Sister Golden Hair - 2006 Remaster

America's first single, "A Horse With No Name," went to #1 in 1972. That song was written by Dewey Bunnell, who formed the band in 1970 with Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek (the group became a duo when Peek left in 1977). In 1975, they scored another #1 with "Sister Golden Hair," another enigmatic track with lots of harmony. It was written and sung by Beckley, who says that it was based on a composite of different girls. When asked if it was written to anyone, Beckley said: "No, this is all poetic license. With 'Sister Golden Hair,' as far as my folks were concerned, I was writing a song about my sister, and I couldn't quite fathom it; they must not have listened to the lyrics."

In his Songfacts interview, Gerry Beckley remembered writing the song by starting with the first line: Well I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damn depressed "I'd like to point out that you can have a #1 record with a line that enters that darkly," he said. "That's kind of my thing: I try to mix these emotions and I think 'Sister' was a great example. Pretty good message in there. John Lennon famously said, 'We don't know what these songs are about till people tell us.' So all of our songs, including 'Horse,' are open to interpretation. But 'Sister' was a relationship song and there is a variety of elements. We always combine them as songwriters so that they're not verbatim, word for word, for a particular circumstance. Poetic license we call it."

In our interview with Gerry Beckley, he explained that he made a demo of this song before America recorded their fourth album, Holiday, but he was happy with the songs they chose for that album so "Sister Golden Hair" sat on the shelf for a year, making the cut for their next album, Hearts. "I can't really tell you if it was a lack of faith in the song or not, but it was interesting to see," he said. "It shows you that songs can have a life of their own - they might just need the right time and circumstances to surface."