David LaFlamme, who as a youth had once performed as a soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, had previously been in the group Orkustra playing five-string violin.

The other members of It's a Beautiful Day in its early years were Val Fuentes (drums), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Hal Wagenet (guitar).

The band's signature song "White Bird" was inspired by the experiences David and Linda LaFlamme had while living in Seattle.

Some of that recognition came from their performance at the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair, occurring over the 1968 Labor Day weekend in Sultan, Washington.

Sky River is considered by many to be the first successful multi-day rock festival, and a number of major bands had the opportunity to hear It's a Beautiful Day there.

The band's debut album, It's a Beautiful Day, was produced by David LaFlamme in Los Angeles, California, and released by Columbia Records in 1969.

[4] The band retaliated by recording "Don & Dewey" which was, to all intents and purposes, identical to Deep Purple's "Wring That Neck".

[5] The vocals and violin playing of David LaFlamme plus Santos' singing attracted FM-radio-play attention, and nationally, "White Bird" bubbled under Billboard 's Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 118.

[7] Mitchell Holman and Hal Wagenet left in the summer of 1971 and were replaced by bassist Tom Fowler (later with Frank Zappa) and guitarist Bill Gregory.

Their first performance was broadcast live on San Francisco's KSAN FM radio, with host Tom Donahue introducing them as the band's two new members.

Replacement bassist and vocalist James "Bud" Cockrell would help form Pablo Cruise shortly thereafter, and violinist Gregory Bloch joined the Italian progressive rock group Premiata Forneria Marconi and later the Saturday Night Live Band.

In 2009 David LaFlamme began playing with the Phil Lawrence Band and transformed the group into It's A Beautiful Day Acoustic.