Wright's breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver (1975), came after he had spent seven years in London as, alternately, a member of the British blues rock band Spooky Tooth and a solo artist on A&M Records.

While in England, he played keyboards on former Beatle George Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), so beginning a friendship that inspired the Indian religious themes and spirituality inherent in Wright's subsequent songwriting.

His solo album Footprint (1971), recorded with contributions from Harrison, coincided with the formation of Wright's short-lived band Wonderwheel, which included guitarist Mick Jones, later known for his work with Foreigner.

Wright described his initial musical influences as "early R&B" – namely, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Bobby Bland – along with rock 'n' roll artists Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Beatles.

[3][28] Among what author Nicholas Schaffner later described as "a rock orchestra of almost symphonic proportions, whose credits read like a Who's Who of the music scene",[29] Wright was one of the album's principal keyboard players, together with former Delaney & Bonnie organist Bobby Whitlock.

[37][nb 1] To promote Extraction, Wright formed the band Wonderwheel in April 1971,[38] with a lineup comprising guitarist Jerry Donahue – soon replaced by Mick Jones – Archie Legget (bass) and Bryson Graham (drums).

[39][40] Donahue was among the many musicians on Wright's second album, Footprint (1971),[41] along with George Harrison and All Things Must Pass contributors such as Voormann, White, Jim Gordon, Bobby Keys and John Barham.

[22][42] Produced by Wright, the album included "Stand for Our Rights", a call for social unity, song which was originally written for Johnny Hallyday under the name “Flagrant Délit” and was partly inspired by the Vietnam War,[43] "Two Faced Man" and "Love to Survive".

[45][nb 2] Wright expressed gratitude for Harrison's support during this stage of his career, citing the ex-Beatle's uncredited production on Footprint[47] and his arranging the Dick Cavett Show appearance.

[56][nb 3] Wright also wrote the soundtrack for a film by former Olympic skier Willy Bogner, Benjamin (1972),[57] from which the German label Ariola Records released "Goodbye Sunday" as a single that year.

[63] Talking to Chris Salewicz of Let It Rock in early 1973, Wright explained his decision to abandon his solo career: "I think my main talent is getting the music together and arranging it.

[56] The only members from the original lineup, Wright and Mike Harrison relaunched Spooky Tooth with Jones and Graham from Wonderwheel, and Chris Stewart,[11][14] formerly the bassist with English singer Terry Reid.

[64] With the group's standing having been elevated since 1970 – a situation that music journalist Steven Rosen likened at the time to the Yardbirds, the Move and other 1960s bands after their break-up[61] – Spooky Tooth toured extensively to promote the album.

[38] Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Tiven praised Wright's songwriting on You Broke My Heart, adding: "there is tremendous consistency to these originals ... and 'Wildfire' is ample proof that Gary could have written for the Temptations if he really wanted to.

[69][70] In addition to playing keyboards, Wright served as what author Simon Leng terms "a sounding board and musical amanuensis" on the project,[71] which was the first album released on Harrison's Dark Horse record label.

[74] Wright says that it was while routining his songs with all his stage equipment set up – Hammond organ, Hohner Clavinet, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Minimoog and ARP String Ensemble – together with a drum machine, that he decided to record the album "all on keyboards", without guitars.

[6] On Wright's debut album for Warner Bros., The Dream Weaver (1975),[2] he, David Foster and Bobby Lyle played a variety of keyboard instruments, supported only by drummers Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark,[75] apart from a guitar part on the track "Power of Love" by Ronnie Montrose.

[33] Among his live performances in 1976, Wright shared the bill with Yes and Peter Frampton at the US Bicentennial concert held at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, playing to a crowd estimated at 120,000.

[83] Amid this success, A&M issued That Was Only Yesterday (1976)[11] – a compilation containing tracks from Wright's albums for the label and selections by Spooky Tooth[84] – which charted at number 172 in America.

[80] Wright started recording his follow-up to The Dream Weaver in summer 1976, before which Chris Charlesworth of Melody Maker reported that it would be "a logical development" of its predecessor and "again based entirely around what he can do with various types of keyboards".

[74] Titled The Light of Smiles (1977), the album included "I Am the Sky", for which Wright gave a songwriting credit to the late Indian guru and Kriya Yoga teacher,[85] Paramahansa Yogananda.

[88] Wright had acknowledged the guru as his inspiration for the title of The Dream Weaver,[76] and he later said of Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi: "It's a fantastic book and you won't want to put it down when you start reading it.

[1] After writing the score for Alan Rudolph's 1982 thriller Endangered Species,[97] he supplied the soundtrack to another skiing-themed movie by Willy Bogner,[98] Fire and Ice (1986), which hit number 1 on the German albums chart.

[101] A cover of his Spooky Tooth composition "Better By You, Better Than Me", by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, was at the center of a 1990 court case regarding subliminal messages in song lyrics, after two Nevadan teenagers had enacted a suicide pact five years before.

[15][114] The album combined Brazilian rhythms[15] with elements of African vocal tradition, creating what AllMusic's reviewer describes as "an infectious worldbeat hybrid", where "the musicians' performances radiate sincerity and joy".

[114][117] Contributors to the sessions, held at High Wave and at Exil Musik in Bielefeld, included Hindustani classical vocalist Lakshmi Shankar, Lynne and German composer Roman Bunka.

[8] Also issued on Larkio,[114] Wright's own record label,[9] the EP The Light of a Million Suns consisted of unreleased tracks from his previous album projects, together with a new version of "Love Is Alive", sung by his son Dorian.

[8] In May 2009, Wright rejoined Spooky Tooth to participate in a series of London concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of Island Records' founding,[123] before performing further shows with the band in Germany.

[131] Wright spoke out on the importance of creative opportunities for children in the public educational system,[4] and expressed his opposition to the prevalence of free music downloading and its disadvantage to artists.

[132] That year, Wright discussed the message behind "Dream Weaver" with Huffington Post writer and political activist Howie Klein, saying: "With Wayne's World and all that, the perception of the song's meaning got a little bit changed for a lot of people.