Dobie Gray

 Dobie Gray, born Lawrence Darrow Brown (July 26, 1940 – December 6, 2011)

Gray was a singer and songwriter, whose musical career spanned soul, country, pop, and musical theater. His hit songs included "The 'In' Crowd" in 1965 and "Drift Away", which was one of the biggest hits of 1973, sold over one million copies, and remains a staple of radio airplay. He recorded for several local labels under the names Leonard Ainsworth, Larry Curtis, and Larry Dennis, before Sonny Bono directed him toward the small independent Stripe Records. They suggested that he record under the name "Dobie Gray", an allusion to the then-popular sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. His first taste of success came in 1963 when his seventh single "Look At Me", on the Cor-Dak label and recorded with bassist Carol Kaye reached #91 on the Billboard Hot 100. He spent several years working as an actor, including two and a half years in the Los Angeles production of Hair. In 1970, while working there, he joined a band, Pollution, as singer and percussionist. They were managed by actor Max Baer Jr. and released two albums of soul-inspired psychedelic rock, Pollution I and Pollution II. The band included singer Tata Vega and guitarist/singer James Quill Smith. He also worked at A&M Records on demo recordings with songwriter Paul Williams. His last solo hit singles were "If Love Must Go", #78 in 1976, and "You Can Do It", #37 in 1978. He increasingly concentrated on songwriting, writing songs for a variety of artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Johnny Mathis, Charley Pride, and Don Williams.

He also toured in Europe, Australia and Africa in the 1970s. He performed in South Africa only after persuading the apartheid authorities to allow him to play to integrated audiences, becoming the first artist to do so. "Drift Away" became a hit again in 2003, when he covered the song as a duet with Uncle Kracker on the latter's No Stranger to Shame album. Gray died on December 6, 2011 of complications from cancer surgery in Nashville, Tennessee, aged 71. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park And Mausoleum in Nashville.