A horse with no name

I would think a band named America would have started somewhere in the United States but no, the story began in London. It was the late 1960s, and three teenagers—Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek—were living in England because their fathers were stationed at the US Air Force base in South Ruislip. They were what people call Air Force brats, and all three ended up at London Central High School.

Far from home, they gravitated towards one another over a shared love of music. Folk-rock was booming at the time, and the boys were hooked on everything from Crosby, Stills & Nash to the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There were tight harmonies, acoustic guitars and melodies that linger.

They started jamming together, writing songs and playing at small clubs and pubs around London. Their early stuff was mostly acoustic, very stripped down, built around their harmonies and the blending of voices. Dewey tended to write more of the moodier, atmospheric songs; Gerry had a knack for writing the kind of pop tunes that stuck in the head; and Dan brought a slightly edgier touch. Different flavours that fitted together quite nicely.

Somewhere along the way, they crossed paths with someone named Ian Samwell who had written Move It for Cliff Richard. He’d done time with the Drifters too. Samwell saw something in them and helped get them signed to Warner Bros Records. That was the big break.

Their self-titled debut album, America, came out in 1971. Initially, it had modest sales, some radio play but nothing earth-shattering. Then in early 1972, they released A Horse with No Name as a single. The song shot up the charts, hitting number one in the United States and made waves internationally too. The anecdote is that Dewey wrote that song in rainy old England while dreaming of wide desert landscapes he had never actually seen. Yet somehow, he nailed the American West vibe perfectly.

The success of the single pushed the album back into the charts, and suddenly America was a household name. The album had more to offer too. Gerry’s I Need You became a hit on its own: a ballad that still held up today.

So that’s how three kids from American military families, stranded in the UK, ended up forming one of the most recognisable folk-rock bands of the 1970s. They may have started out far from home, but their music sounded unmistakably American and it struck a chord with listeners all over the world.

Side One: Riverside, Sandman, Three roses, Children, A horse with no name, Here 
Side Two: I need you, Rainy day, Never found the time, Clarice, Donkey jaw, Pigeon song