Lou Graham
Personal information
Full name	Louis Krebs Graham
Born	(1938-01-07) January 7, 1938 (age 74) Nashville, Tennessee
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	175 lb (79 kg; 12.5 st)
Nationality	United States
Career
College	Memphis State University
Turned professional	1964
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	7
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	6
Best results in Major Championships
Masters Tournament	T6: 1977
U.S. Open	Won: 1975
The Open Championship	T47: 1975
PGA Championship	T6: 1977

Louis Krebs Graham (born January 7, 1938) is an American professional golfer who has participated in and won numerous golf tournaments including the 1975 U.S. Open. Most of his wins were in the 1970s.

Lou Graham was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He started playing golf when he was seven years old. He attended Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played on the golf team for three years. Later, Graham was drafted into the U.S. Army. While in the Army, Graham served as a member of the Old Guard — Company E of the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment — the ceremonial Honor Guard that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. During his Army career, he made the Army golf team that won the Inter-Service championship in 1961. Graham joined the PGA Tour in September 1964. His first win was at the Minnesota Golf Classic at Hazeltine National Golf Club in 1967 during his third full year on the tour. Graham won again in 1972 at the Liggett Myers Open, followed by the U.S. Open in 1975. Graham had only three wins in fifteen years, and then in 1979, he won three more times in the space of eleven weeks. For this achievement, he won Golf Digest's 1979 Comeback of the Year award.^[1]

Graham played on three Ryder Cup teams (1973, 1975, 1977), and was a member of the victorious 1975 World Cup Team. He was inducted as a charter member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame in 1992. During his career, he won over $1.4 million on the PGA Tour and over $600,000 in Senior Tour career earnings.^[1]

Graham's greatest success in major championships has been at the U.S. Open. He won in 1975 at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois beating John Mahaffey by two strokes in a playoff. In 1977, he finished 2nd – losing by one stroke to Hubert Green at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also had a previous T-3 finish at the Open in 1974.^[2] On the Senior Tour (now known as the Champions Tour), his best finish was a T-3 at the AT&T Championship in 1990.

Professional wins (7)[link]

PGA Tour wins (6)[link]

• 1967 (1) Minnesota Golf Classic
• 1972 (1) Liggett Myers Open
• 1975 (1) U.S. Open
• 1979 (3) IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic, American Optical Classic, San Antonio Texas Open

Major championship is shown in bold.

Other wins (1)[link]

• 1975 World Cup (with Johnny Miller)

Major Championships[link]

Wins (1)[link]

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runner-up
1975	U.S. Open	4 shot deficit	+3 (74-72-68-73-71=287)	Playoff1	John Mahaffey

¹Defeated John Mahaffey in an 18 hole playoff - Graham 71 (E), Mahaffey 73 (+2).

Results timeline[link]

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

See also[link]

• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lou Graham at the PGA Tour official site

Lou Graham in the Ryder Cup v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1973 Tommy Aaron • Homero Blancas • Gay Brewer • Billy Casper • Dave Hill • Lou Graham • Jack Nicklaus • Arnold Palmer • Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez • J. C. Snead • Lee Trevino • Tom Weiskopf Jack Burke, Jr. (non-playing captain) Won: 19 – 13 v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1975 Billy Casper • Raymond Floyd • Al Geiberger • Lou Graham • Hale Irwin • Gene Littler • Johnny Miller • Bob Murphy • Jack Nicklaus • J. C. Snead • Lee Trevino • Tom Weiskopf Arnold Palmer (non-playing captain) Won: 21 – 11 v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1977 Raymond Floyd • Lou Graham • Hubert Green • Dave Hill • Hale Irwin • Don January • Jerry McGee • Jack Nicklaus • Ed Sneed • Dave Stockton • Lanny Wadkins • Tom Watson Dow Finsterwald (non-playing captain) Won: 12.5 – 7.5

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2009)

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2008)

Lou Gramm
Gramm performing live with Foreigner at Deer Creek in Noblesville, Indiana on July 19, 1993.
Background information
Birth name	Louis Andrew Grammatico
Born	(1950-05-02) May 2, 1950 (age 62) Rochester, New York, USA
Genres	Rock, Christian rock, hard rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, drums, percussion
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Atlantic Records Spectra Records
Associated acts	Foreigner, Shadow King, Black Sheep
Website	http://www.lou-gramm.com

Lou Gramm (born Louis Andrew Grammatico; May 2, 1950) is an American rock vocalist and songwriter best known for his role as the lead vocalist and co-writer of many of the songs for the rock band Foreigner. He also had a successful solo career. Gramm was the vocalist for many top-40 hits including "Cold as Ice", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "I Want to Know What Love Is" and his solo hit "Midnight Blue". Most recently, the Lou Gramm Band has released a self-titled Christian rock album in 2009.

