Singer, Songwriter. He was a 20th century American Singer and Songwriter. Pat Upton was the lead singer for the band, Spiral Starecase, who had a 1969 hit single, "More Today Than Yesterday". Upton originally sang gospel music in a quartet with his brother before forming the Fydallions, for an Air Force contest in 1964. Upon his discharge from the service, Upton and his band began working regularly around the country. They cut some demo recordings for an indie label that remained unreleased and were eventually discovered by a Columbia Records A&R executive. Signed to the label in 1967, they changed their name to the deliberately misspelled Spiral Starecase, based on a 1946 thriller film. In 1969, "More Today Than Yesterday", which was the first song that Upton had ever written, peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number seven on the Cash Box Top 100. The song has subsequently been covered by Diana Ross, Sonny and Cher, Lena Horne, Andy Williams, Patti Austin and others. Among other singles the band released were "Baby What I Mean", "I'll Run", "No One For Me to Turn To" and "She's Ready". After Spiral Starecase disbanded, Upton went on to become a session musician and became a member of Ricky Nelson's band for four years, recording and touring with the singer. He was still a member of Nelson's band in late December 1985, when they performed at PJ's Alley, a club in Guntersville, Alabama, owned by Upton. Following that show, Upton drove Nelson and his fiancée to the Guntersville airport for a flight to a New Year's Eve performance but chose to stay behind to take care of business at the club. Nelson, his fiancée and five members of Nelson's band died that night when the plane crashed en route to Dallas. Only the two pilots survived. Upton died after a lengthy illness.