Preston Glass (born January 9, 1960) – Your Lovin' Is Magic (1981)

Along with producer Thom Bell, the unsung songwriter and his brother Alan co-wrote this stellar song for the Temptations, featuring Richard Street on lead vocals.

Watch video on Twitter

View most updated version of this post on Substack

Search our full archives

Preston Glass is an award-winning songwriter, musician, and producer. He and his brother Alan Glass got their start in the music business during the early 1980s working as staff songwriters for Thom Bell and Narada Michael Walden.

Born on Fort Ord military base near Monterey, California, and raised in New Orleans, Glass’ mother and grandfather were both music teachers. Today he carries on the family tradition as a music professor at UCLA. His father bought him a guitar when he was five years old and he soon began playing and writing songs. In high school, his older brother Alan started sending some of his songs to music publishers.

When he was 16, Preston flew 3,000 miles to attend a music seminar that legendary producer Thom Bell was hosting, because he loved Bell’s music. He told Glass, “when you finish high school, look me up.” The following year, Bell signed both Glass brothers to a publishing deal with Bellboy Music, a division of Mighty Three Music.

One of the first compositions Preston and Alan came up with as newly hired staff songwriters for Bell was the magnificent love song “That's the Way Love Should Feel.” It was recorded by Dee Dee Bridgewater for her second self-titled album, produced by Bell and released on Elektra in 1980.

Along with Bell, the Glass brothers co-wrote the superb but little known Temptations song “Your Lovin’ Is Magic.” The closing cut to their 1981 self-titled LP on Motown/Gordy Records, it featured Richard Street on lead vocals. Philly soul veterans who played on the album included Larry Washington on percussion, drummer Charles Collins, and core original MFSB member Bobby Eli on guitar, with strings and horns by Don Renaldo.

In recent years, Preston Glass compiled the ultimate Thom Bell playlist on YouTube with 450+ songs Bell helped create as a writer, arranger or producer.

The Glass brothers next signed on as songwriters with Narada Michael Walden. For Stacy Lattisaw’s 1981 LP With You, which Walden produced, they co-wrote the stellar disco-funk jam “Spotlight,” arguably the album’s best track. It featured Randy Jackson on bass and Sheila E. on percussion and cowbell, and backing vocals by The Stacettes, aka Jim Gilstrap, Dee Dee Dickerson, Ngoh Spencer, and Vicki Randle. Shockingly, it was not released as a single or even a B-side. The album itself hit #8 R&B and #46 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1982, Preston and Randy Jackson co-wrote the superb disco-funk workout “Swing That Sexy Thang” for Carl Carlton. Produced by Walden, it peaked at #54 R&B and Carlton performed it on Soul Train.

For Phyllis Hyman’s 1983 LP Goddess Of Love, Preston and Alan co-wrote the epic, beautiful love anthem “Let Somebody Love You.”

It was produced by Bell, like most of the album, save for three songs produced by Walden. An all-star cast of session musicians backed up the track, including bassist Bob Babbitt, Bobby Eli on guitar, George Merrill on synthesizer, Charles Collins on drums, and Bell himself on keyboards.

Later in the decade, Glass worked on Whitney Houston’s first two albums. He played keyboards on her self-titled debut LP in 1985, which saw three of its singles hit #1 on the Hot 100. He again played keyboards on her 1987 follow up album, the multi-platinum Whitney, and wrote and arranged one of its most upbeat, high-energy tracks, “Love Is a Contact Sport.”

Also in 1987, Glass and Maurice White co-produced Earth, Wind & Fire’s socially conscious jam “System Of Survival.”

It was written by the multi-talented musician and songwriter Skylark who in 1995 became the bassist for the Doobie Brothers. A denunciation of how President Reagan’s policies had increased poverty and homelessness, it was hailed as one of the most explicitly political message songs EWF had ever recorded. The single went to #1 R&B while also topping the dance charts, with a well-directed promo video that brought its powerful lyrics to life.

In 2022, Glass co-wrote a phenomenal new song for the Temptations, “When We Were Kings,” off their Temptations 60 album. Produced by Narada Michael Walden and featuring Larry Graham on bass, the track looked back over the group’s storied musical history.

Glass continues to write and produce music. His latest album by Preston Glass & Chosen Family is Where I Live, released in November, 2023 and available on all digital music platforms.

Happy 64th Birthday to the great Preston Glass.

Further info:

“Award-Winner Songwriter/Producer Preston Glass Talks About His Career,” interview by Kaylene Peoples, AgendaMag.com, May 4, 2011.

“Introducing...Preston Glass,” interview, SoulExpress.net, September 18, 2021.

Preston Glass / PersonalTouchRecording.com

Preston Glass Music (@PrestonGlassnew) on Twitter

#soul #funk #disco #ThomBell #NaradaMichaelWalden #PrestonGlass