The pair met when Kennell attended a Shady Grove gig in mid-1972, and discovering a shared love of British progressive rock, decided to form a band together.
When in January 1974 Kennell at last returned from Germany (early shows had been performed without him), the band, named Happy the Man by Whitaker's brother Ken (who was strongly influenced by Christianity),[2] was finally able to operate.
The band's early repertoire included a number of covers — notably Genesis’s "Watcher of the Skies", King Crimson’s "21st Century Schizoid Man" and Van der Graaf Generator’s "Man-Erg" — but they were soon outnumbered by original compositions, penned by Fortney, Watkins, Whitaker, and Wyatt, with the latter providing the lion's share of new material.
In 1974, another lineup change occurred as Fortney (who wished to maintain his flute study)[4] was replaced by Dan Owen, yet another old friend from Indiana.
The Cellar Door became their management company and helped them get through to the labels, culminating in a showcase in New York City in front of iconic American record producer Clive Davis in the summer of 1976.
Eventually Gabriel decided against hiring HTM, but this high-profile encounter proved instrumental in securing a five-year, multi-album deal with Arista Records.
[6] Happy the Man's self-titled debut LP was recorded at A&M Studios towards the end of 1976, with Ken Scott (whose work with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Supertramp, and David Bowie had highly impressed them) handling production duties, and was released in 1977.
HTM’s management put them on tours supporting various artists, including Foreigner, Renaissance, Stomu Yamash’ta and the Jefferson Airplane offshoot Hot Tuna, with whom they performed to an audience of almost 10,000 at the Field House in Long Island.
The remaining members played one final show at the James Madison University before dissolving, with Whitaker and Kennell immediately forming a new band, Vision, with original HTM keyboardist David Bach.
The bulk of the Labyrinth compositions would remain unreleased until 1983, when they surfaced under the title 3rd - Better Late... on Watkins’ own Azimuth label (the later CD reissue added two extra tracks from the same sessions, "Who's in Charge Here" and "Such a Warm Breeze").
Happy the Man continues to be a cult favorite in progressive rock circles, the interest in their music fueled by the Internet, iTunes, Amazon, and Kit Watkins' CD remasters and reissues and various archival releases.
The CD also includes an early version of a track first available on their debut Arista Records release, "New York Dream's Suite", also with Owen on vocals.
According to Frank Wyatt, this is how "Death's Crown (An Afterlife Fantasy) came about: In 1974 Edward Kenestrick, a theatre professor at NYU, left New York to return to Harrisonburg, where he had taught prior at Madison college.
Other visual artists who worked with the band at that time were Steven Witt, Susie Rappold (Frank's then girl friend), Jeff Garringer, and John Hornberger, both also from Ft. Wayne.
Following several aborted attempts over the previous decade, the group reformed for NEARfest 2000, following suggestions made to Whitaker by promoters of the festival that HTM would be welcome there.
Whitaker and Wyatt have released another album, Pedal Giant Animals since, and have formed a new band, "Oblivion Sun", which left the current status of HTM unclear.