Alex Charles Kramer
(Montreal, Quebec, 30 May, 1903 – Fairfield, Connecticut, 10 February, 1998)
Alex Kramer was one of the most successful and highly regarded songwriters of the big band era.
Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1903, Kramer began his career at 17 years of age, working as a pianist for a silent movie theatre in his native city. He studied at McGill Conservatory of Music and later joined Meyer Davis and his Orchestra for one season in Florida, before returning to Montreal to lead his own orchestra on radio shows for CFCF and CKAC.
Kramer travelled to Paris and Cannes before moving to New York in 1938, where he continued his work as a bandleader on radio shows and as an accompanist in vaudeville and nightclubs throughout the city. He also worked as a vocal coach, training aspiring young talents. One of his students was a Broadway performer named Joan Whitney, who later became his wife and songwriting partner. As Kramer continued performing, the couple began to write an extensive body of songs that would evoke passionate performances from notable singers and consistently dazzle audiences. Their total body of work is believed to be over 180 songs.
High on a Windy Hill was the pair’s first #1 hit as performed by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in 1941. Collaborations with Hy Zaret (It All Comes Back to Me Now, My Sister and I) and Mack David (Candy) were also immediate chart-toppers.
Other popular songs include It's Love Love Love, Comme-ci, Comme-ca, That's the Beginning of the End, Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Money Is the Root of All Evil, Love Somebody, Dangerous Dan McGrew, You'll Never Get Away, Far Away Places, Summer Rain, I Only Saw Him Once, Story of My Life, So You’re the One and No Other Arms, No Other Lips.
After a string of successful hits, Kramer and Whitney began to publish music through their own firm, Kramer-Whitney, Inc., which was established in 1947.
Over 300 different artists have covered Kramer and Whitney songs in various musical genres, most notably Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Dorsey, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Buddy Clark, Louis Jordan, Johnny Mercer and Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, Glenn Miller and others.
In addition to performing and composing songs, Kramer was an active member of the American Guild of Actors and Composers, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), where he sat on the Board of Directors. Kramer also co-established the Veterans Hospital Radio Guild. Still in existence today, the program is aimed at bringing entertainment to hospitalized veterans by recording them singing their favourite songs, which are then played on a veteran’s radio station.
Alex Kramer passed away in Fairfield, Connecticut on February 10, 1998, at the age of 95. Kramer and Whitney were inducted into the US Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982. One of their best-known songs, Far Away Places, was previously inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
André Lejeune
(André Lajeunesse, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 15 April, 1934)
A classically trained singer, young red-haired prodigy André Lejeune was only seven when he began singing on radio and in churches, cathedrals, church halls and other venues. When his voiced changed from soprano to tenor as a teenager, he learned to play the guitar and write songs. He then turned resolutely to pop music and, with a repertory of American songs, began performing in local clubs in the mid-1950s. A prolific songwriter and infectious performer, André Lejeune had a successful career in ‘boîtes à chansons’ and clubs until the 1970s.
Soon after being released in 1957, André Lejeune's song Prétends que tu es heureux became a hit, maintaining its #1 chart position for several months. After Lejeune's song Il suffit de peu de choses was given the same enthusiastic reception, the singer started getting calls from radio stations, a sure sign of his growing popularity. His most successful self-penned song however, would be Une promesse, a work co-written with childhood friend Guy Godin that was voted Best Canadian Composition in CKAC's 1959 Grand Prix du Disque.
In 1964, André Lejeune opened La clé de sol, a ‘boîte à chansons’ located on the second floor of the Café des Artistes, next door to the Radio-Canada buildings in Montreal. This intimate venue would see performances by many celebrated artists and was also the home of the live broadcast of the daily CKLM radio show En direct de la Clé de sol.
Lejeune went on to host a number of folk music and variety shows and produced many theme shows. From 1966 to 1968, with Jean Coutu, he co-hosted the television show À la catalogne, and was also successful with the already popular Saturday night folk music show À la canadienne on CFTM-TV in Montreal. He co-hosted the daily TV program Dîner chaud and was a welcomed guest on such popular television shows as Allo Boubou, Les Démons du midi and AdLib. André Lejeune moved to Radio-Canada in the mid 1990s, where he became host of the show Entrez la visite.
