America is a British–American rock band formed in 1970 by Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley. The trio met as sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in London, where they began performing live. Achieving significant popularity in the 1970s, the trio was famous for its close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk rock sound. The band released a string of hit albums and singles, many of which found airplay on pop and soft rock stations.
The band came together shortly after the members' graduation from high school in the late 1960s. In 1970, Peek joined the band and they signed a record deal with Warner Bros. The following year, they released their self-titled debut album, which included the transatlantic hits "A Horse with No Name" and "I Need You". Their second album, Homecoming (1972), included the single "Ventura Highway". Over the next several years, the band continued to release hit songs, including "Muskrat Love" on Hat Trick (1973), "Tin Man" and "Lonely People" on Holiday (1974) and "Sister Golden Hair" and "Daisy Jane" on their 1975 record Hearts. It was also in 1975 when America released History: America's Greatest Hits, a compilation of hit singles, which was certified multi-platinum in the United States and Australia. Peek left the group in 1977 and their commercial fortunes declined, though they returned to the top 10 in 1982 with the single "You Can Do Magic". The band's final Top 40 hit was "The Border", which reached no. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. Its 2007 album Here & Now was a collaboration with a new generation of musicians who have credited the band as an influence. Since Beckley's retirement in 2024, Bunnell continues to tour under the America name.
America won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Group at the 15th Annual Grammy Awards in 1973. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2006 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
History
Early success (1970–1973)
While their fathers were stationed at the United States Air Force base at RAF South Ruislip near London in the mid-1960s, Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek attended London Central High School at Bushey Hall, where they met while playing in two different bands.
Peek left for the United States for a failed attempt at college during 1969. Soon after his return to the UK the following year, the three began making music together. Starting out with borrowed acoustic guitars, they developed a style that incorporated three-part vocal harmony with the style of contemporary folk-rock acts such as Crosby, Stills, & Nash.
Eventually, the trio dubbed itself America, inspired by the Americana jukebox in their local mess hall, and chose it because they did not want anyone to think they were British musicians trying to sound American. They played their first gigs in the London area, including some highlights at the Roundhouse in London's Chalk Farm district. They were eventually taken on by producer Ian Samwell, best known for writing Cliff Richard's 1958 breakthrough hit "Move It", and his partner Jeff Dexter, and through their efforts were eventually contracted to Kinney Records (UK) in March 1971 by Ian Ralfini and assigned to the UK Warner Bros. label.
Their first album, America (1971), was recorded at Trident Studios in London and produced by Samwell and Dexter, who became the trio's manager. Dexter also gave the band their first major gig, 20 December 1970, at Implosion at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, as the opening act for The Who, Elton John, Patto, and the Chalk Farm Salvation Army Band and Choir, for a Christmas charity event. Although the trio initially planned to record the album in a similar manner to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Samwell convinced them to perfect their acoustic style instead.
The debut album, America, was released in late December 1971 to only moderate success, although it sold well in the Netherlands, where Dexter had taken them as a training ground to practice their craft. Samwell and Dexter subsequently brought the trio to Morgan Studios to record several additional songs. One of them was a Bunnell composition called "Desert Song", which Dexter previously demonstrated during studio rehearsals in Puddletown, Dorset, at the home of Arthur Brown. The song had its public debut at the Harrogate Festival, four days later, to great audience response. After several performances and a TV show, it was retitled "A Horse with No Name". The song became a major worldwide hit in early 1972. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in March 1972. America's debut album was released in the U.S. that same month, with the hit song added, and quickly went platinum. The album resulted in a second major chart success with Beckley's "I Need You", which peaked at number 9 on the US charts.
After their initial success, the trio played a series of North American club and college dates in early 1972, and decided to dismiss Samwell and Dexter and relocate to Los Angeles, California, signing with the David Geffen/Elliot Roberts stable at Lookout Management. By 1973, the band had left Lookout to go with John Hartmann and Harlan Goodman after the latter two had broken away from Geffen/Roberts to set up their own management firm.
The recording of a second album was delayed by the relocation, as well as by an injury to Peek's arm. Deciding not to replace Samwell, the group opted to produce the album themselves. The trio began their move away from a mainly acoustic style to a more rock style with the help of Hal Blaine on drums and Joe Osborn on bass. With Peek playing lead electric guitar on more tracks, the group expanded from an acoustic trio to embrace a fuller live sound, adding Dave Atwood (who had played as a session musician on their debut album) on drums and David Dickey (formerly of the groups Captain and D.D. Tucker) on bass in late 1972. But their next tour was delayed until January 1973 after Peek fell ill with hepatitis. On 11 March 1973, Atwood was replaced by Dickey's former Captain/D.D. Tucker bandmate, Willie Leacox.
America's second album, Homecoming, was released in November 1972. Awarded a gold disc in December 1972, the album's million sales figure was confirmed by the RIAA in 1975. The group reached the top 10 again with Bunnell's "Ventura Highway". Based on their first two albums, the group won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1972.
The group's output grew increasingly ambitious. Their third offering, Hat Trick, was released in October 1973 following 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 their touring bassist, David Dickey. The album was not as successful as Homecoming, featuring only one modestly successful single, "Muskrat Love" (number 67 in the US), penned by Texas folk singer Willis Alan Ramsey. A Captain & Tennille cover of the song reached the top 10 in late 1976.
George Martin years (1974–1979) After the disappointing commercial performance of Hat Trick, America chose to enlist an outside producer for their next album. They were able to secure the services of producer George Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who played a major role in shaping the sound of the Beatles. Sessions took place at AIR Studios in London.
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). With Martin's guidance, the album's style was very different from America's first three efforts, as he enhanced America's acoustic sound with strings and brass.
During the summer/fall of 1974, bassist Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels (formerly of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Manassas) was called to fill in for Dickey, who had come to Europe but then flown home inadvertently. Samuels played some shows and also appeared live with the group on the German TV program Musikladen on November 13, 1974.
The trio soon found themselves in the top 10 once again with the first single from Holiday, the Bunnell-penned "Tin Man", which reached number four, featuring cryptic lyrics set to a Wizard of Oz theme. "Lonely People" (written by Peek"Lonely People" compositional info, ASCAP. Retrieved 31 August 2011.) followed Tin Man into the top 10 in early 1975, becoming Dan Peek's only credited song to reach that high on Billboard, peaking at number five.
Martin worked with the trio again for their next LP, Hearts, recorded in Sausalito, California, and released in March 1975. America scored its second chart-topping success with Beckley's "Sister Golden Hair" in mid-1975, a song that featured a memorable opening guitar riff admittedly inspired by George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and frank relationship lyrics inspired by Jackson Browne.Corbett, John (29 May 2004). America Revisited – Part 3, AccessBackstage.com. The follow-up single, Beckley's ballad "Daisy Jane", also scored among the top 20 shortly after. Peek's reggae-influenced Woman Tonight was a third success (No. 44 in the US) from the album towards the end of the year.
Warner Bros. released a compilation of America's best-known tracks in November 1975, History: America's Greatest Hits, which went platinum. Martin, who produced the album, also remixed the tracks culled from the group's first three albums.
During early 1976, the group recorded its sixth studio album at Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado, inspiring the album's title, Hideaway, which Martin produced. Released in April 1976, the album's two singles, "Today's the Day" and "Amber Cascades", managed to reach Nos. 23 and 75, respectively, on the Billboard pop chart.[ America chart history], Billboard.com. Retrieved 30 August 2011. The two singles hit number one and 17, respectively, on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Songs such as "Jet Boy Blue" and "Don't Let It Get You Down" were programmed on FM stations.
Martin's implementation of more complex instrumentation on America's albums proved somewhat overwhelming to the band on stage, often compelling them to switch from instrument to instrument during songs. For their 1976 tour, the group expanded their stage line-up to include Jim Calire on keyboards and sax and Tom Walsh on percussion, so they could more comfortably perform Martin's arrangements.
Martin and the trio went to Hawaii during late 1976 to work on the group's seventh studio album, which was recorded in a beach house on the island of Kauai. The album, Harbor, released in February 1977, continued the trend of decreasing sales for the group. It was their first album to fail to score either platinum or gold, and none of its three singles charted.
In May 1977 Dan Peek left the band. In his 2004 autobiography, An American Band, Peek states that he was voted out after missing a tour rehearsal but Bunnell later denied this was the case, saying that the decision to leave had been Peek's, after he recently had renewed his Christian faith following years of recreational drug use and had begun to seek a different artistic direction from Beckley or Bunnell. Nevertheless, Peek goes on to say in his book that he takes full blame for the group's fracturing.
Peek contracted 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, was successful and Peek became a pioneering artist in the emerging Christian popular music genre. The title track entered the Billboard pop charts in early 1979, peaking at No. 78.[ "All Things Are Possible" chart history], Billboard.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.