Tuesday, May 19, 2026

RIP Galt McDermot, Award Winning Composer of All Those Hit Songs from “Hair”: “Aquarius,” “Let the Sunshine In,” “Good Morning Starshine”

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Is there a popular musical that spawned as many hits as “Hair”? The Fifth Dimension had the medley of “Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In.” The Cowsills had a top 10 hit with the title song. Three Dog Night literally started a decade of hits with “Easy to Be Hard.” A one-off singer named Oliver (William Oliver Swofford) went top 10 with “Good Morning Starshine.” This was all in 1969. The records are played on every oldies station to this day.

Galt McDermot wrote all those songs. The lyrics were by James Rado and Gerone Ragni. Reports from Canada are that McDermott has passed away at 89, one day before his 90th birthday. IN addition to “Hair,” McDermot wrote the music for the Tony Award winning musical of 1971, “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” That show, with a book co-written by John Guare, starred the late great Raul Julia and had Stockard Channing and Jeff Goldblum in the chorus.

Thank you, Galt McDermot! Rest in peace.

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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