Gary Usher
Biography
Biography
An influential creative force behind a number of California-based 1960s musical groups, Gary Usher's legacy lives on in several well-known recordings, including huge hits from The Beach Boys, Dick Dale, and The Byrds. Born on Dec. 14, 1938 in Los Angeles, CA, Usher was a musician in several bands before eventually co-writing and/or producing a series of hits for a number of surf rock acts and performers, including most-famously the Beach Boys reclusive leader Brian Wilson, for whom Usher was his first outside collaborator. The duo went on to co-write ten songs together, including the hits "In My Room" and "409." From there, Usher produced (and performed on with other studio musicians) a number of studio-created surf acts such as The Hondells and The Four Speeds. This was in addition to sessions with better known acts like The Byrds, Frankie Avalon, Dick Dale, Wayne Newton, Chad and Jeremy, and Sagittarius. Usher also recorded several singles as a lead singer, often under false names. Following his departure from the A&R department at Columbia Records in 1969, he went on to form his own short-lived Together Records in 1969. After the label folded the following year, Usher left the music business for several years before returning with a variety of experimental projects including his own solo album, Celestium, in 1984. An attempted reunion with Brian Wilson in 1986 was cut short following Usher's run-ins with Wilson's notorious therapist at the time, Dr. Eugene Landy. Outside of the single "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car," most of the songs Wilson and Usher worked on never saw release. Gary Usher died at the age of 51 in 1990.
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