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Kenneth "Kenny" Nolan (born September 30, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles.

He is best remembered for the 1976–77 song "I Like Dreamin'", which he wrote and performed; it reached No. 3 on theBillboard Hot 100 and No. 4 on theEasy Listening chart.^[1] He wrote "Swing Your Daddy", which became a 1975 hit forJim Gilstrap, reaching No.4 in theUK Singles Chart and No.10 on the AmericanBillboard Black Music chart of that year.

Nolan alsoco-wrote severalhits withBob Crewe, includingFrankie Valli's "My Eyes Adored You" andLabelle's "Lady Marmalade."^[2] Both of these hit songs hit #1 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 Chart in March of 1975. Of note, "My Eyes Adored You" hit #1 on March 22, 1975^[3] and the very next week, "Lady Marmalade" hit #1 on March 29, 1975.^[4] This marked one of the few times in chart history when the same songwriter(s) had back-to-back hits at #1 (John Lennon andPaul McCartney of TheBeatles,Holland-Dozier-Holland ofMotown fame, andThe Bee Gees have accomplished this feat).^[5]

At the age of 13 he won a scholarship to theUniversity of Southern California forMusical composition, but dropped out after six months, bored with the conventional regimen. Four years later, a scholarship toChouinard went the same way, and Nolan decided to send songs in to any musician he thought might be suitable. It brought him to the attention of both veteran songwriter Bob Crewe and entrepreneurWes Farrell, both of whom harnessed the then youngster's talent.

As house producer at Farrell'sChelsea record label, Nolan wrote and/or produced a string of successfulsingles for the label, includingJim Gilstrap's "Swing Your Daddy" and "Take Your Daddy for a Ride";Dee Clark's "Ride a Wild Horse"; and Linda Carr's "High Wire". With Crewe, meanwhile, he co-wrote some of the era's biggest successes. They includedDisco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes' "Get Dancin'",Labelle's "Lady Marmalade", and Frankie Valli's "My Eyes Adored You". He wrote the song "Flirtin'" for the 1971The Donny Osmond Album, as well as the final top 40 hit forTavares in 1982, entitled "A Penny for Your Thoughts".

Nolan also had ambition to perform – he supplied thefalsetto that dominated "Get Dancin'" – and, after a short tenure with Firefly, he moved onto the studio groupThe Eleventh Hour. Produced by Crewe, the band scored two minor hits in the United States with "So Good" (1974) and the album,Hollywood Hot (1976).

In 1976, Nolan decided torecord his own version of a song he had been commissioned to write by another. "I Like Dreamin'" was released by the Eleventh Hour's label,20th Century, and in early November it finally entered the U.S. chart, to begin a three-month crawl to its peak at No. 3.

Nolan followed it the spring after with the top 20 hit "Love's Grown Deep", taken fromhis self-titled album; he was named Number One New Pop Singles Artist of 1977 byBillboard magazine. "My Eyes Get Blurry" was the next single, from Nolan's second album, 1978'sA Song Between Us.Night Miracles followed two years later, bringing a new single, "Us and Love (We Go Together)", to the mid-reaches of the chart in early 1980, but it failed to give Nolan any further major success.

He continued to record, however, signing toMCA and releasingHead to Toe in 1982. That album produced two singles, "Love Song" and "Soft Rock Hard Love", but further commercial success as a recording artist eluded him. However, he continued to write songs that became hits for other artists, including "Shoot 'Em Up Movies", which became a top tenR&B hit for soul/boogie bandthe Deele in 1988.

In the 1990s, he wrote "Masterpiece" which became a crossover hit for anothersoul band,Atlantic Starr.

• 1949 births
• Living people
• American male singer-songwriters
• 20th Century Fox Records artists
• Casablanca Records artists
• USC Thornton School of Music alumni
• Singers from Los Angeles
• 20th-century American singer-songwriters
• 21st-century American singer-songwriters
• 20th-century American male singers
• 21st-century American male singers
• Singer-songwriters from California

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