White Bird (song)

"White Bird" is a song by San Francisco rock group It's a Beautiful Day, written by David LaFlamme and then wife Linda LaFlamme (née Neska). It was arranged and produced by David and sung as a duet between him and group member Patti Santos. A prominent stylistic feature of the song's original arrangement are multiple violin parts overdubbed by David. It was first released on the 1969 eponymous debut album It's a Beautiful Day by Columbia Records.

The song quickly became the band's signature tune and a staple of FM Album-oriented rock radio.^[1] The album rose to #47 on Billboard's Top LPs American albums chart.^[2] Following the popularity of the album track a single version was edited and remixed for radio play on and released on October 4, 1969.^[3] It rose to as high as #3 the week of October 18, 1969 on San Francisco radio station KYA.^[4] The single never reached a wide national audience and only made it to #118 on Billboard's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.^[3]

White Bird was written in December 1967, in Seattle, Washington. Manager Matthew Katz had moved the band there to polish their act at a small Seattle ballroom before booking them into San Francisco nightclubs. Living in the attic of a Victorian house across the street from Volunteer Park the band had inadequate food and no transportation during a dreary Seattle winter. The song came out of depression from their circumstances and yearning to be free.^[5] The song's repeated chorus is, "White bird must fly or she will die."^[6]

A nearly 10 minute long version also appeared on the 1972 live album It's a Beautiful Day at Carnegie Hall. It later appeared on nine compilation albums and four more retrospective albums.^[1]

The 1982 television series Knight Rider featured the song in an episode named for the song during the first season. Patti Santos died at age 40 in a 1989 auto accident.^[7] In 2001, Vanessa-Mae released a version of the song that reached #66 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was used in the soundtrack of Uncharted Waters, the 2013 documentary about the life of surfer Wayne Lynch. The song was used in the soundtrack of A Walk on the Moon, a 1999 American drama about a married woman's infidelity, including Woodstock Music Festival scenes and in Adult World, a 2013 American comedy film starring Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, and John Cusack.^[8][9] Recently, the song was used in the 2015 film Focus starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie.

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