Song:I Don't Want To Be
Album:Chariot Stripped
The 2004 top ten hit I Don't Want To Be launched the career of singer songwriter Gavin DeGraw. He's not likely to have that kind of pop success again but it was enough to make him a consistent seller on the album chart. And like a lot of hits these days, it all came from I Don't Want To Be's use in a popular TV show. He was born Feb. 4, 1977 in South Fallsburg, NY which is in the Catskills. He started playing piano at age 8 and attended the Berklee School Of Music. His older brother Joey McGraw playes guitar in his band. McGraw started playing New York City clubs in 1999 and released a live CD independently in 2001. After record companies started courting him, he signed with Clive Davis' J Records in 2003. He wrote all the songs on his 2003 debut CD Chariot and it was produced by veteran recording engineer Mark Endert. The album wasn't doing much until I Just Want To Be was used as the title theme for the TV series One Tree Hill, a show popular with teens. The song reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video features Shiri Appleby of the TV series Roswell. That's how a hit is born these days. Then J Records did something very unusual. They had DeGraw record a second CD produced by J Records A & R director James Diener and rereleased Chariot as the 2CD Chariot Stripped. It appears that Diener thought that the original album was over-produced and the new release was stripped down quite a bit, hence the name Stripped. And the original release isn't available anymore. That version reached #56 on the Billboard Hot 200. Though DeGraw hasn't had a hit single to match I Don't Want To Be, his 2008 CD Gavin DeGraw and 2009 CD Free have sold very well. We will certainly hear more from Gavin DeGraw for a long time. Here's the video for I Don't Want To Be by Gavin DeGraw.
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