Gary Wright
(born April 26, 1943), Cresskill, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American musician, probably best known for his song, "Dream Weaver". He was the piano player on 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" [1].
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GARY WRIGHT TICKETS
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Career
Gary Wright was born and raised in
Cresskill, New Jersey, and attended
Tenafly High School.
[2]
In the 1960s, Wright went to
Europe to continue studying
psychology. In 1967, he joined the
band Spooky Tooth as
singer and
keyboardist. In
1970 Wright was involved as a producer with
Liverpool based
Folk music band, Arrival, and was also a member of the
Folk rock band
Howl the good who had played, alongside Arrival, at the
Isle of Wight Festival 1970. During this period, he also befriended
George Harrison and was invited to contribute piano to Harrison's
All Things Must Pass
.
[3]
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 Dream Weaver
was a massive hit album and would go multiplatinum, his subsequent releases did not catch on, either critically or 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.
"
Better By You, Better Than Me," a song written by Wright for Spooky Tooth, was covered by
Judas Priest on its 1978 album
Stained Class
.
In 2008, Wright toured with
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In November 2008, Wright released the six-track EP
Waiting to Catch the Light
on the Larkio Music label. In late 2008, Wright also released
The Light Of A Million Suns
which features a re-recorded version of his hit
My Love Is Alive
in which son Dorian gets a recording credit.
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)
- Waiting To Catch The Light
(2008)
- The Light Of A Million Suns
(2008)
;Singles
- Dream Weaver
(1976) #2
- My 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
- website for Intangible
- "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."
- On November 23, 1971, 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."