Danny Weis

Who is Danny Weis?

Guitarist Danny Weis is best known as a founding member of both Iron Butterfly and Rhinoceros, as well as co-writer of Rhinoceros's only charting single, "Apricot Brandy". Though he left Iron Butterfly after only one album due to internal tensions, his work was an influence in the band for most of their history, since his replacement Erik Brann made a conscious effort to imitate his playing. Weis later recounted "Erik Braunn replaced me in Iron Butterfly, and if I remember correctly, he bought a lot of my equipment, some of my clothes, they tried to clone me basically..."

Weis appeared on Iron Butterfly's first two singles, "Don't Look Down On Me" and "Possession", and their debut LP Heavy. In addition, the later album Live included a performance of "You Can't Win", a song from Heavy for which Weis wrote the music.

After leaving Iron Butterfly, Weis became a founding member of Rhinoceros and played on all three of their albums. "Apricot Brandy", an instrumental he co-wrote with Rhinoceros keyboardist Michael Fonfara, reached No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been used as background music on a number of TV shows.