American Beauty  by Grateful Dead

American Beauty - the fifth album - by Grateful Dead is considered one of the most important albums in the history of rock music, marking the peak of the band's shift towards a more acoustic and traditional sound. The album continues the style of their previous album, Workingman's Dead, focusing on folk rock, country-rock, and Americana. It is heavily influenced by the vocal harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the lyrical approach of Bob Dylan. It was released in November 1970.

Its recording took place at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco between August and September 1970. The production is credited to the Grateful Dead themselves in collaboration with sound engineer Stephen Barncard. Most of the lyrics were written by Robert Hunter, while the music was primarily by Jerry Garcia, with the best-known songs being Box Of Rain, Friend Of The Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Ripple and of course, Truckin', which closes the album. The cover, designed by Kelley-Mouse Studios, features a central rose and an "ambigram" title that can be read as both "American Beauty" and "American Reality" (!)

American Beauty reached No. 30 on the Billboard chart in January 1971. The single Truckin' reached No. 64. It went gold in 1974 and later double platinum (2001).