Gary Wright, Who Had a ’70s Hit With ‘Dream Weaver,’ Dies at 80
Gary Malcolm Wright died at his home in Palos Verdes Estates on September 4, 2023, at the age of 80. He had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease around six or seven years before his death.
He was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive". Wright's breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver (1975), came after he had spent seven years in London as, alternately, a member of the British blues rock band Spooky Tooth and a solo artist on A&M Records. While in England, he played keyboards on former BeatleGeorge Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), so beginning a friendship that inspired the Indian religious themes and spirituality inherent in Wright's subsequent songwriting. His work from the late 1980s onwards embraced world music and the new age genre, although none of his post-1976 releases matched the same level of popularity as The Dream Weaver.
Wright played on all of Harrison's subsequent solo albums during the 1970s, as well as on other releases that the ex-Beatle produced for Apple Records. These included two hit singles by Harrison's former bandmate Ringo Starr over 1971–72, "It Don't Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo", and a 1971 comeback single by ex-Ronette Ronnie Spector, "Try Some, Buy Some".
On Wright's debut album for Warner Bros., The Dream Weaver (1975), he, David Foster and Bobby Lyle played a variety of keyboard instruments, supported only by drummers Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark, apart from a guitar part on the track "Power of Love" by Ronnie Montrose. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic describes The Dream Weaver as "one of the first [rock albums] created solely via synthesizer technology".
The album was issued in July 1975 and enjoyed minimal success in America until the release of its second single, "Dream Weaver", in November. The song, which Wright had written on acoustic guitar after his visit to India with Harrison, went on to peak at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Cash Box singles chart. Becoming Wright's biggest hit, "Dream Weaver" sold over 1 million copies in the US and was awarded a Gold disc by the RIAA in March 1976. The album climbed to number 7 on the Billboard 200 and was certified double Platinum. "Love Is Alive", originally the album's lead single, then hit number 2 on the Hot 100, and "Made to Love You" peaked at number 79. Although neither The Dream Weaver nor its singles charted in the UK, the album was a big seller in West Germany.
Discography
Albums
1970 Extraction
1971 Footprint
1975 The Dream Weaver US #7 - US: 2× Platinum
1977 The Light of Smiles US #23
1977 Touch and Gone US #117
1979 Headin' Home US #147
1981 The Right Place US #79
1988 Who I Am
1995 First Signs of Life
1999 Human Love
2008 Waiting to Catch the Light
2010 Connected
Collaborations
1972 That Was Only Yesterday (with Spooky Tooth)
1972 Ring of Changes (with Wonderwheel)
2004 Down This Road (Gary Wright & Leah Weiss)
Soundtracks
1974 Benjamin – The Original Soundtrack of Willy Bogner's Motion Picture
1982 Endangered Species (soundtrack)
1986 Fire and Ice (soundtrack)
