William C. Gathright (July 7, 1939 – June 29, 2020), known professionally as Willie Wright, was an American soul singer and songwriter, best known for his "rediscovered" 1977 album, Telling the Truth.

[2] In his teens he sang with friends George Bragg and Harry Jensen in a Harlem, New York City doo-wop group, The Persuaders.

In the early 1970s, he released his first album, Lack of Education (aka Too Soon to Know), which mostly contained cover versions of other musicians' songs, including Curtis Mayfield's "Right On For The Darkness".

[3] "Right On For The Darkness" was included on several compilation albums of rare soul music, and was recognized as a highly collectible record, but Wright remained a relatively obscure figure until 2011, when Telling the Truth was reissued on CD by the Numero Group.

[7] The interest that this generated, including comparisons with Bill Withers,[5] led Wright, despite the onset of Parkinson's disease, to record a new album, This Is Not A Dream, in Burlington, Vermont.