Gary Puckett

Gary Dale Puckett (born October 17, 1942) is an American singer widely known as the lead vocalist for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, who had six consecutive gold records in 1968, including "Woman Woman", "Young Girl", "Lady Willpower", "Over You", "Don't Give In to Him" and "This Girl Is a Woman Now."

After the Union Gap disbanded in 1971, Puckett signed to Columbia and embarked on a solo career. After a decade-long hiatus starting in 1972, he returned to music in the early 1980s, and has since released a handful of studio albums.

Puckett was born in Hibbing, Minnesota. When he was six, his family moved to Yakima, Washington (not far from Union Gap, Washington), where he grew up. Puckett learned how to sing and play guitar during his teens.

He went to college for two years in San Diego, California, majoring in psychology, then dropped out to work in a band called the Outcasts.

Gary's first group was The Outcasts, which included Bobby Brown (bass), Dwight Bement (saxophone; also later member of the Union Gap), Bob Salisbury (saxophone), and Willie Kellogg (drums). Originally formed as a Righteous Brothers-styled duo by Puckett and Brown, their manager Yale Kahn, owner of the Clairemont Bowl, added Bement, Salisbury, and Kellogg to the lineup.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.