Gary Wright, the musician greatest recognized for his hit singles “Dream Weaver” and “Love Is Alive,” has died. He was 80. Wright’s son Dorian confirmed the information to Selection; no reason behind dying was introduced.
A powerfully soulful singer and a flexible keyboardist, Wright was a founding member of the U.Ok.-based band Spooky Tooth and was an in-demand session participant from the late ’60s on, taking part in on all of George Harrison’s solo albums — together with his epochal 1970 debut, “All Issues Should Cross” — and Ringo Starr’s early singles (and, a lot later, with Starr’s All-Starr Band) in addition to songs by Nilsson, Tim Rose, B.B. King and lots of others. But he shall be greatest remembered for the mid-Seventies hits talked about above, which had been a part of a vaguely mystical, synthesizer-driven fashion of hit single of the period — Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle” is one other instance — and which noticed him showing on many music exhibits, sporting satin gear and rocking a keytar.
A local of New Jersey, Wright was a baby actor who appeared on Broadway in a model of “Fanny.” He later determined to develop into a health care provider and traveled to Berlin to check drugs, however continued taking part in with bands, together with one referred to as the New York Occasions. Whereas that group was on a 1967 tour of Europe with Site visitors, Wright met Chris Blackwell, founding father of Site visitors’s label, Island Information. The 2 had a mutual good friend in Site visitors/Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller, and Blackwell, impressed with the younger musician’s expertise, satisfied him to return to London. There, Blackwell teamed him up with pianist Mike Harrison and drummer Mike Kellie and, with Wright as singer and organist, Spooky Tooth was fashioned.
The band’s first two albums, “It’s All About” and 1969’s “Spooky Two,” ‘”Spooky Two,” each of which had been produced by Miller and featured Wright cowriting each track, weren’t chart successes however created a significant buzz in musicians’ circles. The members had been all recruited for session work and their songs had been lined by many artists, with the Three Canine Night time rendering “I’ve Bought Sufficient Heartache,” the Transfer performing “Sunshine Assist Me” commonly and Judas Priest masking “Higher by You, Higher Than Me.” Nonetheless, the group’s third album, “Ceremony,” was a artistic misstep and Wright left the band in 1970.
He signed with A&M Information and launched a powerful solo album, “Extraction,” in 1970, and two gamers on that albums — drummer Alan White and bassist Klaus Voorman — introduced Wright into the Beatles’ orbit. Whereas Harrison was recording “All Issues Should Cross” with producer Phil Spector, the latter characteristically referred to as for extra musicians. Voorman urged Wright, who occurred to be taking part in a unique session throughout city — upon getting the decision, Wright canceled that session and dashed over to EMI’s storied Abbey Highway studios, the place he started a friendship with Harrison that was to endure for the remainder of their lives. He performed on all of Harrison’s solo albums and a number of associated tasks, together with Ringo Starr’s early singles “It Don’t Come Simple” and “Again Off Boogaloo”; Harrison even backed Wright throughout an look on American TV’s “Dick Cavett Present” in 1971.
The next 12 months he reformed Spooky Tooth and launched two albums whereas persevering with to work with Harrison, with whom he shared an curiosity in Japanese religions; the 2 traveled to India collectively in 1974.
After the reformed group cut up once more, Wright relocated to New York and united with energy supervisor Dee Anthony (who managed Humble Pie and soon-to-be celebrity Peter Frampton) and signed with Warner Bros. Information. His first album for the label, “The Dream Weaver” — with a title observe impressed by his journey to India with Harrison — was launched in 1975, and whereas the only was a gradual builder, by the next spring it was a significant hit and Wright had develop into a significant star. Nonetheless, it was practically two years earlier than he adopted with “The Mild of Smiles,” and his subsequent efforts didn’t strategy his earlier success. His final charting single was 1981’s “Actually Wanna Know You.”
Within the following years, Wright specialised in instrumental and soundtrack work — though he made a shock look within the 1992 movie “Wayne’s World,” singing a re-recorded model of “Dream Weaver” — however he returned to extra typical rock music and issued a sequence of albums, with the final one, “Related,” being launched in 2010. He reformed Spooky Tooth once more in 2004, and toured steadily, as a solo act and with Ringo’s All-Starr Band.
Through the years, his songs have continued to be lined — Chaka Khan recorded a blazing model of “Love Is Alive” for her 1984 smash album “I Really feel for You” — and sampled by artists starting from Jay-Z to Tone-Loc.
Extra reporting by Michaela Zee.
