Harry Chapin

Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, composer, philanthropist, and hunger activist born on December 7, 1942, in New York City. The second of four children born to percussionist Jim Chapin and Jeanne Elspeth, daughter of literary critic Kenneth Burke, Chapin grew up alongside brothers Tom and Steve, who also became musicians. His parents divorced in 1950, after which his mother retained custody of the four sons while Jim Chapin continued working as a drummer for Big Band-era acts including Woody Herman. Chapin's mother later married Henry Hart, editor of Films in Review magazine.

Chapin's earliest musical training came through trumpet lessons at The Greenwich House Music School under a teacher named Karesick. His younger brothers Tom and Steve sang as choirboys at Grace Episcopal Church in Brooklyn Heights, and it was through them that Chapin met baritone John Wallace, who possessed a five-octave range and would later serve as his bassist, backing vocalist, and onstage straight man. Chapin began performing with his brothers as a teenager, with their father occasionally joining on drums. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1960 and was later inducted into the school's Alumni Hall of Fame in 2000. He briefly attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs before enrolling at Cornell University, though he did not complete a degree at either institution.

Before establishing himself as a musician, Chapin pursued documentary filmmaking. He worked for The Big Fights, a company operated by Bill Cayton that maintained an extensive library of classic boxing films. In 1968, Chapin directed Legendary Champions, which received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. Three years later, he shifted his focus to music, forming a group with John Wallace, Tim Scott, and Ron Palmer and performing at nightclubs throughout New York City.

Chapin's recording career began in 1972 when he signed a multi-million dollar contract with Elektra Records following a bidding war between Clive Davis at Columbia and Jac Holzman at Elektra. His debut album, Heads and Tales, sold over one million units and contained the single "Taxi," which reached the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100 and became a top-five hit in Canada. Radio personality Jim Connors was credited with helping the song remain on the charts for sixteen weeks, during which it became the number-one requested song for ten consecutive weeks. A performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson generated enough audience response that Chapin was invited back the following night, the first time in the show's history that a performer had been called back on consecutive nights. "Taxi" also earned Chapin a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist of the Year. A second album, Sniper and Other Love Songs, was released the same year and sold 350,000 units. It included the single "Sunday Morning Sunshine," which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 40 on Billboard Adult Contemporary, as well as the title track, a semi-fictional account of the University of Texas tower shooting, and the song "Circle."

His third album, Short Stories, released in 1973, sold over one million units and produced the international hit "W.O.L.D.," a song about an aging disc jockey written after Chapin observed radio personality Jim Connors calling his ex-wife from the WMEX studio in Boston. The song reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, the top 10 in Canada, and charted in multiple other countries. The album also included "Mr. Tanner," loosely based on New York Times concert reviews of baritone Martin Tubridy published in 1971 and 1972. Chapin's most commercially successful album, Verities and Balderdash, followed in 1974, selling 2.5 million units and peaking at number four on the Billboard 200. It contained "Cat's in the Cradle," which earned Chapin a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and led to his induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The album also included "I Wanna Learn a Love Song," which reached number seven on Billboard Adult Contemporary and recounted the true story of how Chapin met his wife, Sandra Chapin, as well as "30,000 Pounds of Bananas," a semi-fictional account of a 1965 truck accident in Scranton, Pennsylvania involving driver Gene Sesky.

In 1975, Chapin released his fifth album, Portrait Gallery, which produced the top-40 Billboard Adult Contemporary hit "Dreams Go By." That same year, he brought his work to Broadway with The Night That Made America Famous, a play he wrote and performed. The production earned two Tony Award nominations and two Drama Desk Award nominations. His first live album, Greatest Stories Live, followed in 1976 and sold 2.1 million units. Over the course of his recording career, Chapin produced a total of eleven albums between 1972 and his death in 1981, and all fourteen singles he released charted on at least one national music chart. He sold more than sixteen million records worldwide.

Beyond music, Chapin was a committed hunger activist who participated in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1987 in recognition of his humanitarian work. Chapin died on July 16, 1981.