Larry Henley R.I.P.

[AM Matt]

Singer songwriter Larry Henley of The Newbeats ("Bread And Butter", "Everything's Alright" & "Run Baby Run" all on the Hickory label) & "Wind Beneath My Wings", a # 1 song for Bette Midler in late 1989, has died Thursday of Parkinson's disease at 77 years old. Roger Whittaker, the late Lou Rawls, the late Perry Como & country singer Gary Morris also covered "Wind Beneath My Wings". Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[alpertfan]

Any relation to Don?

 

[JeffM]

Actually, it might be more accurate to say Bette Midler "covered" the song, though she deserves credit for the most successful record. Roger Whittaker was apparently the first to record it; then Sheena Easton, who recorded it in both English and Spanish, though her label wouldn't release it as a "single." The first version I remember hearing was Lou Rawls'; I wondered then why it wasn't a much bigger hit. Guess it was just a matter of time...

 

[Dave]

It'd really be more fair to say that Bobby Goldsboro was the "first" to record it, him being a fellow-Nashville-ian... And having been to at least a couple of Bobby's concerts where he'd actually sung it, and said so, himself, then that fact holds most-true...

Henley was a champion song-writer who'd penned a few other hits for Goldsboro, as well as Johnny Tillotson and Bobby Vee... "Beautiful People" is one example...


-- Dave