Gallagher and Lyle

Gallagher and Lyle were a Scottish musical duo, comprising singer-songwriters Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. Their style consisted mainly of pop, soft and folk rock oriented songs.

Their first recognition came in 1968, when they were signed by the Beatles to write for Apple Records' artists. They were founding members of the band McGuinness Flint and wrote the 1970 UK chart hit "When I'm Dead and Gone".

In 1972, they formed the duo Gallagher and Lyle, whose fifth album Breakaway charted well, the title track being a cover hit for Art Garfunkel in 1975, and it included the hit songs "Heart on My Sleeve" and "I Wanna Stay with You". Don Williams took their song "Stay Young" to No. 1 on the US Country charts.

The duo split in 1980, but re-formed in 2010 and worked together on an intermittent basis, mainly as a live act, until 2018.

Gallagher and Lyle have worked, jointly and individually, on records with, among others, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Joan Armatrading, Ralph McTell, Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention and Jim Diamond. Artists who have released Gallagher and Lyle songs include Bryan Ferry, Ringo Starr, Elkie Brooks, Fairport Convention, Art Garfunkel and Joe Brown.

They joined forces in 1959, initially as members of a local Largs-based band, The Bluefrets. They began writing original material for the band, while Gallagher also co-wrote "Mr Heartbreak's Here Instead" for Dean Ford and the Gaylords (later to become Marmalade). The duo issued a one-off single, "Trees" b/w "In The Crowd" under the name 'Gallagher-Lyle' on UK Polydor 56093 in 1967. They also backed singer James Galt, a friend of theirs from Largs, on two singles for Pye Records that are now highly prized by northern soul collectors: "Comes The Dawn"/"My Own Way" and "With My Baby"/"A Most Unusual Feeling". The first of these was composed by Gallagher, Lyle and Galt, while the second was written by, firstly, Lyle alone and secondly by Gallagher and Lyle.

They were then signed by Apple Records where they wrote for one of the label's most successful artists aside from The Beatles and Beatles-related acts, Mary Hopkin. Songs for Hopkin included "Sparrow", "The Fields of St. Etienne", "International", "Heritage" and "Jefferson". In 1970 Gallagher and Lyle were amongst the founders of McGuinness Flint, writing nine of the 11 songs on the group's debut album, including the UK Singles Chart Top 5 hits "When I'm Dead and Gone" and "Malt and Barley Blues", both of which were produced by Glyn Johns. They recorded a second album with McGuinness Flint, Happy Birthday Ruthy Baby, again writing most of the songs, before leaving to form the duo Gallagher and Lyle in 1972.

Their first album as a duo, Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle, was produced by Glyn Johns and released on Capitol; they then signed to A&M Records. They were to record three more albums with Johns, Willie and the Lapdog, Seeds and The Last Cowboy. Their fifth album Breakaway utilised US producer David Kershenbaum and it was with this release, in 1976, that they charted again, with the hits "Heart on My Sleeve" and "I Wanna Stay With You", both of which reached Number 6 in the UK Singles Chart and also charted in the US.