Linda Hoover

Although Linda Hoover's debut recording from 1970 stayed hidden from the public for fifty years, the project brought her into contact with several leading New York session players and contributed modestly to the formative history of Steely Dan. Possessing both the vocal ability and original material needed to join the rising singer/songwriter wave, the New Jersey native instead saw her lone album placed on hold after a minor disagreement with her record company, abruptly ending her initial career momentum. Much later she issued the independent collection Another World in 2018, and Omnivore Records finally brought her long-shelved debut, I Mean to Shine, to listeners in 2022.

Hoover first met A&R representative Gary Katz while still in her mid-teens at Manhattan's Brill Building. Despite his interest in developing the young performer, her father required her to complete college before pursuing music professionally. In 1970, four years afterward, Katz placed the nineteen-year-old on Roulette Records and assembled a studio ensemble under the direction of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Joining them were future Steely Dan members Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Denny Dias, folk veteran Eric Weissberg, and musicians from the Dick Cavatt Orchestra; together they refined her charts and contributed several original pieces, among them the title track "I Mean to Shine." Hoover supplemented these with her own folk-rock compositions plus interpretations of the Band's "In a Station" and Stephen Stills' "4+20."

Roulette owner Morris Levy responded favorably to the finished album, yet a publishing conflict prompted him to abandon the project. The title song was subsequently recorded by Barbra Streisand for her album Barbra Joan Streisand, supplying Becker and Fagen with an early songwriting credit before their move to Los Angeles. Hoover declined an offer to follow them west and instead focused on raising a family while maintaining occasional musical activities.

These same 1970 sessions later formed a small yet notable chapter in Steely Dan's backstory, even as the master tapes remained stored in Hoover's home. She eventually gave the aging reels to engineer Andy de Ganahl, who transferred I Mean to Shine to digital format, though the material stayed unreleased for additional years. Her son Toft Willingham later founded the reggae group Spiritual Rez and assisted her in producing new songs. The resulting 2018 album Another World demonstrated that her singing and writing remained undiminished. That renewed visibility prompted Omnivore Records to prepare the archival release, and fifty-two years after its recording I Mean to Shine appeared in 2022.