Larry Groce
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| Larry Groce | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Dallas, Texas |
| Genre(s) | Country, Folk |
| Years active | 1976—1980 |
| Label(s) | Warner Bros. Records |
Larry Groce (born April 22, 1948) is a family-oriented, one-hit wonder country music singer/songwriter and radio host. He had a U.S. Top Ten hit with "Junk Food Junkie" in 1976. Since 1986, Groce has hosted the Public Radio International program, Mountain Stage.
Groce was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 22, 1948. He attended W.H. Adamson High School with future musicians Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and B. W. Stevenson. After school, Groce moved around the States — St. Louis, New York, Los Angeles — singing folk music and rhyming tales. Groce recorded four LPs on small labels like Peaceable and Daybreak in the '70s, with his band--Berke McKelvey (bass), and the Currence brothers, Jimmie (banjo, fiddle) and Loren (guitar, fiddle, mandolin); Walt Disney's Vista label Activity Records issued his "Winnie the Pooh For President" as a single. He also recorded the "Disney Children's Favourites" albums on Disneyland Records, featuring many well-loved children's songs, as well as several other Disney recordings during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the two "Disney Christmas Favourites" LPs.
[edit] "Junk Food Junkie"
Early in the 1970s, Groce went to work for the National Endowment for the Arts program which funded appearances by artists in public schools. Groce was sent to West Virginia where working with kids inspired him to write the humorous "Junk Food Junkie", which was recorded in 1975 in front of a live audience at McCabe's in Santa Monica, California. The song, released in early in 1976, quickly became a big hit peaking at number nine in the United States. One line in the song says the singer is "a friend of old Euell Gibbons", a naturalist known for appearing TV commercials for Grape Nuts cereal; ironically, Gibbons died just before "Junk Food Junkie" was released.
The song was followed up by an album and several more novelty numbers. None of them charted, and Groce returned to his work with kids. He currently lives in Charleston, West Virginia.
