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America (band)

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America are an English-American rock and roll band, most popular in the early and mid 1970s and early 1980s and now best known for their #1 hits "A Horse With No Name" and "Sister Golden Hair." They are also known for the classic rock radio staple "Ventura Highway". Although they were seldom a favourite with critics, from a commercial standpoint, the band's singles and albums were exceptionally successful. Despite the presence of other heavyweight acts like James Taylor and Rod Stewart on their roster, Warner Brothers Records' biggest selling act of the 1970s was America. The band still maintains a strong following and performs over 100 shows per year.

Members include:

Contents

History

Early success (1970-1973)

Sons of American fathers and British mothers, their fathers being military personnel stationed at the West Ruislip USAF base in London, all three attended London Central High in Bushey, Hertfordshire in the mid-sixties 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 three 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.

Their first LP was recorded at Trident Studios in London and produced by Ian "Sammy" Samwell, best known for as a lead guitarist and hit songwriter for Cliff Richard. 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".

"A Horse With No Name" 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 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 three 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.

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 third 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 culled from the group's first three albums recorded prior to his stint as producer.

In early 1976, the group recorded its sixth studio album at Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado, 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 found success as a pioneering artist in the emerging Christian pop music genre. Outside of rejoining Beckley and Bunnell on stage on one spontaneous occasion several years after he departed the group, Peek has not reunited with America, contrary to various inaccurate reports which have arisen over the years. (Bunnell and Beckley contributed backing vocals on Peek's debut solo album in 1978, but that was in the context of Peek's solo career, and not as America.) Peek would later release an autobiography entitled "An American Band" based on America's most successful period and his own spiritual journey.

Meanwhile, Beckley and Bunnell decided to soldier on as America. They wrapped up their contract with Warner Bros. by releasing their first concert LP, America 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 re-emerges as a duo (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 Letters 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, Lee 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.

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. "Tbe 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.

The duo opted for a decidedly different direction 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.

Latter Years (1985-2006)

Beckley and Bunnell spent the latter half of the 1980s focusing on their live show, which they performed well over 100 times a year across the world. While America remained a hot ticket on the touring circuit, however, 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 four 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".

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 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 was featured as the uproarious voice of a televangelist preacher on "Playing God". Released in Japan only, the album took some time to migrate its way back to fans in the United States. A domestic version with bonus tracks was put out in 2000.

After King Biscuit's record label experienced modest success with a 1995 release of a 1982 America concert, its subsidiary label, Oxygen Records, signed the group to record a new studio album. The eventual result, Human Nature, was released in September 1998.

The group's current concert schedule can be found at America's Official Homepage (see below).

Trivia

Discography

See also

External links

 

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