Editing Harry Chapin (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:Harry Chapin Playground plaque.jpg|thumb|right|[[New York City]] playground named for Harry Chapin]]
Chapin's work on hunger included being widely recognized as a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger (under 39th President [[Jimmy Carter]]) in 1977 (he was the only member who attended every meeting).<ref>Harry Chapin: The Gold Medal Collection, album notes, Elektra/Asylum Records, 1988.</ref>

Chapin was also the inspiration for the antihunger projects [[USA for Africa]] and [[Hands Across America]], which were organized by [[Ken Kragen]], who had been Chapin's manager at the end of Chapin's career, after Fred Kewley.<ref>{{Cite news| last = Holden| first = Stephen| author-link = Stephen Holden |title = The Pop Life| newspaper = [[The New York Times]]| date = December 2, 1987| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D6113AF931A35751C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1}}</ref> Kragen, explaining his work on these benefit events, said, "I felt like Harry had crawled into my body and was making me do it."<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Harry Chapin Is Gone, but Friends Carry His Song in Their Hearts| magazine = [[People (magazine)|People]]|date=December 21, 1987 |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20097873,00.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120918210434/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20097873,00.html |archive-date=September 18, 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 16, 2022}}</ref>

From around 1975 until the owners changed the format of the station in the late 1990s, [[WNEW-FM]], 102.7, a NYC radio station with the motto "Where Rock Lives" held an annual "Hungerthon" every Thanksgiving, to benefit Harry Chapin's World Hunger League.  During the 24-hour period of the event, little to no music was played, with the exception of the iconic "[[Alice's Restaurant]]" by [[Arlo Guthrie]] played at noon and 6 p.m. For the remainder of the day, during every DJ's four-hour show, guests such as Harry himself, other music stars, and experts on hunger brought to the listeners information about the severity of hunger in America, in New York City, and in the [[Tri-State area (New York-New Jersey-Connecticut)|tri-state area]], sometimes in graphic detail.

After Chapin's death, the "Hungerthon" continued, and on July 13, 1985, at the U.S. leg of the [[Live Aid]] concert in [[Philadelphia]] at [[JFK Stadium]], [[Kenny Loggins]] was presented with the first "Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award" by actor [[Jeff Bridges]] for his work for the World Hunger League in fighting hunger in America.<ref>{{Citation |title=Kenny Loggins - Harry Chapin Award Presentation (Live Aid 7/13/1985) | date=7 July 2015 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JIcKSjnXw |access-date=2024-03-12 |language=en}}</ref> Since WNEW-FM changed formats, other New York stations have continued to do fundraisers for the charity. In 1987, singer [[Kenny Rogers]] was awarded the first-ever "ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award" from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).<ref>{{Cite web |title=ASCAP.com {{!}} Index |url=https://maintenance.ascap.com/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=maintenance.ascap.com}}</ref> Since 1987, the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award has been bestowed more than 20 times to various artists for their various "humanitarian contributions." The ASCAP awards are now presented by Why Hunger, the organization originally co-founded by Harry Chapin and Bill Ayres as [[World Hunger Year]].

Four additional organizations once presented awards in the name of Harry Chapin in the past. They include the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award—now known as the Music Business Association or MusicBiz,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award - Music Business Assoc |url=https://musicbiz.org/events/music-biz-awards/harry-chapin-memorial-humanitarian-award/ |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=Music Business Association |language=en-US}}</ref> the Harry Chapin Award for Contributions to Humanity by the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA),<ref>"Harry Chapin Award for Contributions to Humanity" | https://www.anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Award_for_Contributions_to_Humanity {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325194045/https://www.anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Award_for_Contributions_to_Humanity |date=2022-03-25 }}</ref> the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award for Community Service from the Long Island Association,<ref>"Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award for Community Service" | https://www.anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Humanitarian_Award_for_Community_Service {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521025348/https://anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Humanitarian_Award_for_Community_Service |date=2022-05-21 }}</ref> and the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award by Long Island Cares.<ref>"Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award" (Long Island Cares) | https://www.anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Humanitarian_Award_(Long_Island_Cares) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325194222/https://www.anyoldkindofday.com/index.php/Harry_Chapin_Humanitarian_Award_(Long_Island_Cares) |date=2022-03-25 }}</ref>

