America—the group, not the country—brings us today’s classic song of the day. The song is “Sister Golden Hair” and it was released as a single in March of 1975. It was a huge hit, going all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #2 on the Cash Box Top 100 and #5 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
“Sister Golden Hair was written by American (that is, member of the group named America, who also happens to have been born in the country named America) Gerry Beckley. The song was from the group’s fifth album, Hearts, and was produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick, both of Beatles fame.
Mr. Beckley says that there’s no real “sister golden hair” behind the song, he was just trying to write something that sounded like Jackson Browne would write. In his own words:
“The song was inspired by Jackson. We had toured with Jackson. And I always loved his songs for so many reasons. But a big one is that there’s always such a wonderful conversational tone that he structures. His lyrics often feel like somebody’s telling you a story; they’re talking directly to you. And I thought that’s just a really great thing to do in a song as opposed to most songs I heard that were not that at all. That lyrical tone was something I think I got from him.”
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, America lip-synching “Sister Golden Hair” on some 1970’s television show. It features all three members of the group: Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek.
