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Harold Forster Chapin

Also Known As: "Gapin'"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, Kings County, New York, United States
Death: July 16, 1981 (38)
Jericho, Nassau County, New York, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of Jim Chapin and Elspeth Hart
Husband of Sandy Chapin
Brother of Private; Tom Chapin; Private; Private and Private

Occupation: Adult Contemporary Rock Musician
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:
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Immediate Family

About Harry Chapin

Harold Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter and philanthropist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s and became one of the most popular artists and highest-paid performers. Chapin is also one of the best charting musical artists in the United States. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide. He has been described as one of the most beloved performers in music history.

Chapin recorded a total of 11 albums from 1972 until his death in 1981. All 14 singles that he released became hits on at least one national music chart.

As a dedicated humanitarian, Chapin fought to end world hunger. He was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.[2] Chapin is credited with being the most politically and socially active American performer of the 1970s. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Chapin recorded a total of 11 albums from 1972 until his death in 1981. All 14 singles that he released became hits on at least one national music chart. Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; his work was a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Source: Wikipedia

Harry Forster Chapin was born on December 7, 1942 in New York City, the second of four children, who also included future musicians Tom and Steve. His parents were Jeanne Elspeth (née Burke) and Jim Chapin, a legendary percussionist. He had English ancestry. The earliest Chapin to come to America was Samuel Chapin, who was the first deacon of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1636. His other great-grandparents on his mother's side had immigrated in the late 19th century. His parents divorced in 1950, with his mother retaining custody of their four sons, as Jim spent much of his time on the road as a drummer for Big Band-era acts such as Woody Herman. Chapin's mother married Films in Review magazine editor Henry Hart a few years later. His maternal grandfather was literary critic Kenneth Burke.

Chapin's first formal introduction to music were trumpet lessons at The Greenwich House Music School under Mr. Karrasic (sic)[citation needed]. Harry's younger brothers Tom and Steve were choirboys at Grace Episcopal Church in Brooklyn Heights, and through them Chapin met "Big" John Wallace, a baritone with a five-octave range, who later became his bassist, backing vocalist, and straight man onstage. Chapin began performing with his brothers while a teenager, with their father occasionally joining them on drums. Chapin graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1960 and was among the five inductees in the school's Alumni Hall Of Fame for the year 2000. He briefly attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado and was then an intermittent student at Cornell University in New York State, but did not complete a degree.

A singer/songwriter and activist for many charitable causes, especially in the realm of ending world hunger, Harry Chapin never let the often lukewarm reviews of his music-making abilities faze him and as a result of his strong folksy persona, the fans he made stuck by him throughout his career and continue to this day. Born December 7, 1942, in New York's Greenwich Village the son of a big-band drummer, Harry's musical influence took hold at an early age. He took up trumpet playing originally but switched to strumming a guitar later and joined his younger brothers, Tom Chapin and Steve Chapin, in a homegrown musical act that was well received in the folk era of the 1960s. After a short stint in the Air Force Academy and studying architecture and later philosophy, at Cornell University, Harry tried his hand at film-making and found himself to be quite good at it, directing an academy award-nominated film about boxing heavyweights, Legendary Champions (1968). In the '70's, Harry joined Electra Records and produced a number of albums capitalizing on his story-telling abilities, resulting in his first major hit, "Taxi", which was one of the longest songs played on radio up until that time. He also found the time to produce a number of Broadway shows and write songs for his brother Tom's children's TV series, '"Make a Wish' (1970)'". Other recordings followed, such as the hits "Cat's in the Cradle" and "W.O.L.D". As Harry decided to put his fame to work, establishing himself as an activist for charitable causes as well as supporting self-sufficiency, he convinced President Jimmy Carter to create a Hunger Commission exploring ways to eliminate world hunger. His own organization, "World Hunger Year," formed with Bill Ayres, strenuously fought the good fight with Harry and his band performing virtually every other concert solely for the causes he espoused. In 1981, while on the way to another benefit, Harry's life was tragically ended in an automobile accident on the Long Island expressway.

