Robin McNamara (May 5, 1947 – October 21, 2021) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. McNamara was born in May 1947 in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

. In 1963, while in tenth grade, he formed a

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

group with a few school friends; they christened their band Robin and the Hoods, performing locally in the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

area with McNamara as the lead vocalist. In the late 1960s, McNamara relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where he became a cast member of the Broadway musical ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

'', playing the lead role of Claude from 1969 to 71. In 1969, he was introduced to

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

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 ...

Jeff Barry Jeff Barry (born Joel Adelberg; April 3, 1938) is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are " Tell Laura I Love Her" (written with Ben Raleigh and a ...

, who signed him to his Steed

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

. Together with McNamara's songwriting partner, Jim Cretecos, they wrote a song called " Lay a Little Lovin' on Me", which McNamara took to number 11 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

chart in the summer of 1970 and number 6 in Canada. The song peaked at number 49 in Australia in June 1970. A lack of further

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

success resulted in McNamara being dubbed a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

. The follow-up single, "Got To Believe In Love", did reach number 62 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, however. McNamara died on October 21, 2021, at the age of 74.Robin McNamara Dies: Star Of Broadway’s ‘Hair’, One-Hit-Wonder With ‘Lay a Little Lovin’ On Me’ Was 74
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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNamara, Robin 1947 births 2021 deaths American male pop singers Dot Records artists Musicians from Boston Songwriters from Massachusetts Musicians from Newton, Massachusetts American male songwriters