Ruthann Friedman

Ruthann Friedman composed the Association's widely played soft rock success "Windy," yet she wrote dozens of additional pieces across the 1960s and 1970s that explored gentler psychedelic and inward-looking ground far removed from the buoyant elevator staple. Born inside the Bronx in 1944, she passed her formative years amid the Los Angeles suburbs before joining the rising hippie scene and adopting its itinerant way of life. Time spent in San Francisco brought friendships with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Van Dyke Parks, the last of whom arranged her introduction to the Association in 1967. The connection produced the biggest hit for both the group and the songwriter. Riding the wave of that track's massive reach, she released her first proper solo album, Constant Companion, on Reprise in 1971. The record made little impression until reissue label Water later revived her catalog, restoring the album in 2006 alongside the companion collection Hurried Life: Lost Recordings 1965-1971. A further set of previously unheard material surfaced in 2013 as Windy: Ruthann Friedman Songbook.