Biography[link]

Pre-Foreigner era[link]

Gramm was born in Rochester, New York. He attended Gates-Chili High School in Rochester, graduating with the class of 1968. He is also an alumnus of Monroe Community College in Rochester.

Gramm began his musical career in his mid-teens, playing in local Rochester bands, including St. James Infirmary (later The Infirmary), and PHFFT. He later sang harmony vocals in another local band, Poor Heart. Gramm then went on to sing and play drums, and to eventually become front man for the band Black Sheep. Black Sheep had the distinction of being the first American band signed to the Chrysalis label, which released their first single, "Stick Around" (1973). Black Sheep played in niteclubs in Buffalo, NY including McVan's, formerly at Niagara Street and Hertel Avenue. Soon after this initial bit of success, Black Sheep signed with Capitol Records, releasing two albums in succession [Black Sheep (1974) and Encouraging Words (1975)]. They were the opening act for KISS when an icy accident with their equipment truck on the New York State Thruway suddenly ended the band's tour on Christmas Eve, 1975. Unable to support its albums with live performances, Black Sheep came prematurely to a screeching halt.

A year earlier, Lou Gramm had the opportunity to meet his future bandmate Mick Jones. Jones was in Rochester performing with the band Spooky Tooth, and Gramm had given Jones a copy of Black Sheep's first album (S/T). It was early in 1976, not long after Black Sheep's truck accident, when Jones, in search of a lead vocalist for a new band he was assembling, expressed his interest in Gramm and invited him in a phone call to audition for the job of lead singer.

Foreigner era[link]

With the blessings of his Black Sheep bandmates, Gramm flew down to New York to audition for the still-unnamed band. With his powerful vocals, he easily got the job. Lou Grammatico then became Lou Gramm, and, with the band initially known as "Trigger," and later renamed Foreigner, became one of the most successful rock vocalists of the late 1970s and 1980s. Circus magazine in 1978 upon release of "Hot Blooded" commented that Lou Gramm had a voice that Robert Plant might envy.He was performing to audiences exceeding 200,000 at some dates during the "Double Vision" tour while Steve Perry was drawing 3,000 to 10,000.His unique vocals have made Foreigner one of Billboard's Top 100 Artists of All Time in hit songs history.

Gramm was the lead vocalist on all of Foreigner's hit songs, including "Feels Like the First Time", "Cold as Ice", "Long, Long Way from Home", "Hot Blooded", "Double Vision", "Blue Morning, Blue Day", "Head Games", "Dirty White Boy", "Urgent", "Juke Box Hero", " Break It Up" and " Say You Will". He co-wrote most of the songs for the band, which achieved two of its biggest hits with the ballads "Waiting for a Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at #2 on the 1981-82 American Hot 100, and "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a #1 hit internationally (US & UK) in 1985. The latter was credited only to Jones; however, Gramm indicated that he had contributed to its writing.^{[citation needed]} Their first 8 singles cracked the Billboard Top 20,(4 went Top 10) making them the first group since the Beatles to achieve this in 1980.

Gramm and Mick Jones had a volatile sort of chemistry that exploded into many a chart-topper, yet at times they clashed artistically. Following the band's second album, the wildly successful Double Vision, shifts in personnel began to take place. Following their next album, Head Games, Gramm and Jones jointly decided to reduce the band's lineup from six to four members. The next album, which Gramm has called the high point of his work with Foreigner, was aptly titled 4. Gramm wanted the band to remain true to its purer rock origins, favoring music with a solid drum and guitar structure, whereas Jones embraced the 1980s style of synthesizer ballads — a more lucrative approach at the time. Indeed, the next album, Agent Provocateur, would find Jones moving creatively in the opposite direction from Gramm, seeking out potential co-producers such as Trevor Horn, and then Alex Sadkin, which ended up giving Foreigner's sound a somewhat new-wavish, keyboard-dominant quality.

Solo era[link]

By 1987, Foreigner continued to struggle with ongoing internal conflicts. During this period, Gramm released his first solo album, Ready or Not, which received critical acclaim ^[1] and contained a top five hit single with "Midnight Blue". This was followed by the late-1987 Foreigner album Inside Information, which reached number 15 on Billboard's album chart. The extracted "Say You Will" was released late that year, reaching number 6 on the Hot 100 early in 1988, and "I Don't Want to Live Without You" followed, reaching number 5 on the Hot 100 and number one on the adult contemporary chart in the spring. A third single, "Heart Turns to Stone" reached number 56 in the summer. Eventually a second solo effort, Long Hard Look, that included the top ten hit, "Just Between You and Me", and "True Blue Love", reached the Top 40. Gramm also contributed a song to the soundtrack for the 1987 movie The Lost Boys, titled "Lost in the Shadows."

