Michael McDonald Recalls Having Track in Flop Film: 'Buzzing Genitals Was Drowning Out the Song' (Exclusive)

The Doobie Brothers frontman had one of his songs, 'The Meaning of Love,' on the soundtrack of the 2000 movie 'What Planet Are You From?'

Michael McDonald remembers when his song was featured in a film by the late director Mike Nichols — and it wasn't exactly music to his ears.

“It was one of those things where I just thought, ‘Any Mike Nichols film, how could it be bad? It's going to be great,’’ McDonald, 71, tells PEOPLE. “It turns out it was a comedy about aliens coming to earth and trying to procreate with humans.”

The film, according to IMBd, was What Planet Are You From?, which Nichols, the late director of classics like The Graduate, Working Girl and The Birdcage, released in 2000. The movie stars Garry Shandling, Annette Bening and John Goodman, and is about an alien (Shandling) who comes to Earth from an all-male planet to procreate and have a child. The sci-fi comedy featured McDonald’s song “The Meaning of Love," and has largely been considered to be one of Nichols' worst films, according to outlets like Flickchart, Collider and GoldDerby. It currently holds a 42% rating and 29% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Of course, they needed a mechanical device for genitals,” says McDonald, who cowrote his upcoming memoir What a Fool Believes with Mad About You actor Paul Reiser “So the buzzing genitals was drowning out the song and the scene.”

“That's what every songwriter dreams of, is having their song played behind a mechanical sexual act,” Reiser, 67, adds.

Related: Mike Nichols: 5 Must-See Movies

McDonald and Reiser recalled this story while working on the memoir, which will be published by Dey Street Books next year. In the book, McDonald reflects on his time in bands like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, as well as his solo career and beginnings. (What a Fool Believes is named for the Doobie Brothers' 1979 hit of the same name.) McDonald will also touch upon his friendships with famous musicians, like Quincy Jones and Carly Simon, and his past drug and alcohol addiction.

Reiser, who has been friends with McDonald for years, tells PEOPLE that the idea for the memoir initially stemmed from a joke.

“I sort of made a joke,” Reiser recalls. “Because I would periodically ask Mike questions I didn’t understand about the Doobies, about him, and I said, jokingly, ‘You should write a book so I don’t have to bother you all the time.’ And he jokingly said, ‘I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know how you start that.’ Given that we both had [an] enormous amount of time on our hands with nowhere to be, we said, ‘Let's see how this goes.’”

Related: How Michael McDonald and Paul Reiser Teamed Up to Co-Write the Doobie Brother's New Memoir (Exclusive)

The two started writing the book together during the pandemic, with Reiser conducting interviews over Zoom. They unearthed many stories throughout the process, in addition to the What Planet Are You From? soundtrack anecdote, and McDonald says that working with Reiser, who is also a writer, was a great experience.

“You can imagine how fortunate I must feel. Not too many people get a co-writer on a book like this, a memoir of their life, who's a consummate actor, producer, writer, author. I feel, 'How did that even happen?' It's amazing," he says.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Reiser and McDonald have also tossed around possibilities for future projects together. One idea, Reiser jokes, is publishing his memoir next.

“Mike's going to write my story,” he says.

“No,” McDonald says. “After all the work involved in this, I told him there's no fat chance of that ever happening.”

What a Fool Believes will be published on May 21, 2024.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.