Henry Gross (born 1951) was a founding member of the rock and roll oldies band Sha Na Na. They performed at Woodstock when Gross was 18, making him the youngest person to play there.
Gross went solo in 1970, working as a session guitarist for Jim Croce and Andy Kim, among others. In 1976, he wrote "Shannon", a song about Beach Boy Carl Wilson's dog who had just passed away. It reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went to #1 in Canada and New Zealand.
His followup, "Springtime Mama", reached #37 on the Billboard chart but didn't get airplay in Toronto. He released his last single in 1977 and moved to Nashville in the 1980s. In 1993, he founded his own record label, Zelda Records (named after his mother), and has continued to perform and record on this label. His last release was in 2020.
"Shannon" was the trigger for a famous outtake tirade by Casey Kasem, host of the syndicated radio program American Top Forty. He objected strenuously to having to do an on-air dedication to a dead pet after just playing an uptempo song.
Created April 22, 2026.