Warner Bros., Capitol,
Rhino,
American Gramaphone, Oxygen
Records, Burgundy
Website
Official
Website
Members
Gerry
Beckley
Dewey
Bunnell
Willie Leacox
Michael Woods
Richard
Campbell
Former members
Dan
Peek
Joe
Osborn
Hal
Blaine
David Dickey
Jim
Calire
Tom Walsh
Tony Garofolo
Brad Palmer
America is an English-American
folk
rock band, originally composed of members Gerry
Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek. The
three members were barely past their teenage years when they became an
overnight musical sensation in 1972; they reached a peak in popularity
in the early to mid 1970s
and early 1980s.
Among the band's best known songs are "A
Horse with No Name", "Sister Golden Hair" (both of
which reached Number 1), "Ventura Highway", and "Tin Man".
Although their music was frequently derided by critics, from a
commercial standpoint the band's singles and albums were exceptionally
successful. They were popular enough to attract the services of famed Beatles
producer
George
Martin for a run of seven albums. The band survived the loss of one of
its original members near the peak of its success only to see Beckley
and Bunnell return the act to the top of charts as a duo with "You Can
Do Magic" in 1982. Consistently touring for well over 3 decades,
America still maintains a strong following and performs over 100 shows
per year. On January 16, 2007, America released Here & Now,
the band's first major label studio
album in over twenty years.
|
Contents
- 1 Original
members
- 2 Timeline
of band
- 2.1 Early
success (1970–1973)
- 2.2 The
George Martin years (1974-1979)
- 2.3 America:
the Capitol years (1979-1985)
- 2.4 Return
to basics (1985-1998)
- 2.5 A
New Millennium (1999-2006)
- 2.6 Recent
activity (2006-07)
- 3 Dan
Peek and the band
- 4 Charts
- 4.1 Billboard
Album Chart
- 4.2 Billboard
Singles Chart
- 5 Trivia
- 6 Discography
- 7 See
also
- 8 External
links
|
Original members
- Gerry Beckley
(born September
12, 1952 in Fort
Worth, Texas)
1970-present: Lead and backing vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass,
harmonica, lap steel guitars
- Dewey Bunnell
(born January
19, 1951 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England)
1970-present: Lead and backing vocals, guitars
- Dan Peek (born November
1, 1950 in Panama
City, Florida)
1970-1977: Lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, harmonica
Timeline of band
Early success (1970–1973)
Sons of American fathers and British
mothers, their fathers being military personnel stationed at the United States Air Force
installation at RAF West Ruislip, London, all three
attended London Central
High School, in Bushey,
Hertfordshire,
in the mid-1960s
where they met while playing in two different bands.
Peek left for the United States for an abortive attempt at
college in 1969.
Upon his return to the UK the following year, the 3 hooked up and
began to collaborate on making music. Starting out with borrowed
acoustic guitars, they developed a sound which incorporated three-part
vocal harmony in the vein of contemporary folk-rock acts like Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young.
Eventually the trio dubbed themselves America, honouring the
name of the homeland they had hardly ever seen during their many
travels around the world. They played their first gigs in pubs and
clubs in the London
area, including some highlights at the Roundhouse,
where Pink
Floyd had been playing at the beginning of their own career.
America's debut album, America, was
first released in 1971 without "A
Horse with No Name"
Their first LP was recorded at Trident
Studios in London and produced by Ian
Samwell. Samwell was best known as Cliff
Richard's lead guitarist and the writer of his 1958
breakthrough hit, "Move
It". Jeff Dexter, Ian's roommate and a fixture in the London music
scene, helped produce the album and became the trio's manager. Although
the trio initially envisioned recording the album along the lines of
the Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, Samwell steered them
toward perfecting their acoustic style instead.
The album, simply titled America,
was initially released in 1971 to only moderate success. Samwell and
Dexter subsequently brought the trio to Morgan Studios to record several
additional songs. One of them was a piece written by Bunnell called
"Desert Song." Highly impressed with its potential, Samwell persuaded
him to retitle it "A Horse with No Name". The song became a major
worldwide hit in early 1972.
America's debut album was re-released with the hit song newly added,
and quickly went platinum. The album spawned a second major chart hit
with Beckley's "I Need You". Other fan favorites from the album
included "Sandman", "Riverside" and "Three Roses".
