Danny O'Keefe (born May 20, 1943) is an American folk singer and songwriter.
Career
In 1968, O'Keefe was a member of a four-man heavy psychedelic rock band named the Calliope.
The group recorded one album, ''Steamed'', for
Buddah Records
Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...
before disbanding.
O'Keefe is best known for the
hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...
, "
Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues", which was released in September 1972,
and reached number 9 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and for "The Road", covered by
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
on ''
Running on Empty''. "Good Time Charlie" stayed on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' chart for 14 weeks and sold a million copies.
The
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
issued a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
in June 1973.
The song became O'Keefe's only song to reach the Australian top 100, peaking at number 53 in February 1973.
In Canada, an earlier single, ''Covered Wagon'', reached number 86 on March 6, 1971.
O'Keefe's songs have been covered by numerous musicians, including Jackson Browne ("The Road"),
Gary Stewart ("Quits"),
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American country musician and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' on CBS television from ...
("Quits"),
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
("Along for the Ride"),
Donny Hathaway
Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto" ...
("Magdalena"),
Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer (born Gerard Hugh Sayer, 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter who has been active since the early 1970s. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009.
Sayer launched his career in the United Kingd ...
("Magdalena"),
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis m ...
,
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
("Angel Spread Your Wings"),
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock a ...
,
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...
,
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music.
Jennings started playing ...
,
Jimmy Buffett
James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman. He was known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapis ...
("Souvenirs"),
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at ...
,
Ben Harper
Benjamin Charles Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae, and rock music, and he is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, liv ...
,
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...
,
Mark-Almond
Mark–Almond was a jazz-influenced English pop group of the 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes also called The Mark-Almond Band. The core members were Jon Mark, who sang lead and played guitar, percussion, and harmonica, and Johnny Almond, wh ...
,
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
, and
Dwight Yoakam ("Under the Covers"). In Italy his song "The Road" has been covered by
Ron Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
, with Italian lyrics written by
Lucio Dalla
Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.
Dalla was the composer of "Caruso (song), Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enri ...
(and re-titled "Una città per cantare").
In 2023, O'Keefe released "''Circular Turns''".
Discography
* ''Introducing Danny O'Keefe'' (Panorama, 1966)
* ''Danny O'Keefe'' (Cotillion, 1970)
* ''
O'Keefe'' (Signpost, 1972)
* ''Breezy Stories'' (Atlantic, 1973)
* ''So Long Harry Truman'' (Atlantic, 1975)
* ''American Roulette'' (Warner Bros., 1977)
* ''The Seattle Tapes'' (First American, 1977)
* ''The Seattle Tapes Vol. II'' (First American, 1978)
* ''The Global Blues'' (Warner Bros., 1979)
* ''The Day to Day'' (Coldwater, 1984)
* ''Redux'' (Beachwood, 1989)
* ''Runnin' from the Devil'' (Miramar, 1999)
* ''In Time'' (Bicameral Songs, 2008)
* ''Light Leaves the West'' (Road Canon Music, 2015)
* ''Home'' (Road Canon Music, 2017)
* ''Looking Glass & The Dreamers'' (Road Canon Music, 2020)
* ''Circular Turns '' (Sunset Blvd, 2023)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:OKeefe, Danny
Living people
Musicians from Spokane, Washington
1943 births
Singer-songwriters from Washington (state)
Atlantic Records artists
Cotillion Records artists
Warner Records artists