Henry Gross, born April 1, 1951, gained his widest recognition through the soft rock single “Shannon.” Raised in a household steeped in music—his mother sang briefly with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Chorus—he was already performing in local clubs by age fourteen. In 1969 he helped launch the doo-wop revival ensemble Sha Na Na, sharing stages with them at both the Fillmore and Woodstock. He departed the act in 1970, secured a solo deal with ABC Dunhill Records the next year, and saw his debut album pass largely unnoticed. Undeterred, he attracted the attention of producers Cashman & West, who placed him on A&M Records. His 1973 self-titled A&M release found solid regional sales and paved the way for 1974’s Plug Me into Something, which broadened his audience further. Gross next moved to the producers’ own Lifesong imprint for the album Release, whose gold-certified single “Shannon” drew inspiration from the passing of Carl Wilson’s Irish setter. Though Release and its singles enjoyed strong reception, the follow-up Show Me to the Stage yielded no comparable successes. After shifting to CBS for Love Is the Stuff, he issued What’s in a Name on Capitol in 1981; another Capitol project remained unreleased. He spent several years performing in a touring production of Pump Boys and Dinettes before relocating to Nashville in 1986. There he entered a publishing arrangement with Pic a Lic Music and saw I Keep on Rocking and She’s My Baby appear in Japan and Europe. During the 1990s he established his own Zelda Records, which issued, among other projects, 1993’s Nothing but Dreams. Songwriting commissions also flourished: alongside Blackhawk’s Henry Paul he wrote the band’s hit “Big Guitar,” while additional material reached Ronnie Milsap, Sonny Burgess, Cindy Lauper, Judy Collins, and Mary Travers.
