"On My Own" was a hit duet by singers Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald when it was released as a single in 1986. It was released from LaBelle's first platinum album, Winner in You and was written and produced by Burt Bacharach and his former wife Carole Bayer Sager. The song was based on a relationship that had reached its end with both parties going their separate ways in a melancholy state with the occasional option of coming back together again one dayThe song became the biggest single ever for both singers, both of whom were members of respective funk/R&B groups in the 1970s: LaBelle and The Doobie Brothers - as it hit number one on the Billboard magazine pop, for 3 weeks, the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts, as well as number two in the UK singles chart, going gold - (it was the 22nd best-selling single of 1986 in the UK). The song was initially not intended to be a duet at all, but LaBelle decided to invite McDonald to help her turn the song into a duet, as she stated: "The song was sent to me and I did a version of it but somehow it just didn't quite work. We were going over things I'd done and we talked about turning it into a duet. Someone asked, 'If you could do it with anyone, who would you sing it with,' and Michael was my first choice..."