Michael Ward Settle (born March 20, 1941) is an American songwriter, journalist, broadcaster and singer. Settle began his musical career as a solo singer and a member of

The New Christy Minstrels The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including " Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver", and ...

. His debut solo album ''Folk Sing Hallelujah'' (1961) as Mike Settle and the Settlers, received good reviews and the title track " Sing Hallelujah" was covered on singles by several artists in Europe, and a hit for

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

(1967). His song "Settle Down (Goin' Down That Highway)" was recorded by

Peter, Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary was an American folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival phenomenon. The trio consisted of tenor Peter Yarrow, baritone Paul Stookey, and contralto Mary Travers. The group's reper ...

on their 1963 album, ''Moving'', and was its second single. Settle is best known as a member of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition between 1967 and 1970. While he was with the group he composed a number of songs, including " But You Know I Love You" (a No. 19 pop hit in 1969), as well as "It's Gonna Be Better", "The Last Few Threads Of Love" and "Goodtime Liberator", among many others. He was later a member of the group Running Bear and Goldstein which recorded the original song "Rings", popularized by

Cymarron Cymarron was an American soft rock band from the 1970s, most famous for their song "Rings", a number 17 hit in 1971. The recording went to No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at number 66 in Australia. "Rings" was also th ...

(1971) and Lobo (1974). He also contributed three songs to the soundtrack of the 1971 cult classic movie ''

Vanishing Point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...

''. In 1971, Settle sang lead on a song which was distributed as a cardboard cut-out record (version #2) attached to the back of hundreds of thousands Post Sugar Crisp cereal boxes: "You Are The One" by the Sugar Bears, a studio project involving Settle, producer

Jimmy Bowen James Albert Bowen (born November 30, 1937) is an American record producer and former rockabilly singer. Bowen brought Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood together, and introduced Sinatra to Mel Tillis for their album, ''Mel & Nancy.'' Early life ...

Kim Carnes Kim Carnes (; born July 20, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a sess ...

, Baker Knight and others. An album, ''Presenting the Sugar Bears'', and three singles were released on

Big Tree Records Big Tree Records was a record label founded by Doug Morris in 1970. It was best known for releases by Lobo, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Brownsville Station, Johnny Rivers, Dave and Ansel Collins, Canadian band April Wine, and British R&B ...

, with "You Are The One" eventually peaking at No. 51 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

pop chart in April 1972. Settle was credited over the years variously as a producer, arranger, vocalist and musician on albums by

, John Stewart,

Glenn Yarbrough Glenn Robertson Yarbrough (January 12, 1930 – August 11, 2016) was an American folk singer and guitarist. He was the lead singer (tenor) with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963 and also had a prolific solo career. Yarbrough had a restless ...

and

the Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...

Discography

*''Folk Sing Hallelujah'' (1961) (as Mike Settle and the Settlers, Folk Sing FLP 10001) *''Pastures Of Plenty'' (1963) (Folk Sing FLS-31002) *''The Mike Settle Shindig'' (1965) (as The Mike Settle Shindig,

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...

RS-6149) *''Mike Settle'' (1971) ( UNI 73123) *''Seven by Mike Settle/Eight by

Dick Weissman Richard Weissman (born January 21, 1935) is an American singer, composer, banjo player, author and teacher. Life and career He was born in Philadelphia, and studied at Goddard College in Vermont. After learning to play banjo, he moved to New ...

'' (197?) ( The Richmond Organization 12-01, publisher's promo album)

References

External resources

Mike Settle at AllMusic.com

Label scans at www.45cat.com
Living people 1941 births Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma RCA Victor artists American music critics American male journalists Kenny Rogers and The First Edition members American country singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma Country musicians from Oklahoma The Back Porch Majority members The New Christy Minstrels members {{US-music-bio-stub