With "Tin Man" – inspired by The Wizard Of Oz – and Peek's "Lonely People", co-written with his wife Cathy, both making the Top 5, the million-selling album restored their fortunes, and the America-Martin partnership purple patch continued with Hearts (1975), which includedPeek's Caribbean-flavoured minor hit "Woman Tonight" – and Hideaway (1976) – featuring Peek's lovely "Today's The Day" which topped the Adult Contemporary Charts and was their last major hit for Warners. Comparisons with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young became par for the course, especially when they joined the same management company, run by industry heavyweights David Geffen and Elliot Roberts, and relocated to Los Angeles, where they rubbed shoulders with Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and the Eagles, another soft rock group who cut their first album in London.Īmerica produced their follow-up, Homecoming (1972), which featured the apposite Peek composition "California Revisited" and charted on both sides of the Atlantic, but after the relative failure of their third studio album, Hat Trick (1973) they hired Martin, who insisted the trio return to the UK to record Holiday at his AIR Studios in April 1974. Having turned a demo for "Desert Song" into "A Horse With No Name" at Samwell's behest, America found themselves with a worldwide hit and on a US tour supporting the Everly Brothers, whose heady harmonies had inspired their own sound. Over the next five years, the group scored a further eight Top 40 hits in the US, including the beatifically blissful "Ventura Highway" and "Tin Man", penned by Bunnell – the writer of "A Horse With No Name" – "I Need You" and "Sister Golden Hair", the ballads composed by Beckley, and "Don't Cross The River", "Lonely People" and "Today's The Day", written by Peek, who leaned more towards country music and easy listening.ĭexter found them various gigs, including a bottom-of-the-bill slot at a Christmas show featuring Patto, Elton John and headlined by The Who at the Roundhouse, which led to offers from DJM Records, Atlantic and the British arm of Warners, the company they signed to. Their success in the UK and the rest of Europe prompted the trio's label, Warner Brothers, to launch America in the US with resounding success: "A Horse With No Name" replaced Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold" at the top of the charts there in March 1972. Comprising Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek, three US Army brats attending London Central High School while their fathers were stationed at the US Air Force base at RAF West Ruislip, Middlesex, in the 1960s, they were discovered by Jeff Dexter, the host and promoter of underground events at London's Roundhouse, and his friend Ian Samwell, who produced their eponymous debut, as well as "A Horse With No Name", a stand-alone single subsequently added to the album. ![]() His 1979 debut solo single, All Things Are Possible, became one of Christian rock's first big crossover hits, while Bunnell and Beckley contributed to the album of the same name.Often dismissed by British critics as soft rock one-hit wonders, America wrote and demoed their best known song, the highly evocative "A Horse With No Name", not in Laurel Canyon but at Arthur Brown's home studio in rainy Dorset, and recorded its sun-kissed harmonies not in Los Angeles but at Morgan Sound Studios in North London in 1971. He was born on November 1, 1950. Peek set about overhauling his life, kicking his addictions and renewing his faith in Christianity. FARMINGTON - Daniel 'Dan' Peek of Farmington passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2011, at the age of 60 years. ''In retrospect, I sincerely wish I'd been a teetotaller.'' He left the group by mutual consent in 1977. ''I was taking hash, marijuana, cocaine, quaaludes and alcohol,'' he said. His increasing drug use was also becoming a problem. ''All three of us were enormously competitive and it was a high-stakes game we were playing,'' Peek admitted. A year later America scored their second US No.1 with Beckley's Sister Golden Hair.īut all was not as ripple-free as the music suggested. Lonely People became Peek's signature tune and made the US top five. ![]() Their follow-up, Homecoming (1972), which featured Peek's Don't Cross the River, was only marginally less popular.įor their fourth album, Holiday (1974), the band drafted in George Martin as producer to help frame their songs in clever arrangements and give them a glossy studio punch. Their first album, America, was a colossal hit, too, reaching No.1 in their homeland. ![]() Their smooth harmonies and readily accessible folk-rock sound chimed with the times, as did the hirsute wholesomeness of their image. They secured early gigs at London hippy hangouts before landing a Warner Brothers contract.Ī Horse With No Name, released in December 1971, was an immediate success. On his return, they became a trio, fired by the acoustic Americanisms of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and James Taylor.
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