Ruthann Friedman

Though her best-known composition was the ubiquitous soft rock hit the Association had with her breezy tune "Windy," songwriter Ruthann Friedman penned countless songs throughout the '60s and '70s, getting into more softly psychedelic and introspective territory than that elevator rock classic would suggest. Born in the Bronx in 1944, Friedman spent her youth in the suburbs of Los Angeles, eventually becoming part of the burgeoning hippie movement and taking to the road to live out that nomadic lifestyle. Some time spent in San Francisco saw her befriending scene luminaries like Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Van Dyke Parks, who eventually introduced her to the Association in 1967. This meeting led to the recording of their and her greatest hit, and on the heels of that song's enormous popularity, Friedman recorded her first official solo album, Constant Companion, released on Reprise in 1971. The album failed to make waves and it would be decades before reissue label Water discovered Friedman's catalog, re-releasing the album in 2006 along with a companion compilation entitled Hurried Life: Lost Recordings 1965-1971. In 2013, another volume of unissued recordings emerged, this one titled Windy: Ruthann Friedman Songbook.