A Horse with No Name
original song written and composed by Dewey Bunnell; recorded and released by America in 1971
"A Horse with No Name" is a song by British-American folk rock trio America. Written by Dewey Bunnell, it was released on the Warner Bros. label in late 1971 in Europe and early 1972 in the United States. The song met with commercial success and topped charts in Canada, Finland, and on the US Billboard Hot 100. It reached number 3 in the UK singles chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 24, 1972.
Originally a standalone single, the song was re-released as the lead single of the band's debut studio album, America (which was released in January 1972). The song is a staple of the band's discography and one of their most popular.
Development
America's self-titled debut album was released initially in Europe, without "A Horse with No Name", and achieved only moderate success. Originally called "Desert Song", "Horse" was written while the band was staying at the home of musician Arthur Brown, near Puddletown, Dorset, England.
“A Horse with No Name” enters the record as original song written and composed by Dewey Bunnell; recorded and released by America in 1971. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Horse, Name and original can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“A Horse with No Name” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Horse, Name and original provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q943979. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1972.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “A Horse with No Name” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.