John Wallace | |
|---|---|
 "Big" John: Standing at far left in the photo (with Harry Chapin, next to him) during a curtain call in the 1970s | |
| Background information | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, bassist |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, bass guitar |
"Big" John Wallace is a bassist and singer who became known as a backup singer and musician for singer-songwriter Harry Chapin.
Wallace gained membership of Chapin's band by responding to an ad placed in the Village Voice in 1971. [1] Other responders to the ad included cellist Tim Scott and guitarist Ron Palmer.[ citation needed ]
When Harry Chapin and his brothers went on tour in 1971, Harry asked Wallace to continue with his backing band as bass guitarist and backup vocalist. John Wallace performed with Chapin for ten years, until Harry Chapin's death in 1981. In live concerts, Wallace would sing very high head tones on songs such as "Taxi". However, John displayed a remarkable vocal range, as he also sang the baritone parts in "Mr. Tanner" and "30,000 Pounds of Bananas".[ citation needed ]
Wallace performed the singing voice of Bluto on the soundtrack and album of Robert Altman's 1980 feature film Popeye , starring Robin Williams. Actor Paul L. Smith acted and spoke as Bluto. [2]
Wallace formed another band, The Strangers, that included himself, Doug Walker, and Howie Fields (from the Harry Chapin band) along with newcomer Malcolm Ruhl.[ citation needed ] The band played more conventional rock music, as opposed to 'Harry Chapin-type' music, but was short-lived. They performed at Clarence Clemons' Big Man's West on December 18, 1981.[ citation needed ]
In 1991, the band he spent ten years with was reunited with Steve Chapin at the helm. Steve, Harry's drummer Howard Fields, and John continue to perform as the Steve Chapin Band. They also perform occasionally in a larger ensemble including Tom Chapin and other Chapin family members.[ citation needed ]
Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major influence on the sound of the British music scene in the 1960s, he was instrumental in the formation of several notable British bands including The Rolling Stones and Free. Korner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.
Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide.
38 Special, often stylized as .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-eight Special, is an American rock band formed by singer-guitarists Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1974.
John Symon Asher Bruce was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.
John Peter Farnham is a British-born Australian singer. Farnham was a teen pop idol from 1967 until 1979, billed until then as Johnny Farnham. He has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist, although he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band from 1982 to 1985.
Sweet are a British glam rock band who rose to prominence in the 1970s. Their best-known line-up consisted of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bassist Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott and drummer Mick Tucker.
Steve Gibbons is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and bandleader. His music career spans more than 50 years.
John Kenneth Wetton was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. Although he was left-handed, he was known as a skilled right-handed bass player and had a booming baritone voice. He was a member of the band Family in 1971 for a short time, before joining King Crimson in 1972. After the breakup of King Crimson at the end of 1974, Wetton played in a number of progressive rock and hard rock bands, including Roxy Music (1974–1975), Uriah Heep (1975–1976), U.K. (1977–1980), and Wishbone Ash (1980–1981).
Dance Band on the Titanic is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, released in 1977. Its vinyl release is a double album. It was later released as a single CD.
Legends of the Lost and Found: New Greatest Stories Live is the second live album by the American singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, released in 1979. It featured ten new songs plus live versions of six tracks from recent albums. The album was not released on CD until 2005 when the Chapin family acquired the rights to the music. The new version was remixed from the original multitrack recordings by Harry's son Josh and Chapin Foundation board member and archivist Jason Dermer (producer/engineer). While making every attempt to stay true to the original version's sound as mixed by Steve Chapin, the new release features a revised track order that better follows the progression and feel of a Harry Chapin concert from that time period, as well as vocals that, through modern technique, rely less on the overdubs that were used in the original.
Tom Chapin is an American musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter, and storyteller.
Savoy Brown were a British blues rock band formed in Battersea, southwest London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they promoted their albums with non-stop touring. Founder, guitarist and primary songwriter Kim Simmonds was the sole constant member of the band from its formation in 1965 until his death in 2022.
Humble Pie are an English rock band formed by singer-guitarists Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott in Moreton, Essex, in 1969. Often regarded as one of the first supergroups in music, Humble Pie experienced moderate popularity and commercial success during the 1970s with hit songs such as "Black Coffee", "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Hot 'n' Nasty" and "Natural Born Bugie" among others.
Robert Troy Kimball is an American retired singer and songwriter best known as longtime frontman of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008. Kimball has also performed as a solo artist and session singer.
Russell Kunkel is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician with many popular artists, including Bill Withers, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Harry Chapin, Rita Coolidge, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Cass Elliot, Dan Fogelberg, Glenn Frey, Art Garfunkel, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Carole King, Lyle Lovett, Reba McEntire, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger, Carly Simon, Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Joe Walsh, Steve Winwood, Neil Young, and Warren Zevon. He was the studio and touring drummer for Crosby & Nash in the 1970s and played on all four of their studio albums.
James Forbes Chapin was an American jazz drummer and the author of books about jazz drumming. He was the author of several albums on jazz drumming, as well as 2 CDs entitled Jim Chapin: Songs, Solos, Stories. He is in the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame and was posthumously inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2011.
Stephen Chapin is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as the youngest of the four Chapin brothers, which include Harry Chapin and Tom Chapin and is son of drummer Jim Chapin and Elspeth Burke Chapin Hart, editor, artist and matriarch of the Burke, Leacock, Chapin clan. He is the father of Christina Chapin, Frankie Chapin, and Jonathan Chapin, and married to Angela Chapin. He is the uncle of Jen Chapin and The Chapin Sisters. He has toured nationally and internationally, with his own band; The Harry Chapin Band; and with his late brother Harry Chapin as his band leader, musical director, arranger, producer, piano player/multi instrumentalist and singer. He continues to perform concerts all over the world with The Harry Chapin Band which includes the original members of the band: Steve Chapin, Big John Wallace, and Howard Fields, and new members since 2005, Clark Wallace and Jonathan Chapin.
"Mr. Tanner" is a song by Harry Chapin from his 1973 album, Short Stories. Big John Wallace plays Mr. Tanner by singing the chorus to "O Holy Night" in the background to the song's chorus.
A ghost band is a legacy band that performs under the name of a deceased leader. In rock and roll, it is a band that performs under the name of the band whose founders are either deceased or have left the band. Use of the phrase may refer to a repertory jazz music ensemble, such as a Dixieland band, with a longstanding, historic name. But in the strictest sense, a ghost band is connected in some way to a deceased leader.
Steve Gray was a British pianist, composer and arranger. He was an active session musician and arranger in the 1970s, and a performer and composer for the KPM 1000 Series of library music recordings. In the 1980s and into the 1990s Gray was a member of the instrumental rock band Sky, and later worked on ambitious arranging and composition projects for big bands in Holland and Germany.
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