Gerry Beckley - Start of America

Start of America

In 1967, Beckley's father became the commander at the United States Air Force base at West Ruislip, near London. Gerry attended London Central High School in Bushey, Hertfordshire, where he played in various school bands and met his soon-to-be bandmates, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. Originally the group played on Friday nights at the local American teen club, mostly doing acoustic covers of Crosby, Stills and Nash tunes. The original drummer was a classmate, Dave Atwood. America got a recording contract with the UK division of Warner Brothers Records. Beginning with their fourth album, Holiday, they began recording under the auspices of former Beatles producer Sir George Martin. Beckley and Bunnell said the name was inspired from an "Americana" jukebox on the base where they lived when they were forming the band - from PRI, Bob Edwards Weekend interview of Beckley and Bunnell, March 17, 2007.

America's songs include "A Horse With No Name", their debut single which went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; "Sister Golden Hair" (also number one on Billboard, in 1975); "Tin Man"; "I Need You"; "Ventura Highway", "You Can Do Magic" and "Daisy Jane", amongst others.

Beckley continues to write and record music both as a solo artist and with other musicians along with Bunnell. With Bunnell, Beckley continues touring worldwide as "America". In 2007, America returned to the Billboard album charts with the much heralded album Here & Now. It contains 12 new songs and 12 live songs.