He originally intended to be a documentary film-maker and took a job with The Big Fights, a company run by Bill Cayton that owned a large library of classic boxing films. Chapin directed Legendary Champions in 1968, which was nominated for a documentary Academy Award.[6] In 1971, he began focusing on music. With John Wallace, Tim Scott, and Ron Palmer, Chapin started playing in various nightclubs in New York City.

Was the childhood sweetheart of actress Mary Woronov

Gave over 300 concerts a year with half being benefits for various causes, most prominently, The World Hunger Year, dedicated to ending world hunger.

Brother of Tom Chapin, Steve Chapin, and Yue-Han Hsieh, who served on the board of World Hunger Year from its founding through 2001.

During his life, Harry supported 82 charities and 33 organizations focused on ending world hunger .
Posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1987.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 140-142. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

In 1972, there was a bidding war between music business heavyweights Clive Davis at Columbia and Jac Holzman at Elektra over Chapin. He signed a multi-million dollar recording contract with Elektra Records. The contract was one of the biggest of its time. It granted him free recording time, along with many other perks.[7]

The same year, he released his debut album, Heads & Tales. The album was an international success, selling over 1 million units. Its success was due to the top 25 Billboard Hot 100 hit single, "Taxi". The song also became a top 5 hit in Canada. The success of the song in America is credited to American radio personality Jim Connors, who helped promote the song on the radio despite its length, and helped it to stay on the charts for 16 weeks. It became the number one requested song for 10 weeks in a row. The song was performed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which received so many calls that Chapin returned the next night. It was the first time in the show's history that a performer had been called back the next night. It was also one of the first performances on The Midnight Special, with John Denver hosting.

His maternal grandfather was the prominent American philosopher, poet and literary critic Kenneth Burke. Is interred in Huntington Rural Cemetery in Huntington, Long Island, New York. The epitaph on his tombstone is a bit of verse from his song, "I Wonder What Would Happen to This World" which reads:

"Oh if a man tried To take his time on Earth And prove before he died What one man's life could be worth I wonder what would happen to this world"

The tombstone faces the state of Connecticut where he last resided. The Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award was created in 1981 to honor the legacy of the Folk-Rock singer-songwriter, who fought tirelessly to end world hunger and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1987 for his philanthropic work.

I've got nothing against selling out, but just let me do it for something that matters. Not so I can be Number One With a Bullet, as it were, but so I can leave this world feeling like I made a difference.

Most celebrity stuff is gestureville. I call it event psychosis. The bottom line is that the serious changes that happen are part of a long-range process. You have to commit to that, even though it's nice to have those moments of punctuation that are events.

Given this short opportunity we call life, it seems to me that the only sensible way--even if you have pessimistic thoughts about the 99 percent possibility that things are going wrong--is to operate on the one percent chance that our lives mean something.

The very reason we ask, why world hunger? tells you why we have a hunger problem. There are three necessities of life: water, air and food. It's not a luxury. It's not a cause like cystic fibrosis, cancer, heart disease. You haven't got the option to get those things if you don't have the three necessities.

Feeding hungry people is important in the short run, but in the long run you've got to realize that powerful forces are creating those hungry people. Those people don't just choose to starve. Our job is to look at those forces and deal with them.

This nation is looking for a vision. We had Manifest Destiny. We built the railroads, industry, won two World Wars. We're looking for something grand and good to do. I don't have much hope of it happening but feeding the world could be that thing.

I hold on to the blissful notion that the journey is worthwhile, and I tip toe 'cross the chasm with a song and a smile.

I'd rather make a mistake than do nothing.

Yes we can. Yes we can dream. Yes we can believe. Yes we can compete. If a brave new America is one where we can't dream, I'm very worried.

There's enough food to feed everyone on this planet twice over, why, why, why are people going hungry? The credo of my life is very simply, when in doubt, do something. The errors I make are going to be errors of commission, not omission.

I sing one night for me and one for the other guy.

When asked if the song was true, Chapin said "It's emotionally true, if not literally true. I've been in the film business on and off for a lot of years, and wasn't doing well at one point. So I went out and got a hack license for bread, and during the month that I was waiting for it to come through, I heard an old girlfriend of mine had gotten married and instead of becoming an actress she married a rich guy. I envisioned some night I'd be driving a cab in the big city streets and this lady would get in the back, and I'd turn and look at her and she'd look at me and know we both sold out our dreams."[8] Billboard ranked "Taxi" as the 85th song of the year. "Taxi" also earned Chapin a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist of the Year.

