Writer of "Wind Beneath My Wings" Larry Henley Dies

Larry Henley, the writer of "Wind Beneath My Wings," has passed away.  He passed away Dec. 18 at the age of 77. Henley was suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

He is best known for co-writing (with Jeff Silbar) the 1989 hit record, "Wind Beneath My Wings". The single was a U.S. number one hit for Bette Midler, and has since totaled around six million radio airplays. The song earned Henley and Silbar the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for 1989, and Bette Midler the Record of the Year award.

The song was originally recoded by Roger Whittaker in 1982 and has since been covered by Sheena Easton in her "Madness, Money and Music" album. Gary Morris had a country version of it later in the decade before the song reached its commercial peak in the hands of Bette Midler.

He was also the lead singer of pop group The Newbeats in the mid-1960s. The group had two hits that charted in the top 20 of Billboard magazine, with one of them, "Bread and Butter", reaching No. 2 on the Billboard charts and selling over a million copies. He had a solo album, Piece a Cake, released in 1975.

He wrote "Till I get it right" for Tammy Wynette, a 1973 number one hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles, later covered by Barbara Streisand and Kenny Rogers. Other #1 country hits were his songs Is It Still Over?, performed by Randy Travis, "Lizzie and the Rainman" by Tanya Tucker, and "He's a Heartache (Looking for a Place to Happen)" for Janie Fricke. Other songs included "Shotgun rider" for Delbert McClinton, "You're Welcome to Tonight" by Lynn Anderson and Gary Morris and "The World Needs a Melody" by The Carter Family with Johnny Cash.

Larry Henley also was a close friend of Bobby Goldsboro and it was actually because of Larry's urging that Bobby Goldsboro sang the song "Honey."  It was Larry who first listened to songwriter Bobby Russell's rendition of Honey. Goldsboro didn't actually want to record the song originally, but Larry insisted that it was a great song and that he should do a recording of "Honey", and the rest is history, with Bobby Goldsboro hitting the #1 spot on Billboard Top 100 for 5 weeks in 1968. It was one of the best songs of the year in terms of airplay and sales.

He was a 2012 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

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