Donald W. Gant (October 24, 1942 – March 15, 1987) was an American

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. With

Tupper Saussy Frederick Tupper Saussy III (July 3, 1936 – March 16, 2007) was an American composer, musician, author, artist, tax protester and conspiracy theorist. He was a self-styled theologian, restaurant owner, ghostwriter of James Earl Ray's biogr ...

, in the late 1960s he formed

The Neon Philharmonic The Neon Philharmonic (formed 1967) was an American psychedelic pop band led by songwriter and conductor Tupper Saussy and singer Don Gant, produced by Saussy, Gant, and Bob McCluskey, and engineered by Gant's brother Ronald. Although the fi ...

. Singing vocals, with Saussy on the keyboards, they recorded five

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

and two albums for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

between 1969 and 1971. The albums were '' The Moth Confesses'' (1969), containing the duo's biggest hit "Morning Girl" (peaked at #17 on 7–14 June 1969), and the eponymous ''

'' (1969). In

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

he worked at

Acuff-Rose Music Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. was an American music publishing firm formed in 1942 by Roy Acuff and Fred Rose (songwriter), Fred Rose in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Currently, the company's catalog is owned by Sony Music Publishing. Early hi ...

as a songwriter and as an executive. He wrote a number of songs himself and co-wrote with

Joe Melson Joe Melson (born May 11, 1935) is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter best known for his collaborations with Roy Orbison, including "Only the Lonely" and "Crying", which are both in the Grammy Hall of Fame and have both been inc ...

. Songwriter

Mickey Newbury Milton Sims "Mickey" Newbury Jr. (May 19, 1940 – September 29, 2002) was an American singer-songwriter and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Early life and career Newbury was born in Houston, Texas, on May 19, 1940, to Mam ...

said of Gant that there are "A lot of songwriters you'd never have heard of if it wasn't for Don Gant." Gant produced 4 key albums for

Jimmy Buffett James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman. He was known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapis ...

, which span his "Key West" phase while Buffett was building his career and persona. He also produced records for singers

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country and honky-tonk singer-songwriter. Frizell is known as one of the most influential country music vocal stylists of all time. He has been cited as in ...

Eddy Raven Edward Garvin Futch (born August 19, 1944), known professionally as Eddy Raven, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active from 1962 to 2018, Raven has recorded for several record labels, including ABC, Dimension, Elektra, RCA, ...

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

when he was with

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

and others and eventually joined

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

. Don Gant died unexpectedly at the age of 44 in Nashville of complications following a serious boating accident in Florida.

References

1942 births 1987 deaths American male songwriters American record producers American music industry executives Accidental deaths in Florida Boating accident deaths 20th-century American singers 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male singers {{US-record-producer-stub