Jesse Colin Young, whose voice fills the Youngbloods’ ’60s anthem, “Get Together,” died Sunday at his home in Aiken, S.C., his publicist, Michael Jensen, told the New York Times. He was 83.

Young sang the famous lyrics, “Come on people now / Smile on your brother / Everybody get together / And try to love one another right now.” Written by Chet Powers, the song transports the listener back to a very specific time in music history. The tune reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969. It landed at the position after being released two years after its initial drop on the band’s debut, according to Variety.

Jensen did not respond to EW’s request for comment.

Born in 1941, in Queens, N.Y., to musical parents — his mother “a violinist who sang with perfect pitch” and his father “a Harvard educated accountant with a passion for classical music,” according to his official bio — Young grew into an adult who could play multiple instruments. He was playing regular gigs in Greenwich Village by the 1960s, and he cranked out two solo albums.

That’s when he teamed up with Jerry Corbitt, Lowell “Banana” Levinger, and Joe Bauer, to form Youngbloods. The group recorded a total of five albums, but “Get Together” was part of their self-titled debut. The track was recorded by others before and after the Youngbloods, but their version was the most commercially successful. It landed on the soundtrack for Oscar-winner Forrest Gump, and Lisa Simpson played it on The Simpsons. The song was also part of Garth Brooks‘ 1999 album created under the alternate persona of Chris Gaines.

Young himself wrote songs such as “Darkness Darkness” and “Sunlight” before the Youngbloods broke up in 1972. The musician released several more albums, one notably featuring Carly Simon, as a solo artist. He and his wife, Connie, formed an independent record label, Ridgetop Music, in 1993. When a fire ravaged their property in 1995, they temporarily relocated to Hawaii.

Beginning in 2012, Young was unable to tour following a diagnosis of Lyme disease, but he was back onstage within a few years. He released his Dreamers album, which would be his last, in 2019.

Throughout his career, Young always held a special place in music history for the band’s signature hit. During a 2019 interview with NPR, he recalled its powerful effect on him the instant he heard it. He was walking through Greenwich Village’s Café au Go Go, the venue where his band was rehearsing when it was empty, and someone was performing “Get Together” at an open mic.

“That song just stopped me in my tracks,” Young said, noting the powerful lyrics. “‘Love is but a song we sing / Fear’s the way we die.’ Wow — the human condition in two lines.”

Young is survived by his wife who was also his manager, Connie Darden-Young, and their children, Tristan and Jazzie. Young was the father of two children, Juli and Cheyenne Young, from his previous marriage.