Gary Wright

Gary Wright (born 26 April 1943, Cresskill, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American musician, most famous for his song, "Dream Weaver" and the piano player on one of the biggest selling and most famous ballads of all time, Harry Nilsson's version of "Without You". He currently resides in Palos Verdes Estates, California with wife Rose. He has two adult sons, Dorian and Justin. The latter son is a member of the band "Intangible" [ [http://www.intangiblemusic.com/ website for Intangible] ] .

Career

Wright, a personal friend of George Harrison, appeared in a TV show at the age of 7. He was born and raised in Cresskill, New Jersey, and attended Tenafly High School. ["MUSIC NOTES", "The Star-Ledger", November 16, 2000, p. 71. "Wright returns. Singer-songwriter-keyboardist Gary Wright, who grew up in Cresskill and went to Tenafly High School, will perform in New York tonight for the first time in 20 years."]

November 23, 1971 Gary Wright appeared on an episode of the Dick Cavett Show in a band called Wonder Wheel performing a song he wrote called Two Faced Man. George Harrison plays slide guitar in this band as a favor since Wright had played piano on Harrison's album All Things Must Pass. The episode can be viewed on DVD "The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons: Disc 3."

Later he went to Europe to continue studying psychology. In 1967 he joined the band Spooky Tooth as singer and keyboardist. After Spooky Tooth's split in 1974, Wright continued his solo career, culminating in "Dream Weaver". The single peaked at No. 2 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 and went gold. It was also featured in the "Wayne's World" film and soundtrack, as well as in the 1996 film "The People vs. Larry Flynt". Later in 1976, his follow-up single "Love Is Alive" also reached No. 2 (for two weeks).

Ronnie Montrose played guitar on the song "Power Of Love" from "The Dreamweaver".

Although "The Dreamweaver" was a massive hit album and would go multiplatinum, his subsequent releases did not catch on, neither critically nor commercially. Radio play did not help, and with the lack of another hit single, his career quickly stalled. But Wright continued to make albums anyway throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. He has 10 albums, his first two albums, "Extraction" and "Footprint", released before the big success of "The Dreamweaver", are now available as an official double-disc import (digitally remastered). Wounded Bird Records will be reissueing the releases of "The Light of Smiles", Touch and Gone","Headin' Home" and "The Right Place" in October 2008, all except "Headin' Home" will feature extra tracks.

Wright's last significant success on the pop chart was 1981, when he returned with "Really Wanna Know You" (co-written by Ali Thomson), a lavish, bass-heavy song that managed to hit No. 16.

His 1981 song "Comin' Apart", from the album "The Right Place", was sampled by Armand Van Helden for the 2004 club song titled "My My My". The song was remixed in 2006 by Andreas S. Jensen of remixer/writer team The Funktuary , became the 2nd most played on BBC1 that year, and sold in excess of 180.000 copies. "Heartbeat", also from "The Right Place", was re-recorded in 2007 as a dance track by Topmodelz.

In 2008, Wright toured with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.

Discography

;Solo albums
* "Extraction" (1971)
* "Footprint" (1972)
* "The Dream Weaver" (1975)
* "The Light of Smiles" (1977)
* "Touch and Gone" (1978)
* "Headin' Home" (1979)
* "The Right Place" (1981)
* "Who I Am" (1988)
* "First Signs of Life" (1995)
* "Best of Gary Wright / The Dream Weaver" (1998)
* "Human Love" (1999)

;Singles
* "Dream Weaver" (1976) #2
* "Love Is Alive" (1976) #2
* "Made To Love You" (1976) #79
* "Phantom Writer" (1977) #43
* "Touch And Gone" (1978) #73
* "Really Wanna Know You" (1981) #16
* "Heartbeat" (1981) #107

References

External links

* [http://www.thedreamweaver.com/ Official website ]
* [http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody/playlists/Essentials_Gary_Wright.rpl "Essentials" on Rhapsody]
* [http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody/playlists/GaryWrightsNewRemasteredAlbums.rpl Three Remastered Albums on Rhapsody]
* [http://www.singingfool.com/player.asp?List=&PublishedId=975929 "Don't Try To Own Me", a music video by Gary Wright]
* [http://www.singingfool.com/player.asp?PublishedId=135822 90s Dance Group "Third Party" doing "Love is Alive"]
* [http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/search?last_query=Love+Is+Alive&a_submit=1&aw=1&sfor=a&dur=3&fmp3=1&fr
]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81i_1gmztRc "Two Faced Man" Gary Wright with his former backup group The Wonder Wheel featuring George Harrison on The Dick Cavett Show]