From 1977 to 1981, Lejeune headed the label Colibri, a record company that produced new talent, and in 1990 headed Les Disques Son d’Or. In 1983, he acquired his first ‘boîte à chansons’, Le Patriote à Lejeune, and went on to open many other places where patrons could eat, drink and of course, sing.
For a few years, Lejeune specialized in folk music, publishing the magazine Chanson populaire and producing the Soirées québécoises albums and, in 1981, Festin folklorique. As Manager of the International Folk Song and Music Festival, first held in Longueuil and then in the Marieville theatre he had purchased in 1997, André Lejeune acquired many young new fans for his creative endeavours as an author, actor, comedian, singer, director and producer of musicals.
Over the years, André Lejeune's songs have been covered by several artists including Estelle Caron, Marthe Fleurant, Willie Lamothe, Les Masques d'or, Lionel Renaud, Pierre Robyn and, most recently, Cindy Daniel, whose new version of Une promesse reached the #1 chart position in 2006, nearly 50 years after the song's original release.
As a stage, radio and television performer and a senior member of Union des Artistes, André Lejeune has been acclaimed on thousands of occasions on Quebec's larger and smaller scenes, where he continues to radiate boundless energy through his eclectic repertory and creative intensity.
Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Year: 1946
Composers and lyricists:
Alex Kramer
(Montreal, Quebec, 30 May, 1903 – Fairfield, Connecticut, 10 February, 1998)
Joan Whitney
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 26 June, 1914 – Westport, Connecticut, 12 July, 1990)
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens is a delightful tune about a farmer who is chided by his chickens after disrupting their much-needed sleep. It has managed to impress fans of different musical genres for years.
The song achieved its initial and most outstanding success in 1946 with Louis Jordan’s recording, which reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and remained there for 17 weeks. His recording also reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was considered a great feat for an African American artist to crossover into the predominately Anglo-Saxon chart. Ray Benson’s award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, also covered the song, reintroducing it to a new audience as a western swing hit in 1978.
The Jazzabillies, a western swing group, re-introduced the public to Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens, on their 2006 album, Show Me, proving that Kramer and Whitney’s toe-tappin’, comical tune will remain a timeless and favoured classic.
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens has appeared in the 1999 independent British film Swing and the 2002 film Swept Away, starring Madonna.
Cover artists include: Asleep at the Wheel, BB King, Pat Boone, Clarence Brown, James Brown, Phil Harris, Jaye Brothers, The Jazzabillies, Louis Jordan & Tympany Five, Patti LuPone, Leon Mcauliff, Lisa Stansfield, and 6 Cylinder.
Candy
Year: 1944
Composers and lyricists:
Alex Kramer
(Montreal, Quebec 30 May, 1903 – Fairfield, Connecticut, 10 February, 1998)
Joan Whitney
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 26 June, 1914 – Westport, Connecticut, 12 July, 1990)
Mack David
(New York City, New York, 5 July, 1912 – Rancho Mirage, California, 30 December, 1993)
Charming lyrics and an unforgettable melody make Candy one of the most cherished love songs of the 1940s.
The original recording by Johnny Mercer and pop singer Jo Stafford with The Pied Pipers reached #1 and spent a total of 15 weeks on the Billboard charts. Dinah Shore also achieved considerable success with her 1945 recording of Candy, making it to #10 on the Billboard charts. In 1974, hip music quartet The Manhattan Transfer paid homage to Kramer, Whitney, and David with their rendition of the song, effectively bringing it back into the public eye.
Various renditions of Candy have appeared in numerous contemporary film and TV soundtracks, including Jo Stafford and Johnny Mercer’s in Bugsy (1991), Doctor John’s in The Night We Never Met (1993), and The Nat King Cole Trio's in Home for the Holidays (1995).