Flush with success from their initial offering, the trio
decided to dump Samwell and Dexter, and relocate to Los
Angeles, California,
home to such popular contemporary acts as The Eagles
and Linda
Ronstadt. Plans to record a follow-up album were delayed somewhat both
by the move and an injury to Peek's arm. Deciding not to replace
Samwell, the group opted to produce the album by themselves. The trio
began their move away from a purely acoustic approach to a more
rock-oriented sound with the help of Hal Blaine on drums and Joe Osborn
on bass. Peek began to play lead electric guitar on more tracks.
America's second album, appropriately titled Homecoming,
was released in November 1972. The group struck gold yet again with the
Top Ten hit "Ventura Highway", penned by Bunnell
and best remembered for a unique acoustic guitar riff added late in the
recording process by Beckley. Follow-up singles, including Peek's Don't
Cross the River and Beckley's "Only In Your Heart", were somewhat less
successful, but not enough to deny the group a Grammy
Award for Best New Artist of 1972.
The group's output became increasingly ambitious. Their third
offering, Hat Trick,
was released in October 1973
after several months of recording at the Record
Plant Studios in Los Angeles. Again self-produced, the album featured
strings, harmonicas, an eight-minute title track, and tap dancing.
Beckley, Bunnell, and Peek were once again joined by Blaine on drums,
while Osborn was replaced by David Dickey on bass. Although the album's
title hinted at the trio's commercial ambitions, the album was not as
successful as Homecoming, featuring only one minor
hit single, "Muskrat Love". "Muskrat," penned by Texas folk singer Willis
Alan Ramsey, would later become famous as a Top Ten hit by The Captain &
Tennille in 1976.
The George Martin years
(1974-1979)
After the disappointing commercial performance of Hat
Trick, America opted to produce their next album with outside
help. They were able to secure the services of perhaps the most
legendary producer of the rock era, George
Martin, who played a major role in shaping the sound of the Beatles during
the mid- to late-1960s.
As America had developed a reputation for lengthy studio sessions,
Martin agreed on the condition that the group record its next album in
the UK. As it turned out, Beckley, Bunnell, and Peek were so intent on
impressing Martin that they came to the studio with their tracks well
rehearsed, and the album was cut within a few weeks in early 1974.
The resulting album, Holiday,
was released in June 1974.
(By this time the group had consciously begun naming their albums with
titles starting with the letter "H".) Under Martin's guidance, the
album's sound marked a sharp break from America's first 3 efforts,
as he embellished the trademark America sound of acoustic guitars and
vocals with an abundance of strings and brass.
The trio soon found themselves in the Top Ten once again with
the first single from Holiday, the Bunnell-penned
"Tin Man", featuring cryptic lyrics set to a Wizard of Oz theme.
Peek's inspirational "Lonely People" followed "Tin Man" into the Top
Ten in early 1975.
Holiday
(1974) was the first of seven America albums produced by George
Martin
Martin agreed to work with the trio again for their follow-up
LP, Hearts,
recorded in Sausalito,
California and released in March 1975. America scored its second chart topping
hit with Beckley's "Sister Golden Hair" in mid-1975,
a song which featured a memorable guitar riff admittedly inspired by George
Harrison's "My Sweet Lord." The follow-up single,
Beckley's ballad "Daisy Jane", also nicked the Top Twenty later in
1975. Peek's reggae-influenced
"Woman Tonight" was a 3rd and final hit from the album.
Warner Bros. released a compilation of America's best-known
tracks in December 1975, History: America's
Greatest Hits, which itself soon went platinum.
Martin, who produced the album, got the opportunity to remix tracks
selected from the group's first 3 albums recorded prior to his
stint as producer.
In early 1976,
the group recorded its sixth studio album at Caribou
Ranch near Nederland, CO, lending the
album's title, Hideaway.
Martin was again at the helm. Released in April 1976, the LP was not
quite as successful as Holiday or Hearts,
although it did spawn two hit singles. "Today's the Day", a Top Forty
hit written by Peek, was actually inspired by the tendency of his dog
to run away. "Amber Cascades" featured Bunnell's trademark opaque but
evocative lyrics and unusual chord arrangements, and made a brief
appearance on the charts in mid-1976.
Martin and the trio headed to Hawaii in late 1976 to work on the group's
seventh studio album. The album was recorded in a beach house on the
island of Kauai.
The album, entitled Harbor,
ultimately continued the trend of declining fortunes for the group. It
was their first album which failed go either platinum or gold, and for
the first time, the group was unable to muster a hit single.
