Dan Fogelberg

Dan Fogelberg’s mom was a music teacher and classically trained pianist, while his dad spent decades as a high school band director. ∙ He wrote 1981’s chart-topper “Leader of the Band” about his father, who encouraged four-year-old Fogelberg to pretend to conduct his marching bands. ∙ Fogelberg was the second artist managed by now-powerful music industry figure Irving Azoff, and the men were apartment-mates after moving to L.A. to make it big. ∙ His second album, 1974’s Souvenirs, was produced by Joe Walsh and featured contributions from Don Henley, Graham Nash, and Glenn Frey. ∙ Fogelberg’s biggest hit was the soft-rock ballad “Longer,” a harp- and flugelhorn-aided tune that reached No. 2 on the Pop chart in 1980. ∙ He based “Same Old Lang Syne” on a holiday trip home to Illinois, where he encountered an old flame while at the grocery store shopping for whipped cream. ∙ Fogelberg’s hit LP The Innocent Age was influenced by Thomas Wolfe’s novel Of Time and the River and included a quote from the book in its liner notes.