Dan Fogelberg born 13 August 1951

Dan Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. While never particularly popular in the UK, he sold millions of albums in the US and remains a staple of easy-listening radio. Critics often sneered at his earnest lyrics, mixed metaphors and lush productions, yet these qualities were exactly what listeners responded to. 

He was born Daniel Grayling Fogelberg in Peoria, Illinois. His father had led big bands while his mother was an amateur opera singer. Using a Mel Bay course book, Fogelberg taught himself to play a Hawaiian slide guitar that his grandfather had given him. He also learned to play the piano. At age 14, he joined a band, The Clan, which covered The Beatles. His second band was another cover band, The Coachmen, who, in 1967, released a single with both tracks written by Fogelberg, recorded at Golden Voice Recording studio in South Pekin, Illinois, and released on the Ledger Record label: "Maybe Time Will Let Me Forget" and "Don't Want to Lose Her". 

After graduating from Woodruff High School in 1969, Fogelberg studied theater arts and painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He began performing as a solo acoustic player at a local coffeehouse, "The Red Herring", which is where he made his first solo recordings as part of a folk festival in 1971. He was discovered by Irving Azoff, who started his music management career promoting another Champaign-Urbana act, REO Speedwagon. 

Azoff sent Fogelberg to Nashville, Tennessee, to hone his skills. There he became a session musician and recorded his first album with producer Norbert Putnam. In 1972, Fogelberg released his debut album Home Free to a lukewarm response, although it eventually reached platinum status. He performed as an opening act for Van Morrison in the early 1970s. 

He was launched on his career by Irving Azoff, an Illinois native based in Los Angeles, who returned home to scout for talent and saw Fogelberg perform at a rowdy student bar. Impressed, Azoff told him: "You're the one. I'm ready for the big time. And I think you're ready for the big time too." Azoff secured Fogelberg a recording contract with music mogul Clive Davis. 

                                    

His 1972 debut album Home Free was recorded with top session musicians in Nashville, yet failed to sell. Fogelberg spent the next year working as a session musician until Davis, who felt the debut album's production was too "country", lined him up with the popular rock guitarist Joe Walsh as producer for his 1974 follow-up, Souvenirs. Walsh invited along such famous friends as Graham Nash and Don Henley to sing harmonies, and Souvenirs found its way on to radio playlists, selling more than 2m copies. 

Fogelberg immediately launched upon a campaign of touring and recording. He played all the instruments on his 1975 album Captured Angel, producing it as well, and in the same year supported the Eagles on tour - the band now also managed by Azoff. His 1977 album Nether Lands included orchestral backing and the following year, teaming up with jazz flautist Tim Weisberg, his album Twin Sons of Different Mothers produced the US hit The Power of Gold. In 1981, his double concept album The Innocent Age featured cameos from Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris and produced four US hit singles. His 1984 album Windows and Walls found Fogelberg out of step in the age of MTV. 

Rather than change his style, he recorded High Country Snows, a bluegrass album cut with Chris Hillman, which remains one of the best-selling bluegrass albums ever. Exiles (1987) found him brooding over his recent divorce while his early 1990s albums The Wild Places and River of Souls found him focusing on environmental concerns. In 1997, the box set Portrait encompassed his career with four discs, each highlighting a different facet of his music. In 1999, he released a Christmas album, The First Christmas Morning, and in 2003, Full Circle showcased a return to the folk-influenced 1970s soft rock style of music. 

Fogelberg spent much of his time on his Colorado ranch or on an island he owned off the coast of Maine. The acoustic Full Circle (2003) was his last album. He retired in 2004 after being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. "You've got to just follow your heart and do your best work," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind or heart that everything I've done is exactly what I intended to do." 

After undergoing therapy, his cancer went into partial remission. In August 2005, Fogelberg announced the success of his cancer treatments. However, his cancer returned and on December 16, 2007, Fogelberg died at home in Deer Isle, Maine, at the age of 56. Fogelberg was cremated and his ashes were scattered on Eggemoggin Reach (from his song, "The Reach") off the coast of Maine. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Garth Cartwright obit @ The Guardian)