Shortly after Harbor was released in
February 1977,
Dan
Peek left the band. Peek recently had renewed
his Christian
faith after years of unhappy experimentation with drugs and a fast
lifestyle, and had begun to seek a different artistic direction than
Beckley or Bunnell. Peek went on to sign with Pat Boone's
Lamb & Lion Records, and issued his first solo album, All
Things Are Possible, in 1978. The album,
produced by Chris Christian, proved successful,
and Peek found a niche as a pioneering artist in the emerging Christian
pop music genre. The title track even entered the Billboard
pop charts in the fall of 1979, peaking at #79.
Meanwhile, Beckley and Bunnell decided to soldier on as
America. They wrapped up their contract with Warner Bros. by releasing
their first concert LP, Live,
in October 1977.
Recorded at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, the performance featured
a backing orchestra conducted by Elmer Bernstein. The concert was
recorded shortly after Peek left the group, making it America's first
release as a duo. The album spent a brief sojourn on the pop charts.
America: the Capitol years
(1979-1985)
After more than two years without new studio material, in
March 1979
Beckley and Bunnell rolled out the group's new look with a cover of The
Mamas & The Papas classic song, "California Dreamin'",
part of the soundtrack for the movie "California Dreaming." Although
the movie was a commercial flop and the soundtrack was issued on an
obscure label called American Int'l, the single nonetheless made it as
high as #56 on the charts.
America's first studio album without Peek, Silent
Letter, was released in June 1979 on their new
label, Capitol Records. The album, once
again produced by Martin, was recorded in Montserrat
in the West
Indies by the members of the live band, which by then had grown to
include Beckley, Bunnell, bassist David Dickey, longtime drummer Willie
Leacox, new lead guitarist Michael Woods, Jim Calire on keyboards and
sax, and Tom Walsh on percussion. The album featured a more edgy sound
than their previous material, and the group began to utilize songs from
other songwriters as they sought out a winning commercial approach.
Bunnell observed that Silent Letter's first single,
the power-pop oriented "Only Game In Town", was prompted by the Fleetwood
Mac sound then in vogue on FM radio. "Game" was unable to break into
the pop charts, however, although two subsequent Beckley singles, "All
My Life" and "All Around", did made inroads on the adult charts. The
album itself rose no higher than #110 on the charts, leading a
befuddled Bunnell to sarcastically dub the album Silent Record.
America continued to evolve as the 1980s began. For their next
album, Alibi,
released in August 1980,
Beckley and Bunnell sought fresh blood in the form of producers Matthew
McCauley and Fred Mollin. They also reached out to key players from the
West Coast music scene, such as the Eagles' Timothy
B. Schmit, Leland Sklar and Steve
Lukather, to help smooth their sound. Alibi
eschewed the strings and brass of the typical Martin project in favor
of a more tightly-crafted pop-rock approach. It also became the third
studio album in a row without a hit single in the United States,
although Beckley's "Survival" reached the top of the charts in Italy.
The album's sales were less than stellar, peaking at #142.
View From The
Ground, released in 1982, was America's most
successful album at Capitol Records
America's next album, View From The
Ground, released in July 1982, finally
succeeded in bringing Beckley and Bunnell back to commercial success.
The album, recorded under the working title Two Car Garage,
featured a number of songs produced by the duo themselves. As with Alibi,
Beckley and Bunnell brought in a number of talented musicians,
including the Beach Boys' Carl
Wilson, Toto's
Jeff
Porcaro, Christopher Cross and Dean
Parks. But it was former Argent frontman Russ
Ballard who made the biggest impact on the group's fortunes.
Ballard produced and played most of the instruments on a song he
crafted especially for the band, called "You Can Do Magic". The song
rose quickly through the pop charts, and reached as high as #8 on the
Billboard pop singles chart for a number of weeks in October 1982, the band's first
major hit in seven years. Following "Magic" was the single "Right
Before Your Eyes" an homage to silent movie stars better known to
listeners as "Rudolph Valentino" due to its memorable refrain. Penned
by Ian
Thomas (brother of comedian Dave Thomas of Strange
Brew fame), and produced by Bobby
Colomby, the single barely missed the Top Forty in early 1983. Although View
From The Ground failed to achieve gold sales, it reached as
high as #41 on the album charts, a significant improvement over the
previous few releases.
