Rick Davies, who with his partner Roger Hodgson co-founded the British rock group Supertramp and served as one of its two lead singers, died Saturday in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 81.

His death was announced in a statement on Supertramp’s website, which said Davies battled multiple myeloma for more than a decade. The statement described Davies as “the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs” and said his “soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer” formed the “heartbeat” of the band’s sound.

Davies’ keyboard playing was perhaps best showcased in Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger,” a Top 20 pop hit about an unrepentant drifter that helped drive the band’s 1979 album “Breakfast in America” to quadruple-platinum sales in the United States and a Grammy nomination fo

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