Dan Fogelberg

In an era of lilting, sentimental soft rock, Dan Fogelberg's heartfelt ballads and shuffling singalongs became a fixture in the US charts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Growing up playing The Beatles songs and West Coast rock with high school friends, he released a couple of singles with his band The Coachmen before dropping out of university to become a session musician, playing on records by Jackson Browne, Randy Newman and Joe Walsh. Fogelberg's breakthrough as a solo artist came when Part Of The Plan became a small hit and propelled second album Souvenirs (1974) into the US Top 20 and his reputation grew through a support slot on tour with The Eagles. Longer became his biggest hit, reaching Number 2 in the US, while his accessible brand of country rock took a darker, more refined turn on his most acclaimed albums Nether Lands (1977), Phoenix (1979) and The Innocent Age (1981). Top 10 singles Same Old Lang Syne, Hard To Say and Leader of Band became his signature anthems and wedding favourites across the US, and Fogelberg continued to have steady success throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. He later teamed up with Tim Weisberg for the album No Resemblance Whatsoever (1995) before his death in 2007 from prostate cancer aged 56.