Graham Hamilton Lyle (born 11 March 1944, in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer.
Between 1970 and 1997, he co-wrote 18 British Top 40 hits, 9 Billboard Hot 100 entries, 4 US Country No.1s and 1 US Adult Contemporary No.1, as well as 3 Australian chart-toppers. His songwriting collaborators have included Terry Britten, Albert Hammond, Troy Seals, Jim Diamond and his long-time performing partner, Benny Gallagher.
His most famous composition is Tina Turner's 1984 US chart-topper and international smash, "What's Love Got to Do with It?", which reached No.1 in the US, Canada and Australia and won him the Song of the Year Grammy. He is also well known in Britain, Continental Europe and the Commonwealth as a member of Gallagher and Lyle, McGuinness Flint and Ronnie Lane's band Slim Chance.
With Benny Gallagher (1965–1980) Lyle and Benny Gallagher initially teamed up in 1959 as members of a local Largs-based band, The Bluefrets, and teamed up again in a band based in Saltcoats called the Tulsans with lead singer James (Drew) Galt, Dennis Donald (keyboards), Eric Brown on guitar, Benny Gallagher (bass) and Graham Lyle (drums). The Tulsans released two singles in 1965 under the name James Galt for Pye that are now prized by northern soul collectors: "Comes The Dawn" and "With My Baby". Benny and Graham later moved to London in the mid 60s.
A rare one-off single, "Trees", was issued on UK Polydor 56093 in 1967, under the name Gallagher-Lyle.
In 1968, Gallagher and Lyle were signed by Apple Records, where they wrote for musicians such as Mary Hopkin ("Sparrow", "The Fields of St. Etienne", "International", "Heritage", and "Jefferson").
In 1970, the two Scots became original members of the British band McGuinness Flint, writing nine of the 11 songs on the group's eponymous debut album, including the British hit singles "When I'm Dead and Gone" and "Malt and Barley Blues", which reached No.2 and No.5 respectively in Britain. The pair recorded a second album, Happy Birthday Ruthy Baby, with McGuinness Flint—again writing most of the songs—before leaving to form the duo Gallagher and Lyle in 1972.
As a duo, Gallagher and Lyle recorded a total of eight albums: Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle, Willie and the Lapdog, Seeds, The Last Cowboy, Breakaway, Love on the Airwaves, Showdown and Lonesome No More. All these were issued on A&M except for the last, which was released on Mercury. The most successful of these was 1976's gold-selling Breakaway, which was produced by David Kershenbaum and yielded the British Top 10 hits "I Wanna Stay With You" and "Heart on My Sleeve", both of which also charted in the US. "Heart on My Sleeve" was subsequently covered by Bryan Ferry, Judith Durham and Ringo Starr.
Two other songs from this album were successful in the US: Art Garfunkel's cover of "Breakaway", topped the Adult Contemporary chart, and Don Williams took "Stay Young" to No. 1 on the Country record chart, which saw the song receive in excess of one million airplays on American radio. The duo also penned and performed "A Heart in New York", which was later performed by both Simon & Garfunkel and Garth Brooks in their concerts in Central Park, New York City, to audiences of 500,000 and 750,000, respectively. The pair's original recording of "A Heart in New York" eventually appeared on 1991's compilation album Heart on My Sleeve – The Very Best of Gallagher and Lyle.
As session musicians, Gallagher and Lyle also backed numerous big names on disc, including Eric Clapton, Andy Fairweather Low, Gary Brooker and Fairport Convention. The pair also had a stint in former Faces member Ronnie Lane's folk rock band Slim Chance during 1973/74. Gallagher and Lyle split in 1980.
Post-Gallagher and Lyle (1981–2009) In 1981, Graham Lyle formed his own publishing company, Goodsingle Publishing (later to become goodsingle.com), chiefly to administer his own copyrights, and began writing for other artists. His earliest post-Gallagher & Lyle compositions included the singles "Our Love" for Elkie Brooks and "Listen to the Night" for Climax Blues Band. Graham's songs were subsequently recorded by some of the biggest names in music including Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Etta James, Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker, Joe Cocker, Wyclef Jean, Fat Joe, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, The Neville Brothers, Hall & Oates, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, Jim Diamond, The Judds, Wet Wet Wet, Paul Young, Bucks Fizz, Eros Ramazzotti, and Warren G, but it is for his work with Tina Turner that Lyle is best known.