Lonely People

This was written by Dan Peek, who along with Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, was one of the three original members of America. Many of Peek's compositions show a very spiritual and searching side and "Lonely People," a call for the lonely and despairing to seek God, is one of those songs and easily his best known. Peek left the band in 1977 to focus on his faith; after leaving America, he performed this song live, altering the lyric to leave no doubt of his intention, singing "Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup and give your heart to Jesus Christ." Peek died in 2011 at age 60.

Peek explained to Circus magazine that on this song, he was "thinking about what it would be like to wake up and not know anybody."

Famed Beatles producer George Martin helmed this song along with the rest of the album in London. Peek recalled to Circus: "Gerry (Beckley) had been in England, and we'd talked about using George Martin as our producer. He's such a hot arranger, thinking about all the stuff he's done. There were several other people we wanted to use, but that idea sort of flashed and George was available. Gerry had a house outside of London where we knew we could rehearse." The trio met with George Martin in Los Angeles, at the offices of America's managers, Geffen-Roberts. Peek remembered with a laugh: "The first thing he did was take his shirt, sweater and shoes off. He said it was too hot in L.A. He put everyone at ease, and we just got along well from the first second. He has a very musical mind, and as we began working we bounced ideas off of him quite a bit, with things like vocal arrangements and guitar parts. It was an amazing experience working for a mind-producer."