Three sons of military men whose fathers were stationed in England in the early 1950s, at the United States Air Force installation at RAF West Ruislip, London, and whose mothers were English, all happened to be back in England in the mid-1960s and all three attended London Central High School, about 16 miles Northwest of London, where they met while playing in two different bands.

• The three were:
• Gerry Beckley-born September 12, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas.
• Dewey Bunnell-born January 19, 1951, in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England.
• Dan Peek-born November 1, 1950, in Panama City, Florida.

They decided to start their own band that was initially called, Daze. However, while trying to think of a different name for the band, they saw an old jukebox with the name "Americana" written on it. It made them think about how much they'd like to go back to America and thus the band named AMERICA was born in 1969.

• Regular personnel on all of the following albums were:
• Gerry Beckley: Lead and backing vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass, harmonica, lap steel guitars.
• Dewey Bunnell Lead and backing vocals, guitars.
• Dan Peek: Lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass.

America: The first album, simply titled America, was released in 1971, without the song, "A Horse with No Name." Even with the group's subtle harmonies and acoustic style, it had only moderate success and sales were disappointing. The group's producer, Ian Samwell (formerly lead guitarist for Cliff Richards and composer of Richard's hit song, "Move It," decided America should record a few other songs that had done well in recent live performances. One of those recorded at this session was, "A Horse with No Name." It was released as a single in 1971 and became a worldwide hit early in 1972. Subsequently, the album, America, was reissued, this time including "A Horse with No Name," and it became a #1 hit in the US for several weeks, and reached Platinum status.

Homecoming: Early in 1972, the group decided to relocate to Los Angeles, California to record their second album, Homecoming. They left Ian Samwell (who produced their first album) and their manager, Jeff Dexter, in England and decided to produce this album themselves. They made the decision to move away from their former acoustic style and try a more rock sound. Homecoming, released in November of 1972, also reached Platinum status and America won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1972 for their efforts on Homecoming and it had 3 songs reach the Top Ten: "Ventura Highway (#8)," "Don't Cross the River (#35)" & "Only in Your Heart (#62)."

• Additional personnel on this album:
• Hal Blaine: Drums.
• Joe Osborn: Bass.

Hat Trick: America's third album, Hat Trick, was recorded at the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles, and was released in October of 1973. This album, too was self-produced and included many new instruments and techniques. This album was not as successful as Homecoming.

• Additional personnel on this album:
• Hal Blaine: Drums.
• David Dickey: Bass.

Holiday: This time, the group decided to get professional help in producing the album, and they were lucky enough to get George Martin (who produced all of the Beatles albums). Not surprisingly, Holiday had an entirely different style than the group's pervious albums thanks to Martin's penchant for strings & brass. Holiday had one hit track, "Tin Man (#4)," score in 1975 and the album itself reached Gold sales.

Hearts: Produced by George Martin, recorded in Sausalito, California and released in March of 1975, it readhed Gold status and had three hits: Sister Golden Hair (#1), Daisy Jane (#20) & Woman Tonight (#44).

History: America's Greatest Hits: In December of 1975, the Warner Bros. label released, History. George Martin again produced the album on which he remixed and placed several hits from the group's earlier albums. This was America's second album to attain Platinum status, in fact, it was Platinum x 4.

Hideaway: Once again produced by George Martin, Hideaway was recorded at the Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado. It was released in April of 1976 resulting in 2 successful singles: "Today's the Day" (23) and "Amber Cascade" (#75), and Gold sales for the album.

Harbor: Recorded on the island of Kauai, Hawaii during late 1976, Harbor continued the downward sales trend. Harbor did not have any hit singles.

Soon after Harbor was released, Dan Peek, who had been battling an addiction to drugs, left the band. After cleaning himself up, he signed with Pat Boone's Lamb & Lion Records to make Christian music.

• Regular personnel on all the following albums were:
• Gerry Beckley: Lead and backing vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass, harmonica, and lap steel guitars.
• Dewey Bunnell Lead and backing vocals, and guitars.

Live: Beckley & Bunnell ended their contract with Warner Bros. and released their first concert LP, Live, in October of 1977. Recorded at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, the performance featured a backing orchestra conducted by Elmer Bernstein. The album scored briefly on the popular charts.

Single: After more than two years without new studio material, during March 1979, Beckley and Bunnell presented the group's new style with a cover of The Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'", part of the soundtrack for the movie "California Dreaming." Although the movie was unsuccessful commercially and the single scored as high as #56 on the charts. The flip side, "See It My Way," didn't reach the top 100.