Before his death, Chapin had worked with Peter M. Coan for several years on Chapin's biography, ''Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story''. Soon after Chapin's death, his estate notified Coan that he must return all materials related to the book and that he "no longer had the rights to the book-in-progress". Coan sued the estate, receiving a $65,000 settlement in 1990.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=Evansville Press | date=December 28, 1990 | page=5 | title='Taxi' explores life of Harry Chapin |  url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evansville-press-taxi-coan-lawsuit/130642516/}}</ref>''Taxi'' was published in September 1990.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Akron Beacon Journal | date=September 9, 1990 | page=77 | title=Harry Chapin book finally rolls | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-akron-beacon-journal-coan-taxi-publi/130642737/}}</ref>

The Lakeside Theatre at [[Eisenhower Park]] in [[East Meadow, New York]], was renamed Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre during a memorial concert held one month after his death, as a tribute to his efforts to combat world hunger. Other Long Island landmarks named in honor of Chapin include a graduate-student apartment complex at [[Stony Brook University]], a theater in [[Heckscher Park (Huntington, New York)|Heckscher Park]] in [[Huntington, New York]], and a [[playground]] at the intersection of Columbia Heights and Middagh Street in [[Brooklyn Heights]].

The village of [[Croton-on-Hudson]], New York, has hosted the Harry Chapin Run Against Hunger, a 10k, 5k, and fun run, since 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harry Chapin Run Against Hunger |url=https://runagainsthunger.com/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |website=Run Against Hunger |language=en-US}}</ref>

On December 7, 1987, on what would have been his 45th birthday, Chapin was posthumously awarded the [[Congressional Gold Medal]] for his campaigning on social issues, particularly his highlighting of hunger around the world and in the United States.

In 1994, admirers of the late singer's passionate fight against hunger renamed the then 11-year-old Southwest Florida Food Bank ([[Fort Myers]], FL) the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida, in tribute to Chapin, and with the permission of his widow.

In 2001, Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was ranked number 186 of 365 on the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] list of [[Songs of the Century]].

Chapin was inducted into the [[Long Island Music Hall of Fame]] on October 15, 2006.

On September 27, 2011, former U.S. Representative [[Alan Grayson]] wrote an [[article (publishing)|article]] on the internet publication ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' about Chapin's song "What Made America Famous".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/harry-chapin-on-what-made_b_983457.html |title=Harry Chapin on What Made America Famous |author=Alan Grayson|work=Huffington Post |date= September 27, 2011|access-date=October 21, 2011}}</ref>

Singer and songwriter Guthrie Thomas has long publicly stated that Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle" is one of the most difficult songs to perform, due to Chapin's masterful guitar playing and his brilliant syncopation of the lyrics, meaning each word must fit perfectly and in time with the playing.  Also, despite seeming social and political differences with Chapin, Dr. [[James Dobson]] often quotes the entirety of "Cat's in the Cradle" to illustrate dynamics of contemporary American families.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okQ-4YOQ4kAC&q=%22harry+chapin%22+%22james+dobson%22&pg=PA8|title=The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War|author=Dan Gilgoff|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|location=[[New York, New York]]|pages=7–8|date=2008-04-29|isbn=9781429917094|access-date=2018-06-22}}</ref>

A children's picture book was created using the lyrics of "Mr. Tanner" and the illustrations of Bryan Langdo; it was published by Ripple Grove Press in May 2017.

[[Greenwich Entertainment]] released a documentary film titled ''[[Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something]]''. It was directed by Rick Korn and produced by Jason Chapin. It was released theatrically and through [[virtual cinema]] on October 16, 2020 ([[World Food Day]]).<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Martoccio |first=Angie |date=2020-09-16 |title=Billy Joel, DMC, Pat Benatar Appear in Harry Chapin Doc Trailer |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/harry-chapin-doc-trailer-billy-joel-pat-benatar-1060177/ |access-date=2020-09-27 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref>