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Wind Beneath My Wings

"The Wind Beneath My Wings"
Single by Gary Morris
from the album Why Lady Why
B-side "The Way I Love You Tonight"
Released August 6, 1983
Length 4:40
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar
Producer(s) Jimmy Bowen
Gary Morris singles chronology
"The Love She Found in Me"
(1983)
"The Wind Beneath My Wings"
(1983)
"Why Lady Why"
(1983)
"Wind Beneath My Wings"
Single by Bette Midler
from the album Beaches (soundtrack)
B-side "Oh Industry"
Released June 1, 1989
Format CD single, cassette single
Recorded 1988
Genre Pop
Length 4:18 (edit)
4:54 (album and 7" version)
Label Atlantic
Writer(s) Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar
Producer(s) Arif Mardin
Bette Midler singles chronology
"Under the Boardwalk"
(1989)
"Wind Beneath My Wings"
(1989)
"From a Distance"
(1990)

"Wind Beneath My Wings" (sometimes titled "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Hero") is a song written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley.

The song was originally recorded by Roger Whittaker in 1982 and also by Lee Greenwood in America. The song appeared very shortly thereafter in charted versions by Colleen Hewett (1982), Lou Rawls (1983), Gladys Knight & The Pips (1983), and Gary Morris (1983). The highest-charting version of the song to date was recorded in 1988 by singer and actress Bette Midler for the soundtrack to the film Beaches. This version was released as a single in early 1989, spent one week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in June 1989, and won Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in February 1990. On October 24, 1991, Midler's single was also certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of one million copies in the United States. In 2004 Midler's version finished at No. 44 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

In a 2002 UK poll, "Wind Beneath My Wings" was found to be the most-played song at British funerals.

Silbar and Henley recorded a demo of the song, which they gave to musician Bob Montgomery. Montgomery then recorded his own demo version of the song, changing it from the mid-tempo version he was given to a ballad. Silbar and Henley then shopped the song to many artists, eventually resulting in Roger Whittaker becoming the first to release the song commercially. It appeared on his 1982 studio album, also titled The Wind Beneath My Wings.


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