Silent Letter: America's first studio album without Peek, Silent Letter, was released in June 1979 on their new label, Capitol Records. The album, once again produced by Martin, was recorded in Montserrat in the West Indies. On this album, the group wanted to increase their commercial success so they tried using song written by others, but Silent Letter never got past #110 on the Billboard Album chart, prompting Bunnell to refer to it as "Silent Record."

• Additional personnel on this album:
• David Dickey: Bass.
• Willie Leacox: Drums.
• Michael Woods: Lead guitar.
• Jim Calire: Keyboards, saxophone.
• Tom Walsh: Percussion.

Alibi: Early in 1980, losing the services of George Martin, America replaced him with producers Matthew McCauley & Fred Mollin who dropped Martin's string and brass sound for a more rock sound. Alibi became the third studio album in a row without a successful single in the in the United States. It reached #142 on the charts.

• Additional personnel on this album:
• Timothy B. Schmit (formerly with the Eagles): Vocals, bass, percussion, violin, ukulele.
• Leland Sklar: Bass guitar, vocals.
• Steve Lukather: Vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, mandolin, lute.

View from the Ground: Released in July of 1982, View from the Ground finally turned things around for the group. It contained a number of songs that the Beckley-Bunnell duo produced themselves and two hit singles: "You Can Do Magic" (#8) & "Right Before Your Eyes" (#45). Although the album failed to achieve Gold- or Platinum-rated sales, it did reach #41 on the album chart, which was an improvement over the past few releases.

• Additional personnel on this album:
• Carl Wilson (formerly with the Beach Boys.): Guitars, keyboards, bass.
• Jeff Porcaro (formerly with Toto): Drums, percussion.
• Christopher Cross (of "Sailing" and "Ride Like the Wind" fame): Vocals, guitar, piano.
• Dean Parks (best known for his work with Steely Dan): rhythm and steel guitars.
• Russ Ballard (formerly with Argent): Guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, harmonica. Ballard produced and played most of the instruments on "You Can Do Magic."

Your Move: Because of the success that Russ Ballard's input gave "You Can Do Magic," he was hired to produce the entire album, Your Move. Released in June of 1983, Ballard wrote most of the songs and played most of the instrument, leaving just the vocals for Beckley & Bunnell. However, on the single, "The Border," Bunnell did some rewriting of the lyrics, added the backing of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plus Raphael Ravenscroft on sax, and the song reached #33 on the Pop chart in August of 1983. The album rose to only #81.

• Additional personnel on this album:
• The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
• Raphael Ravenscroft (credits include work with ABBA, Kim Carnes, Marvin Gaye, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Bonnie Tyler and, most famously, Gerry Rafferty, performing the iconic saxophone solo on "Baker Street"): Saxophone.

America's work was also featured on several soundtracks during this period. Beckley and Bunnell contributed several tracks to The Last Unicorn soundtrack in 1982. The soundtrack became popular in Germany, and the group frequently plays its title track when touring in that country. America also recorded "Love Comes Without Warning" for the 1984 Steve Martin comedy, The Lonely Guy.

Perspective: Meanwhile, America opted for a decidedly different style from its previous offerings for its twelfth studio album, Perspective, released in September 1984. Ballard was out, and synthesizers and drum machines were in. Several different producers, including Richie Zito, Matthew McCauley, and Richard James Burgess, helped create an electronic popular style that was very common during the 1980s, but drastically different from America's usual style. "Special Girl", the album's first single, was culled from hired songwriters and failed to make the charts. The next single, "Can't Fall Asleep to a Lullaby", was co-written by Bunnell, Journey's Steve Perry, Robert Haimer, and Bill Mumy, the latter of Lost In Space fame. Although neither track was played on popular radio, both did achieve minor success on the Adult Contemporary charts. The album itself was unable to score more than #185 during a brief three-week stint on the charts in October 1984.

In Concert: Their main commercial success ending by now, Beckley and Bunnell ended their contract with Capitol Records with In Concert, released in July 1985. The concert was recorded at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California, on June 1, 1985. In Concert became the first America album to miss the charts entirely.

Beckley and Bunnell spent the latter half of the 1980s focusing on their live show, which they performed well over 100 times a year around the world. While America remained a hot ticket on the touring circuit, they were unable to land a recording contract in the years after they left the Capitol label.

