, Toto's Jeff & Mike Porcaro, Jennifer Holliday, Tubes' Prairie Prince, Kansas's Kerry Livgren & Stanley Clarke!🤯

“Anything David touches, he elevates, and that’s a true gift from God.”

— Quincy Jones

In 1985, I was in college at age 30, taking a sharp, career left turn (don’t worry…I signaled). Somehow, I got my hands on the cassette by a guy I knew was the singer/guitarist from Ambrosia, David Pack, and his debut solo album.

Early on in his Ambrosia stint, he joined my list of personal fave-singers-that-no-one-really-knows, elbowing his way just ahead of (Grass Roots’) Rob Grill, Tony Burrows, the Babys’ John Waite, Pat Upton, and (The Quick, Great Buildings, Rembrandts) Danny Wilde.

Ambrosia: More Than Just Cool Whip, Coconut & Pecans

Formed in L.A. in 1970 (the year Pack graduated from L.A. county’s Torrance High School, the alma mater of Ratt drummer, Bobby Blotzer), Ambrosia failed to wow Herb Alpert (or Jerry Moss, for that matter) for an A&M contract, settling, instead for 20th Century Records, who released two albums, the first in 1975.

They landed a couple hits, one on AM, the Top 20 “Holdin’ On to Yesterday,” as well as a nifty slice of FM prog (which I did my part to make a ‘75 hit on Houston’s CBS affiliate, KLOL-FM), “Nice, Nice, Very Nice,” with music written by band members, using lyrics from a poem in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (with lead vocals by bassist, Joe Puerta):

Ambrosia’s self-titled debut album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording (non-Classical). Alan Parsons, the mix-down engineer for that album became the producer for their second, 1976’s Somewhere I’ve Never Traveled.

All four members of Ambrosia, then (Pack, bassist Joe Puerta, keyboardist Christopher North, and the drummer with the improbably fabulous name, Burleigh Drummond), played on the first Alan Parsons Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (also on 20th Century Records), which was recorded soon after Ambrosia’s debut.

Incredibly, Alan Parsons was employing Ambrosia in toto (recorded July 1975 through January ‘76) simultaneously with the use, by Boz Scaggs, of virtually all of Toto on his 1976 Silk Degrees album (recorded September and October ‘75), which we covered, at length, recently:

Audio Autopsy, 1976: Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" & Helen Reddy "Music, Music" LPs: Both Feature Toto & Producer Joe Wissert

Pack later appeared on the Alan Parsons album, 1993’s Try Anything Once, co-writing, playing, and providing vocals on three songs. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves!