America 1971

America 1971, hand-drawn portrait with Dan Peek, age 21, Gerry Beckley, age 19, and Dewey Bunnell, age 19 in 1971 upon the release of their first album “America”.

America is an American rock band formed in England in 1970.
While all of their fathers were stationed at the United States Air Force base at RAF South Ruislip near London in the mid-1960s, Beckley, Bunnell and Peek attended London Central High School at Bushey Hall where they met while playing in two different bands.

Starting out with borrowed acoustic guitars, they developed a style which 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.

The debut album “America” was released in 1971 to only moderate success, so the band was subsequently brought into Morgan Studios to record several additional songs. One of them was a Bunnell composition called “Desert Song”, which was re-titled, “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 R.I.A.A. in March 1972. America’s debut album was re-released 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 No. 9 on the US charts.
For 6 years the band had successful hit albums including, “Homecoming”, “Hat Trick”, “Holiday”, “Hearts” and “Hideaway”.

Hit songs include: “Horse With No Name”, “I Need You”, “Sandman”, “Never Found The Time”, “Ventura Highway”, “Don’t Cross The River”, “Muskrat Love”, “Tin Man”, “Lonely People”, “Daisey Jane”, “You Can Do Magic” and “Sister Golden Hair”. My personal favorites include, “Donkey Jaw”, “Moon Song” and “California Revisted”.

In May 1977 Dan Peek left the band. Peek recently had renewed his Christian faith after years of recreational drug use and had begun to seek a different artistic direction from Beckley or Bunnell; the break with the band was amicable.
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.

Beckley and Bunnell continued on as a duo and still play concerts today.

Continuous speculations of Peek reuniting with America finally came to an end when Peek died suddenly in his home in Farmington, Missouri of fibrinous pericarditis (an undetected heart condition) on July 24, 2011, at the age of 60.

America won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist and were nominated for Best Pop Vocal Group at the 15th Annual Grammy Awards in 1973.
The group has been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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