Encore: More Greatest Hits: By the early 1990s, the development of compact discs caused the reissuing of many older popular albums, providing many popular acts like America with revived sales. During 1991, America was able to offer four brand new tracks as part of a collection issued by Rhino Records called Encore: More Greatest Hits, which was designed to complement the group's original 1975 retrospective. Standout tracks, even though they did not reach any of the charts, were the Bunnell-Haimer-Mumy collaboration "Nothing's So Far Away (As Yesterday)" and Beckley's "On Target."

Hourglass: America's resurgence caught the eye of Chip Davis of American Gramaphone Records, who signed the group to his label. In May 1994, America released its first new studio album in a decade with Hourglass. Produced primarily by Beckley and Bunnell, with help from Hank Linderman and Steve Levine, the album featured an eclectic group of songs. "Young Moon", a rare joint songwriting effort from Bunnell and Beckley, combined Beckley's love ballad formula with Bunnell's visual imagery. In contrast, "Greenhouse" featured a rough, rocking sound performed by the live band. Re-recordings of "You Can Do Magic" and "Everyone I Meet Is From California" were also included. In the end, despite generally positive reviews, the album failed to become successful commercially.

Van Go Gan: During 1995 Beckley delivered his long-anticipated debut solo album. Entitled Van Go Gan, the album experimented with various styles and sounds. Beckley also revisited some earlier America material, including a remake of "I Need You." Comedian Phil Hartman (of Saturday Night Live fame, who during his earlier career as a graphic artist had designed the "America" logo), was featured as the uproarious voice of a televangelist preacher on "Playing God." Although it received exceptionally warm reviews, the album was initially available only as an expensive Japanese import.

In Concert: Released in 1995 by the King Biscuit company, the concert was actually taken from a 1982 installment of the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. Known as In Concert (not to be confused with the 1985 Capitol release of the same name), King Biscuit experienced modest success with the album.

Human Nature: The success of In Concert resulted in a new record deal with King Biscuit's subsidiary label, Oxygen Records and Human Nature reached the stores in September of 1998. The new album had modest commercial blitz. The first single, Beckley's "From A Moving Train," featured a strongly acoustic style. The track received considerable airplay and moderate success in adult contemporary formats. A second attempt at a single in "Wednesday Morning" was somewhat less successful. Although the album had a number of strong tracks, in the end it failed to achieve the sales that Oxygen was expecting, and America was once again without a record deal.

Highway: 30 Years of America: The next few years saw the group's catalog expand with a number of side projects, reissues of older albums on CD, and several major retrospective releases. In July 2000, Rhino released Highway: 30 Years of America, a three-CD, boxed set which included 64 remastered tracks spanning the group's career. Included were a handful of alternative mixes and demos such as an early take of a stripped-down "Ventura Highway."

The Complete Greatest Hits: Released in August 2001, Rhino's trimmed-down, single disc compilation, The Complete Greatest Hits, contained all of the group's 17 charting Billboard singles. The disc also included two newly-recorded songs, "World Of Light" and "Paradise." The album represented another milestone for the group. Peaking at #152 on the Billboard album charts in October 2001, it was America's first charting album since Perspective in 1984.

Go Man Go: In February 2000 Beckley released Go Man Go, an album remixing a number of tracks from Van Go Gan. The original Van Go Gan album finally saw its initial domestic release that July with bonus tracks.

America had a somewhat unusual regaining of fame during 2001 with the success of Janet Jackson's single "Someone to Call My Lover." Jackson's track wove the famous "Ventura Highway" guitar riff into a song which rose to #3 on the Billboard pop charts, and introduced one of America's most recognizable melodies to a new generation.

Holiday Harmony: America fans were treated to new material in late 2002. In October, the group released its first Christmas album, Holiday Harmony. Produced by Andrew Gold, the album received positive reviews for its imaginative blending of elements of classic America tunes into familiar holiday standards.

The Grand Cayman Concert: One month later, in November 2002, America released a live album, The Grand Cayman Concert. Recorded the previous April in the Cayman Islands, the concert featured just Beckley and Bunnell on acoustic guitars, a throwback to the earliest days of their career. Included were their most familiar songs along with a few rarities, such as "Wind Wave" and "Pigeon Song."

Re-releases & concerts: After this new material, the band ended their recording, as Beckley and Bunnell concentrated on their lucrative touring schedule. America occasionally offered new DVDs, such as a re-release of their 1979 concert film, Live In Central Park, a 2004 concert at the Sydney Opera House, and a 2005 show at the Ventura, California, Concert Theater. Also in 2005, America appeared on the PBS concert series SoundStage with long-time friend Christopher Cross.

Horizontal Fall: In April 2006, after a few solo concerts, Beckley released his second solo album of all-new material, the well-received Horizontal Fall.