Having tasted success with Ballard, Beckley and Bunnell
decided to have the former Argent star produce their next album, Your Move,
in its entirety. In the end, Ballard wound up writing most of the songs
and performing most of the instruments in addition to his production
duties. For the most part Beckley and Bunnell were singers on an album
that Ballard had crafted for them, although they did contribute some
material of their own. On one track, Bunnell decided to rewrite
Ballard's lyrics, and the hit song "The Border" was the result. Set to
the backing of the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra and the saxophone work of Raphael
Ravenscroft, the single reached #33 on the charts in August 1983. "The Border" was
far more successful on the adult contemporary charts, where it reached
#4 (even besting "You Can Do Magic"). A second single, Ballard's "Cast
The Spirit", failed to chart. The album itself, released in June 1983, was reasonably
successful at #81, but something of a disappointment when compared to
its predecessor.
America's work was also featured on several soundtracks during
this period. Beckley and Bunnell contributed several tracks to The Last Unicorn
soundtrack in 1982.
The soundtrack became popular in Germany, and the group frequently plays its
title track when touring in that country. America also recorded "Love
Comes Without Warning" for the 1984 Steve Martin comedy, The
Lonely Guy.
Dan
Peek emerged from several years of musical obscurity in May 1984,
releasing his second solo Christian album, Doer Of
The Word, on Home Sweet Home Records.
Once again produced by Chris Christian, the album's title
track featured Beckley on backing vocals. Peek would issue two more
solo albums over the next few years, including Electro Voice
(1986) and Crossover (1987).
Meanwhile, America opted for a decidedly different direction
from its previous offerings for its twelfth studio album, Perspective,
released in September 1984.
Ballard was out, and synthesizers and drum machines were in. Several
different producers, including Richie Zito, Matthew McCauley, and Richard James Burgess,
helped create an electronic pop sound that was very much in step with
the '80s, but drastically at odds with America's acoustic trademark.
"Special Girl", the album's first single, was culled from outside
songwriters and failed to make the charts. The next single, "Can't Fall
Asleep to a Lullaby", was co-penned by Bunnell, Journey's
Steve Perry, Robert Haimer,
and Bill
Mumy, the latter of Lost In Space
fame. Although neither track broke out on pop radio, both did achieve
minor success on the adult contemporary charts. The album itself was
unable to climb higher than #185 during a brief three-week stint on the
charts in October 1984.
Their commercial momentum by now spent, Beckley and Bunnell
ended their Capitol contract with In Concert,
released in July 1985.
The concert was recorded at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California,
on June
1, 1985. In
Concert became the first America album to miss the charts
entirely.
Return to basics (1985-1998)
Beckley and Bunnell spent the latter half of the 1980s
focusing on their live show, which they performed well over 100 times a
year around the world. While America remained a hot ticket on the
touring circuit, they were unable to land a recording contract in the
years after they left the Capitol label.
By the early 1990s, the rise of the compact
disc led to the reissuing of many popular albums from the rock era,
providing many popular acts like America with a revived niche in the
record industry. In 1991, America was able to offer 4 brand new
tracks as part of a collection issued by Rhino
Records called Encore:
More Greatest Hits, which was designed to
complement the group's original 1975 retrospective. Standout tracks
included the Bunnell-Haimer-Mumy collaboration "Nothing's So Far Away
(As Yesterday)" and Beckley's "On Target".
Hourglass
(1994), America's first studio album in a decade, was released by Chip
Davis's American Gramaphone label
America's resurgence caught the eye of Chip Davis
of American Gramaphone Records, who
signed the group to his label. In May 1994, America released its first new studio
album in a decade with Hourglass.
Produced primarily by Beckley and Bunnell, with help from Hank Linderman and Steve
Levine, the album featured an eclectic group of songs. "Young Moon", a
rare joint songwriting effort from Bunnell and Beckley, was a sleek
effort, combining Beckley's love ballad formula with Bunnell's visual
imagery. In contrast, "Greenhouse" featured a rough, rocking sound
performed by the live band. Re-recordings of "You Can Do Magic" and
"Everyone I Meet Is From California" were also included. In the end,
despite garnering generally positive reviews, the album failed to catch
on commercially.
In 1995, while in between America projects, Beckley delivered
his long-anticipated debut solo album. Entitlted Van Go Gan,
the album experimented with various styles and sounds. Beckley also
revisited some early America material, including a remake of "I Need
You". "Now Sue" was inspired by the track "Till The Sun Comes Up Again"
(from the Homecoming album) when played backwards.
