Tom Chapin

Tom Chapin, born March 13, 1945, in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, storyteller, and television host who appeared on Broadway between 1975 and 1982. He was raised in Brooklyn Heights and Greenwich Village, New York, and is the younger brother of the late folk singer, songwriter, and humanitarian Harry Chapin. His father, Jim Chapin, was a jazz drummer, and his mother, Elspeth Burke, was a textile artist and the daughter of literary critic Kenneth Burke. His paternal grandfather was artist and illustrator James Ormsbee Chapin.

Chapin attended Brooklyn Technical High School before enrolling at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, where he played college basketball and graduated in 1966. He accumulated enough points to earn membership in the school's 1,000 Point Club and was later inducted into the Plattsburgh State Athletic Hall of Fame. During the 1960s folk revival, he and his brothers Harry and Steve Chapin began performing together as teenagers under the name The Chapin Brothers, playing venues such as The Bitter End and other Greenwich Village folk clubs. As younger children, Tom and Steve had sung together in the Grace Episcopal Church choir. In 1965, the brothers appeared on The Merv Griffin Show with their father on drums, and the following year they released the album Chapin Music!

In 1969, Chapin joined the crew of the shark documentary Blue Water, White Death, serving as the film's soundman and resident folk singer and appearing on screen. From 1971 to 1976, he hosted ABC's children's television series Make a Wish, which earned both a Peabody Award and an Emmy. He released his first solo album, Life Is Like That, on Fantasy Records in 1976, the same year he appeared alongside his brothers Harry and Steve on Don Kirchner's Rock Concert.

Chapin's Broadway credits include The Night That Made America Famous and Pump Boys and Dinettes. He appeared in the Tony-nominated production of Pump Boys and Dinettes in 1983, taking over the role of Jim from Loudon Wainwright III. In 1981, he served as musical director for his brother Harry's off-Broadway production Cotton Patch Gospel.

In 1984, Tom and Steve Chapin co-produced Cabbage Patch Dreams, a platinum-selling album from the Cabbage Patch Kids released on the Parker Brothers record label. Chapin's niece Jen Chapin and his stepdaughter Jessica Craven both appear on the album. His first children's album, Family Tree, was released in 1988 on A&M Records and featured Judy Collins. It included the song This Pretty Planet, which Chapin co-wrote with John Forster. The song was played to wake the astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery 9 and later inspired a 2020 children's picture book of the same name published by Simon & Schuster. Chapin has released thirteen children's music albums in total and received three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for Children: for Mama Don't Allow in 2001, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly in 2002, and The Train They Call the City of New Orleans in 2004. He has received eight Grammy nominations overall.

Simon & Schuster has published three books based on his lyrics, including The Library Book and The Backward Birthday Party. In 2007, Chapin was a Featured New Voices Teller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, he and his daughters Abigail and Lily Chapin performed 200 daily livestreamed concerts from his Hudson Valley home, streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, under the title Mornings With Papa Tom and The Chapin Sisters.

Chapin has been a longtime advocate for arts education. His song Not on the Test, which addresses standardized testing and supports arts and music education, debuted on NPR's Morning Edition in January 2007. He performed it at the New York State United Teachers' Convention in April 2008 and at the California Kindergarten Teachers Association. The song appeared on Broadsides: A Miscellany of Musical Opinions, a 2010 collection of socially conscious songs written for Morning Edition by Chapin and his collaborator, satirist and songwriter John Forster.

Chapin sits on the board of directors of WhyHunger, the food justice nonprofit co-founded by his brother Harry Chapin and Bill Ayers. The organization was founded in 1975 and grew out of Harry Chapin's work with President Jimmy Carter, when Harry served as chair of the President's Commission on World Hunger. Tom has also been a longtime supporter of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and has performed at the Clearwater Festival on multiple occasions. He regularly performs with his brother Steve Chapin, his niece Jen Chapin, and his daughters Abigail and Lily Chapin, who record and perform as The Chapin Sisters, often appearing together as The Chapin Family in tribute to Harry Chapin. He is married to Bonnie Chapin, née Broecker, the former wife of film director Wes Craven and sister of Wallace Smith Broecker. His stepdaughter Jessica Craven and stepson Jonathan Craven, a filmmaker, are also part of his extended family.