Stephen Bishop Alan Mercer

Fifty years ago this October, Stephen Bishop released his debut album, Careless. The album included the now yacht rock classic, the swaying “On & On,” which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as its breezy predecessor “Save It for a Rainy Day,” which reached No. 22.

But it turns out Bishop held something back. He recorded two other songs — “I Don’t Know You Anymore” and “Back Again” — that didn’t make the final cut on the album. Below, Billboard is premiering an animated video for the bittersweet, stripped-down ballad “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” A 50th-anniversary limited vinyl edition of Careless with the two additional songs and a 20-page booklet comes out Friday (Aug. 14).

“It was one of those songs I really loved, and for a while I thought it might make the album,” Bishop tells Billboard of “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” “In the end it didn’t, but I never stopped believing in it. I’m happy that, 50 years later, people finally get to hear it.”

Of Careless, which featured Eric Clapton, Art Garfunkel, Andrew Gold and Chaka Khan, and its ongoing popularity (Keith Urban just covered “On & On” on his yacht rock album, Flow State), Bishop says, “It’s hard to believe 50 years have gone by. Music was different then — you brought an album home, put it on the turntable, and listened from beginning to end. I’m thankful Careless has been part of so many people’s lives, and it’s been wonderful seeing new generations discover it. People of all ages still come up to me and tell me how these songs have stayed with them through different chapters of their lives. Even many of my friends and fellow musicians have shared what the album has meant to them over the years. That’s incredibly humbling, and it’s an honor I’ll never take for granted.”

The album served as fans’ musical introduction to Bishop, who went on to continue his successful solo career, including recording the 1982 top 30 hit “It Might Be You,” the theme from Tootsie, which received an Oscar nomination for best original song for songwriters Dave Grusin, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. Bishop himself was then nominated for a best original song Oscar three years later for writing “Separate Lives,” performed by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin from the movie White Nights.

Last August, Bishop released what he said would be his final album, THIMK, which featured Sting, Clapton, Graham Nash, Garfunkel, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Christopher Cross.

He will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Careless at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Oct. 9.

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