Comedian Phil Hartman (who in his earlier career
as a graphic artist had designed the "America" logo, as well as many
other bands of the 70's) was featured as the uproarious voice of a televangelist
preacher on "Playing God". Although it received exceptionally warm
reviews, the album was only available as an expensive Japanese import.
Dan
Peek, who had remained largely silent since Crossover,
made a modest resurgence in the mid-1990s through his trio of
collaborations with Brian Gentry and Ken Marvin of the Nashville-based
group, PEACE.
America fans were also treated to a newly-released concert
album in 1995. Released by King Biscuit's record label, the
concert was actually taken from a 1982 installment of the King Biscuit Flower Hour
radio show. Known as In Concert
(not to be confused with the 1985 Capitol release of
the same name), King Biscuit experienced modest success with the album.
This success wound up leading to a new record deal with King
Biscuit's subsidiary label, Oxygen Records. After rumors that Steely Dan
producer Gary
Katz would produce the project came and went, the album eventually
reached the stores in September 1998. The new album, entitled Human Nature
after the name of Beckley's home recording studio, was accompanied by a
modest commercial blitz. The first single, Beckley's "From A Moving
Train," featured a strongly acoustic style. The track received
considerable airplay and moderate success in adult contemporary formats.
Reports claimed that the song was a major success in the pop charts in Spain. A second
attempt at a single in "Wednesday Morning" was somewhat less
successful. Although the album had a number of strong tracks, in the
end it failed to garner the sales that Oxygen was expecting, and
America was once again without a record deal.
A New Millennium (1999-2006)
The next few years saw the group's catalog expand with a
number of side projects, reissues of older albums on CD,
and several major retrospective releases. In July 2000, Rhino released Highway: 30 Years Of America,
a three-CD box set which included 64 remastered tracks spanning the
group's career. Included were a handful of alternative mixes and demos
such as an early take of a stripped-down "Ventura Highway." A year
later, in August 2001, Rhino released a trimmed-down single disc
compilation, The
Complete Greatest Hits, which assembled all of
the group's 17 charting Billboard singles for the first
time. The disc also included two newly-recorded songs, "World Of Light"
and "Paradise." The album represented another milestone for the group.
Peaking at #152 on the Billboard album charts in October
2001, The Complete Greatest Hits was America's
first charting album since Perspective
in 1984.
The
Complete Greatest Hits (2001) was America's
first charting album of the new millennium
On the solo front, in February 2000 Beckley released Go Man Go,
an album remixing a number of tracks from Van Go Gan.
The original Van Go Gan
album finally saw its initial domestic release that July with bonus
tracks. June saw the roll-out of another Beckley side project, Like
A Brother, recorded with Robert Lamm of Chicago
and the late Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys
under the name Beckley-Lamm-Wilson. Dan Peek resurfaced in 1999 with a new
website and his first solo release in many years, Bodden Town.
America had a somewhat unusual return to prominence in 2001
with the smash success of Janet Jackson's single "Someone to Call My Lover."
Jackson's track wove the famous "Ventura Highway" guitar riff into a
song which rose to #3 on the Billboard pop charts, and
introduced one of America's most recognizable melodies to a whole new
generation.
America fans were treated to new material in late 2002. In
October, the group released its first Christmas
album, Holiday Harmony.
Produced by Andrew Gold, the album received positive
reviews for its imaginative weaving of elements of classic America
tunes into familiar holiday standards. Included were 3 new tracks,
including a Bunnell-penned ode to "Ventura Highway" called "Christmas
In California," featuring Beckley on lead vocals.
One month later, in November 2002, America released a live
album, The Grand
Cayman Concert. Recorded the previous April in
the Cayman
Islands, the concert featured just Beckley and Bunnell on acoustic
guitars, a throwback to the earliest days of their career. Included
were their most familiar songs along with a few rarities, such as "Wind
Wave" and "Pigeon Song."
After this spurt of new material, the band retreated from the
music studio, as Beckley and Bunnell focused their energy on their
consistently full and lucrative touring schedule. America occasionally
offered new DVDs, such as a re-release of their 1979 concert film, Live
In Central Park, a 2004 concert at the Sydney
Opera House, and a 2005 show at the Ventura,
California,
Concert Theater joined with Stephen Bishop and Andrew
Gold directed by Sheldon Osmond. Also in 2005, America appeared on the PBS concert series SoundStage
with long-time friend Christopher Cross.
In April 2006, after a handful of solo concerts, Beckley
released his second solo album of all-new material, the well-received Horizontal
Fall.
