Ten 60's and 70's Canadian Top 40 Delights: Maple Leaf Pop

Say it again, tell me you love me: Terry Black, 1964
As promised last post, here's a look at the first ten obscure (to us in the States, anyway) Canadian Top 40 songs that popped into my head. Most retro music fans know all about Gordon Lightfoot, Michel Pagliaro and other Northern legends, so this list sticks to true AM pop, with a couple of exceptions. I don't yet own any of these on vinyl or CD--the only way I have to hear them is on hastily recorded cassettes made when I knew I'd be returning to the blah Great Lakes suburbs, after living in Toronto for a while in the mid-90s. Those cassettes are now in a box...somewhere...

Ahem. Anyway, enjoy the hits. And Toronto, watch out--I love you too much to stay away. I'll be back.

(01/01/2008: Canoe links updated, new information posted where available. Have fun, eh!)



Mandala, "Opportunity" (1967)
You'll like this if you like: the Young Rascals, Wilson Pickett
Availability: hard to find

It's often been claimed that, due to Canada's demographic peculiarities during the 50s and 60s, there's a notable lack of pure soul influence in vintage Canadian pop. Then again, it could have been that the deeply (blue-eyed) soulful Mandala guys had simply run away with the ball. (How soulful were they? Bo Diddley himself brought them to the attention of Chess Records after seeing them perform in Toronto.) "Opportunity" is a jaw-droppingly high-energy single, with wailing vocals, a gospel-tinged chorus, a wild guitar solo and...well, it's far too hard to describe. Let's just say that if your heart leapt the first time you heard "Good Lovin'" by the Rascals (and you know who you are) you're in for an all-new--and memorable--audio thrill. (I found a sample, but it's only a tiny snippet--you really to have to hear the whole song to get the full effect. Click here for a taste, and check out "Love-Itis" while you're there.)

Mandala only released one LP (1968's Soul Crusade), and a 1986 retrospective (Mandala Classics) is out there to be found, as well--if we're lucky.

(There's lots more to the Mandala story--click here for a biography of Domenic Troiano, ex-Mandala guitarist and Canadian music legend, and here for another, longer look at the band.)


Octavian, "Good Feeling (To Know)", (1974)
You'll like this if you like: early 70's Tommy James, later Raiders
Availability: extremely hard to find

A bouncy, sunny blast of pure pop goodness, with every element that makes Canadian early 70's top 40 so appealing--swirling strings, a hum-along chorus with exuberant backing vocals, a total lack of pretentiousness, and a singer who sounds like he wants to be your best friend, effective yesterday. (The "good feeling" in the lyrics refers to getting back together with his girl, if memory serves.) In a perfect world, this song would be revived as a soda commercial or pain-relief jingle, making the Octavians (Octavii?) rich and inducing silly grins and involuntary toe-tapping in a whole new generation. Unfortunately, it wasn't even as big a hit as it should have been in their native Canada during its first release, making this 45 rather hard to find today. (I'm still looking.) The band photo at the Canoe link was a bit of a surprise--they sounded like teenagers, but they looked like a bunch of decidedly grown-up hippies!


Terry Black, "Unless You Care" (1964), "Say It Again" (1965), "Baby's Gone" (1966)
You'll like this if you like: Billy J. Kramer, Tommy Roe, Terry Stafford
Availability: readily found, with a little digging

Terry Black was apparently Canada's first major homegrown teen idol, and these three singles were all smashes in their day, for very good reason--they're fantastic Mersey-style pop, pure and simple. Black had some high-powered help here (Glen Campbell plays shimmering twelve string guitar on "Unless You Care"; the legendary Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan wrote the songs) and his considerable vocal charm puts these a cut above what one usually thinks of as 60s teen idol fare. "Unless You Care" is the one you're most likely to hear on Canadian oldies radio, but "Say It Again", with its danceable thumping beat and high-reverb chorus, is my favorite. Both tunes cast Black as the vulnerable, besotted victim of some beautiful and heartless girl--a stance he couldn't quite pull off, since he was rather pleasant to look at (to put it mildly) and had a deepish, pouty/sexy voice. (Nice try, though.) By "Baby's Gone" (1966), he was still waitin' by the fire, body achin' with desire, for (presumably) the same cruel chick. (What was wrong with this woman?) Black's pop career reportedly slowed down when he committed the Unforgivable Sin in teen-idolville (i.e. got married), but he's said to remain busy behind the scenes. (2008 update: Only 16,featuring "Say It Again" and "Unless You Care", is now available in the States as an import.)


