Quick Facts
Biography
Charles "Charlie" Thomas Gillingham (born January 26, 1960 in Torrance, California) is a keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist best known for his performance on the Hammond B-3 organ, accordion, piano, and keyboards for the band Counting Crows. He has also played the bass guitar in live shows during certain songs such as "Holiday in Spain".
Gillingham attended Richard Henry Dana Junior High in San Pedro, California, and also attended Miraleste High School in Rancho Palos Verdes his sophomore, junior and senior year. He was a member of Slip Stream, Clark, Kent, and the Reporters, Midnight Radio, Zip Code Revue, and played keyboards on Train's 1998 debut album.
In 2004, Gillingham was nominated for an Oscar as co-composer of the song "Accidentally in Love". He was put forward in the category Academy Award for Best Original Song with his fellow songwriters Adam Duritz, Jim Bogios, David Immerglück, Matt Malley, David Bryson and Dan Vickrey. The track was used in the film Shrek 2.
Gillingham studied philosophy and artificial intelligence at University of California, Berkeley. Before entering the music industry, he worked as a software engineer in the field of artificial intelligence.
Recordings
Apart from his work with Counting Crows, Gillingham also contributed to the following recordings:
- Low Stars – Low Stars – 2007
- Comfort in Sound – Feeder – 2003
- Propeller – Peter Stuart – 2002
- Nowhere is Brighter – Garrin Benfield – 2002
- Still Waiting for Spring – Matt Nathanson – 2000
- Train – Train – 1998
- Whatnot – Cola – 1997
- The Golden Age – Cracker – 1996
- Abundance – Zip Code Revue – 1996
- Slipaway – Jerry Shelfer – 1992
- United Kingdom – American Music Club – 1990