Recent activity (2006-07)
After over two decades operating in the shadows of the music
industry, the dream of a full-scale commercial comeback still seemed
far-fetched for America as the year 2006 opened. Although the group
remained very much active and popular in the nostalgia concert circuit
and had occasionally issued new material on minor labels, their
offerings were largely ignored by the wider commercial music industry
and record-buying public.
Here & Now,
released in January 2007, was America's first major label studio album
in over 20 years
However, a fateful connection would provide a sudden and
unexpected change in fortune for the group. During the mid-2000s,
Beckley struck up a correspondence with Adam
Schlesinger of the indie-rock group Fountains
of Wayne. Beckley had been a fan of the 2003 Fountains of Wayne album Welcome Interstate
Managers, and Schlesinger turned out to be a
fan of America's work. The exchange of songs between the two led them
to record a few tracks together. The recordings came to the attention
of SonyBMG's
new Burgundy Records label, which was
impressed both by the quality of the material and by the possibility of
pairing America with other indie artists. The label signed America to
record a new album with Schlesinger and his musical partner, James Iha,
formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins, at the
production helm. Entitled Here & Now,
it would be America's first major-label studio album since Perspective
in 1984.
The recording sessions at Stratosphere
Sound in New York City, which ran through July,
attracted a number of notable guest musicians, including Ryan
Adams, Ben
Kweller, along with members from the groups Nada Surf
and My Morning Jacket. Seasoned
veterans Stephen Bishop and Rusty
Young were also involved.
In an effort to aim the album toward both younger and older
audiences, the label decided to bundle the new album with a second disc
comprising live performances of every track from History: America's
Greatest Hits, previously recorded at XM Radio as
part of XM's Then Again...Live series. In the
run-up to the album's scheduled release on January 16, 2007, America
attracted a publicity buzz unseen since the early 1980s. In addition,
early positive reviews of the album suggested a possible critical
reappraisal of the group's work and legacy and the possibility that
1970s soft-rock could become "cool" and "hip" with a newer generation
of musicians and fans.
The group's current concert schedule can be found at America's
Official Homepage (see below).
Dan Peek and the band
Ever since Dan Peek left the group in May 1977,
speculation has abounded as to whether he could or would return to the
fold. The split was certainly amicable. On Peek's 1978 solo debut
album, All Things Are
Possible, Beckley and Bunnell sang back-up
vocals on the track "Love Was Just Another Word." According to Bunnell,
at around that time Peek even joined the group onstage to perform a few
songs during a concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. On Peek's
1984 follow-up album, Doer Of The Word,
Beckley provided prominent backing vocals on the title track. In
November 1999, credible rumors began to spread that unreleased demo
recordings from the early 1980s featuring Beckley and Bunnell
collaborating with Peek would be released on CD sometime in early 2000.
No such recordings have been released to date.
The questions about a possible reunion of the original trio
began not long after Peek left the group. When asked about the
prospects for a reunion in the early 1980s, Beckley and Bunnell stated
that they were happy for Peek in that he had found a new life and a new
direction, but that it was unlikely there would be a reunion. "All
things are possible, like [Dan] says," Beckley told radio host Lew
Irwin in 1982, but "it just doesn't seem in the cards." Within a few
years, however, Peek had begun to publicly entertain just such
thoughts. "Like they said and like I said, all things are possible,"
Peek told interviewer Steve Orchard in 1985. "I really have my fingers
crossed. I would love to get back together [with them] and do some
things."
Although Beckley and Bunnell have over the years become
increasingly firm in their position that a reunion with Peek is highly
unlikely, and could in fact be counterproductive, record companies have
put pressure on the duo to change their minds. Bunnell noted to Steve
Orchard in 1998 that "[w]e had a few labels say that they would be
interested in recording us if we would bring Dan back or if we could
put together the original trio." In the end, Beckley and Bunnell have
chosen to hold firm to their decision to remain a duo.
In 2000, Peek began posting a number of weekly "episodes" to
his website relating to his experiences prior to and during his years
in America. Peek raised a few eyebrows both for his candid discussion
of his experiences with drugs and religion and for his observations of
Beckley and Bunnell. Eventually, Peek compiled the material into a book
entitled An American Band, which was released in
late 2004.
