Today’s music video is Sister Golden Hair and the song is performed here by the band America.
This video was posted to You Tube by Ian McLaughlin
This band formed in the UK in 1971, and so they would not be thought of as three British musicians trying to sound like Americans, they called themselves America. The three members, Dan Peek, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, were barely 20, and were in England with their parents, their fathers as part of a USAF attachment in the UK. They started performing together and gained a local following. They released their first album, which was self titled in 1971 to moderate local popularity. After the release of that album, they wrote a new song, and tentatively titled it Desert Song, and when they played this new song, it was accepted with rave reviews. They renamed the song to A Horse With No Name, released it as a Single, and it became so popular, they re-released their original album with this new song added to it. The song became a Worldwide smash hit and went to Number One virtually everywhere, and on the back of that, so did the ‘new’ album.
The three members relocated back to the U.S. their music future now assured. They released a new album every year, and at least one Single from each of those albums went into the Top Five on the National charts in the U.S.
The single I have featured today, Sister Golden Hair, was the Single lifted off their fifth album, Hearts, released in 1975, an album which was produced by The Beatles producer George Martin. This song gave the band their second huge Number One smash hit, and the album was also huge, nearly making it to Number One itself on the albums charts as well.
I already was a fan of the band, and I had that first album in my now rapidly expanding collection of LPs and this album was the second one from the band that I added to my collection.
There’s a couple of quirky little things about this band. While their first album was titled after the name of their band, America, each subsequent album was titled with a name beginning with the letter ‘H’, and in fact after that first album, they stayed with that letter H for the next seven albums spread across the next six years.
Another little quirky thing is about the title of this song today, Sister Golden Hair. The song is ostensibly a love song from a young man to his girlfriend, saying that he’s not quite ready to make the decision to marry her just yet, but the actual inspiration for the title of the song itself, came from the three band members themselves, as all three of them had Mothers who were Blondes.
Some songs and some bands have little things about them that rarely rate a mention.
The band still performs these days, and as recently as 2015, they released their 18th studio album, a prolific band, noted for their acoustic music and tight harmonies.
PA Pundits International 
Posted on Sun 10/23/2016 by TonyfromOz
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