Encouraged by his solo success, and increasingly displeased with the direction in which Jones was taking Foreigner, Gramm left the group to form Shadow King with close friend and former Black Sheep bassist Bruce Turgon. The new group's 1991 self-titled album was released by Atlantic Records. Despite positive reviews, the group lacked cohesiveness. It also did not enjoy the level of marketing and promotional support necessary to sustain a new project. Shadow King soon disbanded. The same year, Foreigner released the album Unusual Heat, a relatively unsuccessful effort fronted by vocalist Johnny Edwards.

Edwards was not widely accepted by the Foreigner fan base. Gramm returned to the group in 1992 to record three new songs for the compilation, The Very Best of ... and Beyond, bringing a new energy back into the mix. Gramm also brought Bruce Turgon with him to join the Foreigner lineup at this point.

In 1995, the group released the album Mr. Moonlight on the Rhythm Safari label which, although relatively successful in Europe, was not as widely marketed or distributed in the U.S. Still, "Until the End of Time" made inroads at adult contemporary radio. With the changing trends in popular music, this now-classic rock band came to suffer the inevitable slowing of their genre's momentum.

New Foreigner era[link]

In 1996, Mick Jones invited Gramm to perform backing vocals on a cover version of "I Want to Know What Love Is" he was producing for the Australian singer Tina Arena. The song went on to become a major hit again throughout Europe.

In April 1997, two months after providing vocals for Christian rock band Petra's Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus, and on the eve the band was to leave for a Japan tour, Gramm was diagnosed with a type of brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma. Although the tumor was benign, the resulting surgery damaged his pituitary gland. In addition, the recovery program had caused Gramm to gain weight, and likewise affected his stamina and voice.^[2] He continued to work with Jones throughout his illness and in 1999, Gramm was back touring with Foreigner playing summer festivals and smaller markets until late 2002.

Lou Gramm Band[link]

Lou Gramm in 2008.

In 2003, Gramm once again split from Foreigner to rejuvenate his solo career with a band that included Bruce Turgon on bass, Rocket Richotte on guitar, Kevin Neal on drums, John Purdell on keyboards (who died suddenly very early in the tour), and Gary Corbett on keyboards. Following the death of both his father and mother, Bennie and Nikki Grammatico — he a trumpeter and bandleader, she a singer for his Big Band — Gramm and the initial lineup decided it best to take different paths. Fulfilling a lifelong wish of his parents that their three musical sons might someday make their music together, Gramm and his brothers, Ben and Richard, formed the current lineup of the Lou Gramm Band (also known as "LGB").

Gradually, Gramm's health and energy have rebounded, although his voice has been obviously affected, and sounds quite different on much of his new material. The Lou Gramm band has been touring the U.S., Canada, and Mexico steadily since January 2004, as well as occasional dates off the continent, and the touring continues.

Lou, Ben, with friends Don Mancuso and Andy Knoll, play a retrospective of Gramm's work with Foreigner, his solo material, plus a few personal favorites of their own. In addition, the band has taken on Christian rock. The Lou Gramm Band has recently finished an all-Christian rock album,^[3] which was released in the U.S. on June 2, 2009,^[4] through Spectra Records.

As of 2012, Lou Gramm continues to tour with his band, performing many of his old Foreigner hits, with his voice nearly (if not entirely) back to full strength and continuing to improve.^[5][6] As of March 2012, Lou Gramm kicked out his brother( out who was playing on his band out do to Lou Gramm's girlfriend forcing him to leave after playing with them for over 6 years.

Influences[link]

Gramm counts John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers and Wilson Pickett among his influences.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

Solo albums[link]

Solo singles[link]

With Poor Heart[link]

• Foreigner in a Strange Land (1988)
• The Best of the Early Years (1993)

(Note: These are actually releases of much older recordings.)

With Black Sheep[link]

• Black Sheep (1974)
• Encouraging Words (1975)

With Foreigner[link]

• Foreigner (1977) #4 US
• Double Vision (1978) #3 US, #32 UK
• Head Games (1979) #5 US
• 4 (1981) #1 US (10 weeks), #5 UK
• Records (1982) #10 US, #58 UK
• Agent Provocateur (1984) #4 US, #1 UK
• Inside Information (1987) #15 US, #64 UK
• The Very Best of (1992)
• The Very Best of... and Beyond (1992) #123 US, #19 UK
• Classic Hits Live/Best of Live (1993)
• JukeBox Heroes: The Best of (1994)
• Mr. Moonlight (1994) #136 US, #59 UK
• The Platinum Collection (1999)
• Rough Diamonds No. 1 (1999)
• Hot Blooded and Other Hits (2000)
• Anthology: Jukebox Heroes (2000)
• Complete Greatest Hits (2002) #80 US
• The Definitive (2002) #33 UK
• No End In Sight: The Very Best Of Foreigner (2008)

With Shadow King[link]

• Shadow King (1991)

With Liberty N' Justice[link]

• Welcome To The Revolution (2001)

With Don Mancuso[link]

• D: Drive (2005)

With The Lou Gramm Band[link]

• Baptized by fire (2009)

References[link]

• myspace
• facebook