James Leroy, "You Look Good in Denim" and "Touch of Magic" (1973)
You'll like this if you like: early B.J. Thomas, Jim Croce
Availability: somewhat hard to find

It's hard to understand why James Leroy's Denim album hasn't been made available on CD. A shame, because the few magnificent country-rock-pop singles from that LP have a sweet, almost eerie charm that is absolutely impossible to describe in text. "You Look Good in Denim" is a giddy uptempo celebration of a beloved's fashion sense, and perhaps a proposal too; "you belong in white silk" is the next line. What makes it interesting is the tiny hint of underlying anxiety in the reverberating chorus. ("Never had this feeling before/I wonder if it's real/Don't know what I would do tomorrow/If you're not here". No wonder he's eager to get her out of the denim and into the white silk...)

"Touch of Magic", on the other hand, speaks of no anxiety or giddiness at all--just a heartfelt, unusually realistic (yet magical) ode to love and dedication that becomes transcendently gorgeous by the end of the song. Stripped-down lyrics, a keenly-orchestrated arrangement that straddles the line between country and pop, and Leroy's soaring, friendly/rugged voice make this haunting ballad greater than the sum of its parts.

A little later in the decade, James Leroy became the frontman for Major Hoople's Boarding House--a fun pop band who, as far as I can gather, were a very popular live act. (He's the voice on their cheesy-but-enjoyable single "You Girl", which still gets some airplay on Canadian oldies radio.) Leroy died in 1979, at age 32. The lone Denim LP was a success in Canada, so it occasionally turns up on collector's sites. (2008 update: a tribute site, JamesLeroy.com, features much more information and media.)


The Staccatos, "Half Past Midnight" (1967)
You'll like this if you like: the Turtles, the Beach Boys (maybe)
Availability: very hard to find

If you live Stateside, you've heard this band, although you don't know it yet. "Half Past Midnight" is a beautifully produced, multi-layered, flowing song about a girl who can't stay out late, with the breezy, galloping pace of a moonlit pony ride. The intricate vocal harmonies darting in and out of the strings and drums make this single a standout, and it seems to have influenced some of the Canadian singles that followed it. According to Canoe, the Staccatos' harmonic talents might have been their downfall--they were dismissed as sounding too much like the Beach Boys to make it in the US, and they later morphed into the Five Man Electrical Band of "Signs" hit fame. To my knowledge, no one has ever mistaken "Signs" for a Beach Boys tune, so the morph was successful. (And to be honest, I don't hear much Beach Boys in the very-Canadian-to-my-ears "Midnight" either, but I could be alone.)


Bill Amesbury, "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)" (1974)
You'll like this if you like: the Tremeloes, Ray Stevens, Jim Stafford
Availability: not that hard to find, if you do some digging

This is probably the least obscure song on the list--I'm pretty sure it got some Stateside airplay-- and it's certainly one of the most likable. Unlike "I Symbolize You" (below), "Virginia" wears its gleefully smutty (and funny) intentions on its sleeve. The narrator's twitchy patience with the title character's, er, "virtue" is hilarious and endearing; the country-flavored "Here Comes My Baby"-like party atmosphere (live handclaps, lots of "woo-hoos"s and cheers in the background) make it a smile-inspiring way to pass two and a half minutes. Finally, the songwriting and musicianship--not to mention the resigned-but-hopeful vocals, which strike just the right tone--are far above what you'd expect for an almost-novelty tune. Amesbury, whose songwriting reputation became formidable as the years passed, was last reported to be a quietly powerful force on the Canadian arts scene, as well as a noted activist. "Virginia" was included on a couple of K-Tel compilations back in the day and was on BMG's 1990 "Made In Canada, Vol. 2" CD. It's definitely worth looking for.


