McGee struggled early in his career, and at one point was living in a school bus parked behind a recording studio in Jackson, Mississippi.
Lehning, who had left Nashville earlier after failing to find work, returned there in 1973 to take a job as a studio engineer.
[3] Not long afterwards, McGee signed with Dawnbreaker Music, a family publishing outfit involving brothers Dan and Jim Seals, whose albums as members of England Dan & John Ford Coley and Seals & Crofts, respectively, would bear songs with McGee songwriting credits.
The song came to the attention of England Dan & John Ford Coley, who had been dropped from their former label, A&M Records, after modest success.
McGee also penned "Nights Are Forever Without You",[2] that proved to be another chart success for England Dan & John Ford Coley, and both songs went gold.