The follow up album, Sniper and Other Love Songs, was also released in 1972. The album's title song, "Sniper", is a semi-fictional account of the University of Texas tower shooting. The single release from the album, "Sunday Morning Sunshine", charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a top 40 on Billboard Adult Contemporary. The album was less successful than the last, selling 350,000 units. The album also contained the Chapin anthem, "Circle". In 2004, the double album Sniper and Other Love Songs and Heads & Tales was released. It contained previously unreleased tracks from both albums.

Career peak (1973–1975) In 1973, Chapin released his third album, Short Stories. The album produced another international hit, "W·O·L·D". Short Stories sold over 1 million units. The song is about an aging disc jockey who has given up his entire life and family for his career. The song is sung from the point of view of the disc jockey, who is singing to his ex-wife. It was inspired by American radio personality Jim Connors. Chapin wrote the song when he listened to Connors calling his ex-wife in the WMEX studio. The song became a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, a top 10 in Canada, and top 10 and 20 in various other countries. Other notable songs from the album, but not released as singles, are "Mr. Tanner", "Mail Order Annie", and "They Call Her Easy". The song, "Mr. Tanner", was loosely based on a pair of New York Times concert reviews of baritone Martin Tubridy – once in 1971[9] and once in 1972.[10]

In 1974, Chapin released his most successful album, Verities and Balderdash. The album sold 2.5 million units due to the number 1 hit, "Cat's in the Cradle". The song is about a father who doesn't find time for his son during his childhood; and ultimately his son grows up to be just like his father, not making any time for his dad. The song earned Chapin another Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Verities and Balderdash peaked at number 4 on the Billboard 200. The album's follow-up single, "I Wanna Learn a Love Song", charted at number 7 on Billboard Adult Contemporary. The song is a true story about how he met his wife, Sandra Chapin. "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" is a song that was included on the album but not released as a single. The song also became the number one requested song for a few weeks. It is a semi-fictional account of a truck crash that occurred in Scranton, Pennsylvania, transporting bananas - based loosely on a March 18, 1965 accident involving truck driver Gene Sesky [11][12]. Other notable songs from the album include "Shooting Star", "Halfway to Heaven", and "Six String Orchestra".

In 1975, Chapin released his fifth album, Portrait Gallery. The album produced a top 40 Billboard Adult Contemporary hit, "Dreams Go By". However, the album was less successful than the last. It sold 350,000 units. In addition, he wrote and performed a Broadway play, The Night That Made America Famous. The play earned two Tony Award nominations and two Drama Desk Award nominations.

Later years (1976–1981) By 1976, Chapin was established as one of the most popular singers of the decade. He released his first live album, Greatest Stories Live. The album sold 2.1 million units. However, Elektra Records underwent a management change and gave almost no promotion for his later albums with Elektra, but they all sold at least 250,000 units each and charted successfully.

By the end of the decade, Chapin concentrated more on touring than producing hit singles, but still released one album a year. He earned an estimated $2,000,000 per year (approximately $11,748,515 in 2017) until his death in 1981, making him one of the highest paid artists in the world. In 1980, his recording contract with Elektra expired. He signed a one-album contract with Boardwalk Records, and released his ninth studio album, Sequel. The album has been described as his fastest breaking album. Three singles were released, with all of them becoming hits. The first single, "Sequel", became a top 25 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is a followup to Taxi. The second single, Remember When The Music, became a top 50 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. The last single, Story of a Life, became a hit on the Bubbling Under chart. The album sold 500,000 units.

Chapin met Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston), a New York socialite 8 years his senior, in 1966 after she called him asking for music lessons. They married two years later. The story of their meeting and romance is told in his song "I Wanna Learn a Love Song". Chapin wrote several additional songs about her, including "Shooting Star" about their relationship, and "Sandy". He had two children with her, Jennifer and Joshua, and was stepfather to her three children from a previous marriage, Jaime, Jason, and Jonathan.

