Warner Bros. 2576
Producers: Ian Samwell, Jeff Dexter, and America
Track listing: Riverside / Sandman / Three Roses / Children / A Horse With No Name /Â Here / I Need You / Rainy Day / Never Found the Time / Clarice / Donkey Jaw / Pigeon Song
March 25, 1972
5 weeks
Although the band’s three members came together in Great Britain at London’s Central Park High School, they were known collectively as America. Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley, and Dan Peek were the sons of American military men based in London. When the trio got together, little did its members know that they would take both the U.S. and the U.K. by storm.
After graduating from high school in 1969, Peek went back to the U.S. to attend college. After a six-month stint, he returned to London to find that his high school chums Bunnell and Beckley were writing their own songs. While doing a little studio work on the side, Beckley the booking agent for the popular London nightspot known as the Roundhouse. “They booked us in there to play shows,” says Bunnell. “It was just three of us, acoustic guitars, and we did 20 minutes. We ended up opening for some pretty big acts — the Who, Pink Floyd, and Elton John. Then we took it on the road for about six months.”
The club tour worked. America soon garnered coverage in the British music weeklies and developed a small but loyal following. “The fact that we were Americans in London helped us,” says Bunnell. Jeff Dexter, a DJ who liked the band, hooked the trio up with Warner staff producer Ian Samwell, who was impressed enough to set up an audition for America with the president of the Warner Bros. London office. “We played acoustic guitars right in his office,” he says. “We had these songs worked out to perfection, three-part harmonies, and we all had our guitar parts. We could play them in our sleep.”
Several of the songs America played that day, including “Riverside” and “I Need You,” ended up on America. The trio recorded the majority of the album at Trident Studios in London. Ken Scott, who was also producing sessions for David Bowie, served as engineer. “We laid everything down loosely,” Bunnell says.
Once the album was completed, it was delivered to Warner Bros. Beckley’s ballad “I Need You” was penciled in as the first single. But the Warner executives asked if the trio had any more songs. “They sent us down to Morgan Studios in London — it was a live-in farm demo studio. Led had worked there, so there were some pretty heavy vibes.” America went on to record four more songs. One was “A Horse with No Name.”
America was officially released without that track, which first appeared as a single in England. When “A Horse With No Name” became a hit there, it was decided the song would be included on all future pressings of the album. Says Bunnell, “‘I Need You’ [which also became a top 10 hit] was much more in the pocket as a traditional ballad. ‘A Horse With No Name’ had the quirkiness that put us on the map.”
After six weeks on the chart, America hit the apex of the Top LP’s & Tapes chart, while “A Horse With No Name” topped the Hot 100. The album knocked out Harvest while the single displaced “Heart of Gold.” Both were recorded by Neil Young, one of America’s major influences.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 25, 1972
1. America, America
2. Harvest, Neil Young
3. Baby I’m-a Want You, Bread
4. Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson
5. Paul Simon, Paul Simon