The Last Words, "I Symbolize You" (1966)
You'll like this if you like: the Hollies, the Dave Clark Five, early Turtles
Availability: extremely hard to find

An attention-getting stop-start intro, a charming keyboard underpinning and some amiably, subtly suggestive "is this song about what I think it's about?" lyrics make this obscure but very catchy Farfisa-pop single well worth the (so far fruitless) search. And if this song is about what I think it's about, Canadian girls are very fortunate, indeed. Vinyl only, as far as I know. (2008 update: The Last Words still play together, and there's an official website--no sound samples as of now, but the visual artifacts are well worth the trip.)


Rain, "Out of My Mind" (1971)
You'll like this if you like: the Cowsills, the GrassRoots, the Bugaloos
Availability: hard to find

This innocent-sounding little bubblegum ditty is actually one of the most insidious earworms ever to come out of Canada. A tinkling piano riff (reminiscent of someone practicing scales) starts it off, and the band joins in on the riff. Then the singer begins--a clear, sweet voice that I thought might have been a young boy (it's a grown woman), and the melody takes some surprising dips and turns before returning to that tinkling chorus. By the end of the song, you'll find yourself singing along with the "ahhhhs" in the background and wondering how you'll get this huggable tune out of your head for the rest of the day. Good luck with that! (The singer, Phyllis Brown, recorded a number of cover tunes later in the 70s as "Charity Brown", but get this one first if you can.)


Gary and Dave, "Could You Ever Love Me Again" (1973)
You'll like this if you like: the Carpenters
Availability: on BMG's 1990 "Made in Canada Vol. 2" CD (out of print, but not impossible to find, I'm told)

Oh, swoon. This ultra-romantic, string-laden international mega-hit is so...so rich, so smooth, so creamy. It's the audio equivalent of a chocolate pudding cake with double-dark frosting--and sprinkles. Sometimes you've just gotta have something unabashedly mushy, and Gary Weeks and Dave Beckett were the go-to guys for top-quality mush in mid-70s Canada. "Could You Ever Love Me Again" wraps you in a cozy warm blanket of violins, tumbling, muffled drums and softly convincing vocals that climb skyward at the chorus, all to a satisfyingly steady light-rock beat. (Bet you thought this would be a slow ballad. Nope!) Gary and Dave are also notable for having not one, but two dream jobs--lots of kids want to grow up and be pop stars or airline pilots, but how many get to do both at about the same time?

(Gary Weeks has added a third dream job to his already impressive resume--he became a Christian missionary in the 80s. You can read his testimony of faith--with a bit of "Gary and Dave" info and a cockpit promo photo--here.)


The Stampeders, "Ramona" (1974)
You'll like this if you like: early Doobie Brothers, Grand Funk
Availability: CDs available by mail order at Stampeders.net (official site)

Okay, I cheated--most of us in the States have heard of the Stampeders courtesy of their cute 1971 banjo-rock smash hit "Sweet City Woman". But if you'd like to have fun with your favorite oldies fan, slip the driving-around-too-fast-in-a-'74-Camaro rocker "Ramona" into the party mix, then let them know it's the same band. The Stampeders are neither obscure nor one hit wonders (not by a long shot!) but I love this song so much that I couldn't resist putting it on the list. If "Sweet City Woman" is the only Stampeders song you know, head over to Stampeders.net and download some long and legal mp3 samples from one of Canada's most versatile (and underrated) pop/rock bands. ( In the mood for something softer? Try the ineffably pretty "Oh My Lady", another new/old favorite.)

Oh, yeah--there's plenty more where that came from. The 60s and 70s produced tons of splendid pop from the Great White North. But I'll stop now. There's a box of cassettes here just waiting to be unearthed...