America brings classic hits to Gallo Center

Before the days of search engine optimization, naming a band America was just a way to clever way to express allegiance.

Now, thanks to a slew of classic hits, America remains Googleable despite the ubiquitous nature of its name. The band was founded in 1970 by three high school friends living in England with their American Air Force families. So it was a mix of homesickness and patriotic pride that prompted the name.

“(Calling ourselves America) was a way to tell something about us, to separate us from a lot of the other groups performing in and around London at the time,” founding member Gerry Beckley said in an interview with The Bee from the road in Missouri.

Beckley and Dewey Bunnell started the group with the late Dan Peek, fresh out of high school. Now Beckley and Bunnell have played together continuously for the past 44 years. The band was a radio staple through much of the 1970s with hits like “A Horse With No Name,” “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” “Lonely People” and “Sister Golden Hair.”

Fellow founding member Peek left the band in 1977 and worked on solo projects intermittently through the years before dying in 2011. The surviving duo said their endurance is a combination of luck and demand.

“We’ve had a lot of good fortune, of course, that has to be top of the list,” Beckley said. “There has always been work. If people didn’t call we wouldn’t be able to go out and play.”

The band is on the road about 200 days out of the year, playing around 100 shows annually.

That success even includes evading the so-called Grammy curse. The band took home the best new artist Grammy in 1972, an award that has been followed by stymied sophomore efforts from such artists as Shelby Lynne and Christopher Cross.

“We were very lucky and got over the sophomore jinx and were off and running,” Beckley said. “But it’s a tough thing when you get that much attention early on. In theory, the timing is bad because you haven’t had much experience yet. In our case, we had good management, so things that would have caused cracking in the system didn’t occur.”

Far from being cursed, America’s music has remained relevant throughout the years. Today it continues to get play in pop culture, appearing in everything from “Grand Theft Auto” to “The Sopranos” and “American Hustle.” Beckley even has a favorite usage.

“You know, I loved that closing scene in ‘The Sopranos’ episode that included ‘Sister Golden Hair’ during a hit on one of the characters. But the top of the list would have to be the episode of ‘Breaking Bad’ that framed the opening and closing scenes with Walter White singing ‘A Horse With No Name.’ That’s hard to beat,” he said.

Still, Beckley said they had no idea, when they were writing the songs, they’d stand the test of time as well as they did. He attributes their staying power to an elusive mixture of factors.

“I think only time really proves that. Every week there’s a Top 10 and at the end of the year there are the top of the charts. You can say, ‘These are going to last.’ You can guess this one or that one will be a classic. But you don’t know,” he said. “I think the songs themselves have to have strong elements: good lyrics, memorable tunes, be hummable.”

In which case, things don’t get much more hummable than one of the band’s most familiar hits. “A Horse With No Name” famously has a chorus composed entirely of “La la, lalalalas.” Don’t worry – Beckley already knows you’re going to ask him what the song means. While he might rather you Google the answer, he will happily answer for any who ask.

“There are certain questions that inevitably come up. As long as people keep asking, we’re OK,” he said. “It’s when people stop asking you should worry. These are the blessings and traps of success.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 2:00 AM with the headline "America brings classic hits to Gallo Center."