Danny O'Keefe

Most closely associated with his 1972 Top Ten entry "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues," singer/songwriter Danny O'Keefe was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, beginning his performing career on the Minnesota coffeehouse circuit of the mid-'60s. Through <a href="spotify:artist:3eskO5m0H4yiF64vRySBjr">Buffalo Springfield</a> manager Charles Greene, he landed a telephone audition with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic+Records%22">Atlantic Records</a> honcho <a href="spotify:artist:6Z6HnCqAg8vekEhGJsKbLG">Ahmet Ertegun</a>, signing with the label's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cotillion%22">Cotillion</a> imprint to issue his self-titled 1971 debut LP. The follow-up, 1972's O'Keefe, yielded his lone hit, "Good Time Charlie," later covered by <a href="spotify:artist:43ZHCT0cAZBISjO8DG9PnE">Elvis Presley</a> and many others. Although 1973's Breezy Stories failed to capitalize on the commercial success of its predecessor, it did generate two of O'Keefe's best-known compositions, "Magdalena" and "Angel Spread Your Wings" (covered by <a href="spotify:artist:04LIHk1SobiQwt2tlupoAV">Leo Sayer</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5yzE49FicYiSxN61oaxkNn">Judy Collins</a>, respectively). Following 1975's So Long Harry Truman, he jumped to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warner+Bros.%22">Warner Bros.</a> to issue 1977's American Roulette.

Around this time, O'Keefe played a series of charity concerts for environmental causes, with his efforts culminating two decades later with the formation of his Songbird Foundation, a group dedicated to the protection of songbirds harmed by aggressive coffee-growing practices in Latin America. In 1984 he also founded his own record label, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Coldwater%22">Coldwater</a>, which released his album The Day to Day that year. Runnin' from the Devil, his first new studio album in well over a decade, appeared in early 2000. Don't Ask, a collaborative album with Bill Braun, arrived in 2003. Five years later O'Keefe released In Time, and in 2015 the singer/songwriter issued Light Leaves the West, which was produced by <a href="spotify:artist:3rsOFJEoIMhuk487J4RbbL">Gary Shelton</a>. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi