Robin McNamara (May 5, 1947 – October 21, 2021) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. McNamara was born in May 1947 in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

. In 1963, while in tenth grade, he formed a

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

group with a few school friends; they christened their band Robin and the Hoods, performing locally in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

area with McNamara as the lead vocalist. In the late 1960s, McNamara relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he became a cast member of the Broadway musical ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

'', playing the lead role of Claude from 1969 to 71. In 1969, he was introduced to

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Jeff Barry, who signed him to his

Steed Steed is a working animal used as a mount (especially for warfare). Steed may also refer to: People with the name *Steed Malbranque (born 1980), French footballer *Edward Steed (born 1987), British cartoonist *Joel Steed (born 1969), American fo ...

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. Together with McNamara's songwriting partner, Jim Cretecos, they wrote a song called " Lay a Little Lovin' on Me", which McNamara took to number 11 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

chart in the summer of 1970 and number 6 in Canada. The song peaked at number 49 in Australia in June 1970. A lack of further

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

success resulted in McNamara being dubbed a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

. The follow-up single, "Got To Believe In Love", did reach number 62 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, however. McNamara died on October 21, 2021, at the age of 74.Robin McNamara Dies: Star Of Broadway’s ‘Hair’, One-Hit-Wonder With ‘Lay a Little Lovin’ On Me’ Was 74
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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNamara, Robin 1947 births 2021 deaths American male pop singers Dot Records artists Musicians from Boston Songwriters from Massachusetts Musicians from Newton, Massachusetts American male songwriters