Chapin resolved to leave his imprint on Long Island. He envisioned a Long Island where the arts flourished, universities expanded, and humane discourse was the norm. "He thought Long Island represented a remarkable opportunity", said Chapin's widow, Sandy.[13]

In the mid-1970s, Chapin devoted much time and effort to social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States. His daughter Jen said: "He saw hunger and poverty as an insult to America."[14] He co-founded the organization World Hunger Year with radio personality Bill Ayres, before returning to music with On the Road to Kingdom Come. He also released a book of poetry, Looking ... Seeing, in 1975. More than half of Chapin's concerts were benefit performances (for example, a concert[15] to help save the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York, as well as hunger causes such as food banks), and proceeds from his concert merchandise were used to support World Hunger Year. Among those he helped is filmmaker Michael Moore, who, in 1977, got help funding his Detroit-area independent newspaper startup, The Flint Voice, with Chapin benefit concerts.[16] Chapin's social causes at times caused friction among his band members. Chapin donated an estimated third of his paid concerts to charitable causes, often performing alone with his guitar to reduce costs. Mike Rendine accompanied him on bass throughout 1979.[citation needed]

One report quotes his widow saying soon after his death – "only with slight exaggeration" – that "Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, seven foundations, and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, 'Money is for people,' so he gave it away." Despite his success as a musician, he left little money and it was difficult to maintain the causes for which he raised more than $3 million in the last six years of his life.[17] The Harry Chapin Foundation was the result.

n the afternoon of July 16, 1981, Chapin was en route on the Long Island Expressway to perform at a free benefit concert at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York that evening. At 12:27 PM, Chapin was fatally injured in a fiery traffic collision with a semi-trailer truck outside Jericho, New York. Passersby managed to help the unconscious Chapin out of his engulfed 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit and he was immediately taken by helicopter to the nearby Nassau County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1:05 PM due to internal bleeding.[4][18] Chapin's widow Sandy won a $12 million decision in a negligence lawsuit against Supermarkets General, the owners of the semi involved.[19]

Chapin is buried in the Huntington Rural Cemetery in Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his 1978 song "I Wonder What Would Happen to This World":

Oh if a man tried To take his time on Earth And prove before he died What one man's life could be worth I wonder what would happen to this world

On December 7, 1987, on what would have been his 45th birthday, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his campaigning on social issues, particularly his highlighting of hunger around the world and in the United States. His work on hunger included being widely recognized as a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger (under 39th President Jimmy Carter) in 1977 (he was the only member who attended every meeting).[20] He was also the inspiration for the antihunger projects USA for Africa and Hands Across America, which were organized by Ken Kragen, who had been Chapin's manager at the end of Chapin's career, after Fred Kewley.[21] Kragen, explaining his work on these benefit events, said, "I felt like Harry had crawled into my body and was making me do it."[22]

From around 1975 until the owners changed the format of the station in the late 1990s, WNEW-FM, 102.7, a NYC radio station with the motto, "Where Rock Lives" held an annual "Hungerthon" every Thanksgiving, to benefit Harry Chapin's World Hunger League. During the 24-hour period of the event, little to no music was played, with the exception of the iconic "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie played at noon and 6 pm. For the remainder of the day, during every DJ's four-hour show, guests such as Harry himself, other music stars, and experts on hunger brought to the listeners information about the severity of hunger in America, in New York City, and in the tri-state area, sometimes in graphic detail. After Harry's death, the "Hungerthon" continued, and at the "U.S. Live Aid" concert in Philadelphia at JFK Stadium in 1985, Kenny Loggins was presented with the first "Harry Chapin Award" for his work for the World Hunger League in fighting hunger in America. Since WNEW-FM changed formats, other New York stations have continued to do fundraisers for the charity.

Chapin had co-operated before his death with the writer of the biography entitled Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story, by Peter M. Coan, released posthumously, from which the family withdrew their support. Some concern existed about the accuracy of the details included in the book.[citation needed] In 2001, Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was ranked number 186 of 365 on the Recording Industry Association of America list of Songs of the Century. Chapin was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

The Lakeside Theatre at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, was renamed Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre during a memorial concert held one month after his death, as a tribute to his efforts to combat world hunger. Other Long Island landmarks named in honor of Chapin include a graduate-student apartment complex at Stony Brook University, a theater in Heckscher Park in Huntington, New York, and a playground at the intersection of Columbia Heights and Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights.