Certain sources have erroneously suggested that a reunion with
Peek actually did occur. A Rolling
Stone rock discography book, printed in the
mid-1990s, contained an apocryphal entry for America stating that Dan
Peek had reunited with Beckley and Bunnell for a tour in 1993 with the Beach
Boys. This misinformation has been so widely disseminated that even
esteemed Australian
rock journalist and historian Glenn A. Baker erroneously assumed
this to be true in an interview question posed to Beckley and Bunnell
on the Live At The Sydney Opera House DVD.
Charts
Billboard Album Chart
| Year |
Title |
Peak Position |
| 1972 |
America |
1 |
| 1972 |
Homecoming |
9 |
| 1973 |
Hat Trick |
28 |
| 1974 |
Holiday |
3 |
| 1975 |
Hearts |
4 |
| 1975 |
History: America's
Greatest Hits |
3 |
| 1976 |
Hideaway |
11 |
| 1977 |
Harbor |
21 |
| 1977 |
Live |
127 |
| 1979 |
Silent Letter |
110 |
| 1980 |
Alibi |
142 |
| 1982 |
View From The Ground |
41 |
| 1983 |
Your Move |
81 |
| 1984 |
Perspective |
185 |
| 2001 |
The Complete Greatest Hits |
152 |
| 2007 |
Here & Now |
52 |
Billboard Singles Chart
| Year |
Title |
Peak Position |
| 1972 |
A Horse with No Name |
1 |
| 1972 |
I Need You |
9 |
| 1972 |
Ventura Highway |
8 |
| 1973 |
Don't Cross The River |
35 |
| 1973 |
Only In Your Heart |
62 |
| 1973 |
Muskrat Love |
67 |
| 1974 |
Tin Man |
4 |
| 1975 |
Lonely People |
5 |
| 1975 |
Sister Golden Hair |
1 |
| 1975 |
Daisy Jane |
20 |
| 1975 |
Woman Tonight |
44 |
| 1976 |
Today's The Day |
23 |
| 1976 |
Amber Cascades |
75 |
| 1979 |
California Dreamin' |
56 |
| 1979 |
Only Game In Town |
107 |
| 1982 |
You Can Do Magic |
8 |
| 1983 |
Right Before Your Eyes |
45 |
| 1983 |
The Border |
33 |
| 1984 |
Special Girl |
106 |
Trivia
- Contrary to popular belief, the choice of the
name "America" had no political overtones, and the group has
consistently avoided political or patriotic use of its name.
- Bunnell has remarked that the setting for "A
Horse with No Name" was inspired by the area around Vandenberg Air Force Base,
where he spent some time as a child.
- America was at one time called the "United
States of America"
- When initially released, "A Horse with No
Name" was often mistaken for a Neil Young song, due to the similarity of
Bunnell's vocals to Young's. "Horse" replaced Young's single "Heart
of Gold" at US #1 in 1972.
- "A Horse with No Name" was placed on the
soundtrack of the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas, playing on Classic Rock station K-DST. It also makes
an appearance in the sprite webcomic 8-Bit
Theater.[1]
- "A Horse with No Name" has been used more than
once for gags in episodes of the "The Simpsons."
- "I Need You" is supposedly the first song
Beckley ever wrote.
- America recorded Homecoming
in the studio next to Stevie Wonder, who was then recording
his classic album, Innervisions.
- Bunnell has suggested that the "alligator
lizards in the air" in "Ventura Highway" are references to cloud shapes.
- The legendary rock photographer Henry
Diltz is also a skilled banjo player, and was featured on the America
tracks "Don't Cross The River" and "Submarine Ladies."
- When played backwards, the lyrics on "Moon
Song" from Homecoming say, "All good men come to
the aid of their country."
- Another track from Homecoming,
"Till The Sun Comes Up Again," became a musical inspiration to Gerry
Beckley when played backwards over twenty years later, leading to the
song "Now Sue" on his solo album Van Go Gan. A
backwards version of the original Homecoming track
was included as a bonus track on the 2000 domestic release of Van
Go Gan.
- A then-obscure comedian named Jay Leno was
the opening act for a number of America shows in the early 1970s.
- Dan
Peek re-recorded "Lonely People" for his 1986 solo album, Electro
Voice. He reworked the lyrics in a more overtly Christian
vein, claiming that this better reflected the original inspriation for
the song.
- "Lonely People" was covered by the popular
Christian band Jars of Clay in 2003.
- The cover artwork on the album History:
America's Greatest Hits was the work of Phil
Hartmann, who later became famous as a comedian on Saturday
Night Live. Hartmann later dropped an "n" off his last name prior to
achieving fame. His brother John was America's manager for many years.
