Gary Usher

Songwriter, producer, arranger and occasional singer Gary Lee Usher was a major figure in the California rock music scene of the 1960s. He was born on December 14, 1938, in Los Angeles, California. Gary grew up in New England; he attended Norcross grammar school and graduated from Westborough High School in Massachusetts in 1957. Usher moved back to California in the late 1950s and was a musician in several bands prior to really hitting his stride in the early 1960s. He collaborated on more than ten songs with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys; he co-wrote the band's classics "409" (the substantial success of this particular song was a huge influence on the whole California-based hot-rod music genre of the 1960s), "The Lonely Sea," and "In My Room." He was involved as a producer and/or songwriter with many surf/hot-rod groups of the period which include The Hondells, The Competitors, The Quads, The Road Runners, The Super Stocks, The Four Speeds, The Silly Surfers, and The Surfaris. In addition, Usher also worked with such artists as Frankie Avalon, Don Brandon, Donna Loren, Gene Clark, Dick Dale, Wayne Newton, Annette Funicello, Gram Parsons, Chad and Jeremy, Sons of Adam, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Keith Allison, and Sagittarius. Gary produced three albums for the noted folk-rock band The Byrds: "Younger Than Yesterday," "The Notorious Byrd Brothers," and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." Usher discovered the comedy group The Firesign Theatre and produced their first album, "Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him." He created the label Together Records in 1969 but it went out of business the next year. Usher took a lengthy hiatus from the music industry in the 1970s. In 1984 he recorded the album "Sanctuary." Gary collaborated once again with Brain Wilson in 1986, although only the song "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car" has been released from these recording sessions. Gary produced several songs for the soundtrack of the "Beach Party" reunion movie Back to the Beach (1987) (he had previously composed the scores for the 1960s comedy romps Ski Party (1965) and The Girls on the Beach (1965)). Gary Usher died from cancer at the tragically young age of 51 on May 25, 1990, in Los Angeles, California.