Denny Laine Of Wings & The Moody Blues Dead At 79
Rob Taggart/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The British musician Denny Laine, a co-founding member of the Moody Blues and Wings, has died. In an Instagram statement, Laine’s wife Elizabeth Mele writes that he died this morning after a battle with interstitial lung disease. Laine was 79.
Denny Laine was born Brian Frederick Hines in Birmingham, and he started his first band Denny Laine And The Diplomats as a teenager. After that band’s 1964 breakup, Laine started a group called the M&B 5 with Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas. That band changed its name to the Moody Blues. The group moved to London, and their early records were a mix of blues covers and originals that Laine co-wrote with Pinder. Laine sang lead on the Moody Blues’ breakout hit, a 1964 cover of Bessie Banks’ “Go Now” that went to #1 in the UK. Other Moody Blues singles struggled on the charts, though the band became enormously popular later. Denny Laine left the band in 1966.
After his time in the Moody Blues, Denny Laine formed the short-lived Electric String Band, played in Ginger Baker’s Air Force, and released a few solo singles. In 1971, the post-Beatles Paul McCartney put together a new band called Wings with his wife Linda. Denny Laine joined that band. Wings’ lineup went though huge changes during their turbulent run, but Laine was the sole constant non-McCartney member of the band up until their 1981 breakup. Wings released seven albums and landed six #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Coincidentally, Band On The Run, the group’s biggest hit, turns 50 today. Laine played guitar, bass, and woodwinds in Wings, and he sang backing vocals. He also co-wrote a few Wings songs, including the 1977 single “Mull Of Kintyre,” and he sang lead on 1978’s “Deliver Your Children.” When Laine decided to leave Wings in 1981, the band broke up.
Denny Laine continued to work with Paul McCartney after Wings broke up, and he released a number of his own solo records. The Blue Musician, Laine’s most recent solo LP, came out in 2008. In 2018, Laine was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues. Laine played a few solo shows earlier this year.
Below, check out some of Denny Laine’s work.