- Around 1976, the Soviet
Union expressed interest in having the trio perform in that country,
but the deal collapsed before it could come to fruition.
- Despite the presence of other heavyweight acts
like James
Taylor and Rod Stewart on their roster,
America was Warner Bros. Records' biggest
selling act of the 1970s.
- In 1978, America performed a song live in
concert called "Norman." The song, written by Beckley (who once
considered becoming an architect), was an homage to industrial
designer Norman Bel Geddes. Although
contemporary interviews suggested the track would be recorded for an
upcoming album, the song was never released by America. Years later,
singer-songwriter Jeff Larson recorded it for his 2002
album, Fragile Sunrise, with Beckley producing the
track.
- The title of America's 1979 album, Silent
Letter, refers to their previous tendency to name all their
albums with names starting with "H". In 1994, the group returned to
this practice with the release of Hourglass.
- Bunnell has claimed that America's label toyed
with the idea of the group going country during the late 1970s, and
that he and Beckley soundly rejected the idea.
- America and their label could not agree on
which side of the Alibi LP should be considered
Side One, so they came to a unique compromise. The sides would be
labelled "Our Side" and "Their Side." The album's unusual cover photo,
featuring a severed doll's head, does not have any special meaning.
Bunnell recalled that he and Beckley simply stumbled upon it while
looking through music photographer Henry Diltz's photo collection and
decided to use it.
- America was briefly caught up in controversy
in 1981 when
they broke the anti-apartheid international cultural boycott against South
Africa and played several concerts in that country. However, America
was not alone, as black artists such as Tina
Turner and Curtis Mayfield did the same. It has
been rumored that the group suffered from a low-key industry backlash
for several years after the incident.
- The building behind Bunnell and Beckley on the
cover of Perspective is 100 Wilshire in Santa
Monica, California. The building, tallest in the city, was completed in
1971, and was originally known as Lawrence Welk Plaza. It can also be
seen in the background of the opening credits of the hit television
sitcom
Three's Company
during the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 seasons.
- Hourglass is the last
America album to use a contemporary photograph of Beckley and Bunnell's
faces on the cover. Human Nature featured the duo
on the cover, but with their faces covered by a cloud. This design
flourish was supposedly inspired by the work of René
Magritte.
- A group of country
music all-stars (Vince Gill, Faith
Hill, Terri
Clark, Trisha Yearwood, and Tim
McGraw) recording under the name of "Project Hope" covered Beckley's
"Hope" for a charity single in 1996. Many of them later performed the
song live for that year's Academy of Country Music
awards telecast.
- The album Human Nature
takes its name from Beckley's home recording studio in addition to the
fact it begins with the traditional letter "H".
- When Garth Brooks covered "Don't Cross The
River" on his Scarecrow album, he apparently wasn't
aware that it was an America song. His version was based upon a
bluegrass cover of the song by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver from
the late 1970s.
- Janet Jackson's 2001 hit "Someone to Call My Lover"
was focused around the guitar riff from "Ventura Highway". The riff
itself was re-recorded for the sample to reduce royalty fees. One of
her earlier hits, "Let's Wait Awhile", was supposedly
inspired by "Daisy Jane" and has often been compared to it.
- America recorded a track for the Watership
Down film soundtrack. It was titled "Watership Down" and was not used
in the film, along with a few other songs recorded by different artists.
Discography
- America (1971)
- Homecoming
(1972)
- Hat
Trick (1973)
- Holiday
(1974)
- Hearts (1975)
- History: America's
Greatest Hits (1975)
- Hideaway
(1976)
- Harbor (1977)
- Live
(1977)
- Silent
Letter (1979)
- Alibi
(1980)
- View From The
Ground (1982)
- The Last Unicorn
(1982)
- Your Move
(1983)
- Perspective
(1984)
- In Concert
(1985)
- Encore:
More Greatest Hits (1991)
- Hourglass
(1994)
- In Concert
(King Biscuit) (1995)
- Horse With No Name
(1995)
- Human Nature
(1998)
- Live (1999)
- Highway: 30 Years Of America
(2000)
- The
Complete Greatest Hits (2001)
- Holiday Harmony
(2002)
- The Grand
Cayman Concert (2002)
- Here & Now
(2007)
See also
- Dan
Peek
- Gerry Beckley
- Dewey Bunnell
- Ian Samwell
- George Martin
- Russ Ballard
- Adam Schlesinger
- James
Iha
- Henry Diltz
- Richard Campbell
External links