On September 27, 2011, former U.S. Representative Alan Grayson wrote an article on the internet publication The Huffington Post about Chapin's song "What Made America Famous".[23]

Singer and songwriter Guthrie Thomas has long publicly stated that Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle" is one of the most difficult songs to perform, due to Chapin's master guitar playing and his brilliant syncopation of the lyrics, meaning each word must fit perfectly and in time with the playing. Also, despite seeming social and political differences with Chapin, Dr. James Dobson often quotes the entirety of "Cat's In The Cradle" to illustrate dynamics of contemporary American families.[24]

The village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, has hosted the Harry Chapin Run Against Hunger, a 10k, 5k, and Fun Run, since 1981.

A children's picture book was created using the lyrics of "Mr. Tanner" and the illustrations of Bryan Langdo; it was published by Ripple Grove Press in May 2017.

Harry's widow Sandy is now chair of the Harry Chapin Foundation, where she continues to pursue Harry's legacy. His son Josh is involved with the foundation, along with other family members.[25]

Chapin often remarked that he came from an artistic family. His father Jim, brothers Tom and Steve, and daughter Jen Chapin are musicians. His nieces Abigail and Lily Chapin perform under the name the Chapin Sisters. His paternal grandfather, James Ormsbee Chapin, was an artist who illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry; his maternal grandfather was the philosopher and rhetorician Kenneth Burke.[5]

Harry Chapin's brothers sometimes performed with Harry at various times throughout his career, particularly during live performances. They played with him before his solo career took off, and were credited on the albums Greatest Stories Live, Legends of the Lost and Found, and Chapin Music! Tom and Steve continued to perform together (often with Harry's former bandmates) from time to time after his death.

Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is Chapin's fifth cousin.[26]

Heads & Tales (1972, Elektra)

Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972, Elektra)

Short Stories (1973, Elektra)

Verities & Balderdash (1974, Elektra)

Portrait Gallery (1975, Elektra)

Greatest Stories Live (Double Album, 1976, Elektra)

On the Road to Kingdom Come (1976, Elektra)

Dance Band on the Titanic (Double Album, 1977, Elektra)

Living Room Suite (1978, Elektra)

Legends of the Lost and Found (Double Live Album, 1979, Elektra)

Sequel (1980, Boardwalk Records)

Anthology of Harry Chapin (1985, Elektra)

Remember When the Music (1987, Dunhill Compact Classics)

The Gold Medal Collection (1988, Elektra)

The Last Protest Singer (1988, Dunhill Compact Classics)

Harry Chapin Tribute (1990, Relativity Records)

The Bottom Line Encore Collection (1998, Bottom Line / Koch)

Story of a Life (1999, Elektra)

Storyteller (1999, BOA Records, a re-release of Sequel)

Onwards and Upwards (2000, Harry Chapin Foundation)

VH1 Behind the Music: The Harry Chapin Collection (2001, Elektra)

Songwriter (2002, Harry Chapin Foundation)

The Essentials (2002, Elektra)

Classic Hits of Harry Chapin (2003, Warner Special Products)

Heads & Tales / Sniper and Other Love Songs (2004, Elektra. Double CD re-release of first two albums with bonus tracks)

Introducing ... Harry Chapin (2006, Rhino Records)

Bottom Line Archive Series: Live 1981 (2015, The Bottom Line Record Company)

The Singles A's & B's (2019, Wounded Bird Records)

"Taxi"

"Could You Put Your Light On, Please"

"Sunday Morning Sunshine"

"A Better Place to Be"

"W·O·L·D"

"Cat's in the Cradle"

"What Made America Famous?"

"I Wanna Learn a Love Song"

"Dreams Go By"

"A Better Place to Be (Live)"

"Flowers Are Red"

"Sequel"

"Remember When the Music"

"Story of a Life"

An Evening With ... Harry Chapin (also known as "The Book of Chapin") (1998)

Rockpalast Live (2002)

Remember When: The Anthology (2005)

You Are the Only Song (also known as "The Final Concert") (2006)

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Harry Chapin's Timeline

1942
December 7, 1942
Brooklyn, New York, Kings County, New York, United States
1981
July 16, 1981
Age 38
Jericho, Nassau County, New York, United States