Cover artists include: Lola Albright, Andrews Sisters, Mitch Ayers, Dick Brown, Don Byas/Teddy Wilson/Slam Stewart, Frankie Carle, Casuallaires, Ray Charles, Maurice Chevalier & Bing Crosby, Pete Condoli, Count Basie, Dakota Station, Harry (Sweets) Edison, Four Freshmen w/Pete Rugolo, Ella Fitzgerald w/Benny Carter, Marty Gold, Scott Hamilton & Buddy Tate, Richard Hayman, Earl (Fatha) Hines & Marva Josie, Dr. John, Art Kassell, Sammy Kaye, Julius Larosa, John Lasalle, Sidney Lipton, C. Mackenzie, Manhattan Transfer, Hal March, Curt Massey, Big Maybelle, Johnny Mercer & Jo Stafford w/ The Pied Pipers, Garry Miles, Marion Montgomery, Lee Morgan, Buddy Morrow, Nat King Cole Trio, John Pizzarelli, Ester Phillips, Mavis Rivers, Dinah Shore, Somethin’ Smith, Jo Stafford w/Billy May, Clark Terry, The Tams, Bo Wagner, Paul Weston and Joe Williams.
Il suffit de peu de choses
Year: 1960
Lyricists:
Fernand Robidoux
(East Angus, Quebec, 17 January, 1920 - Montreal, Quebec, 27 September, 1988)
Moune Victor
Composer:
André Lejeune
(André Lajeunesse, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, 15 April, 1934)
Radio host, singer and writer Fernand Robidoux was a great follower of André Lejeune's career and admirer of his songs. As a contribution to the artist's budding career, Robidoux invited him to set to music a text that he had written with his partner, the French-born Moune Victor.
A popular singer and dedicated advocate of Quebec song, Robidoux was among the first artists to record original Quebec songs, including pieces by Raymond Lévesque in the U.K.'s Decca Studios, in breach of his agreement with RCA Victor, a label that refused to sign Quebec singer-songwriters and preferred releasing adaptations of American or French hit songs instead.
As a radio host, Robidoux played a key role in the promotion of Quebec artists, a cause that was close to his heart. A pioneer of the development of the Quebec music industry, he organized songwriting competitions that led to the discovery of many new artists, including André Lejeune.
The lyrics of Il suffit de peu de choses were written specifically for André Lejeune by the Robidoux-Victor team. Upon releasein 1960, the piece charted at #21.
Following that success, many writers, songwriters, journalists and artists proposed original lyrics to Lejeune in the hope of seeing their creations recorded and hearing them played on radio.
My Sister and I
Year: 1941
Composers and lyricists:
Alex Kramer
(Montreal, Quebec, 30 May, 1903 - Fairfield, Connecticut, 10 February, 1998)
Joan Whitney
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 26 June, 1914 - Westport, Connecticut, 12 July, 1990)
Hy Zaret
(New York, New York, August 27, 1907 - Westport, Connecticut, 2 July, 2007)
My Sister and I is one of many hits composed by husband and wife duo Alex Kramer and Joan Whitney. The song was inspired by the 1941 American bestseller and controversial WWII diary My Sister and I, which was allegedly written by 12-year-old Dutch boy Dirk van der Heide, and recounted his escape to America with his little sister Keetje after surviving the German invasion of Rotterdam.
Famed American lyricist Hy Zaret helped pen the wartime lyrics, which allude to the catastrophic German Blitzkrieg in the lines: we’re learning to forget the fear / that came from a troubled sky.
While many artists have covered this song, it was Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra’s stunning rendition that gained momentous popularity, reaching #1 on the Billboard chart on June 7, 1941, and #2 on Your Hit Parade, an American radio show featuring the most popular songs of the week, as indicated by record sales. My Sister and I stayed at the top of the charts for 14 weeks, establishing Dorsey as one of the year’s most successful entertainers.
Cover artists include: Dorothy Carless, Bob Chester, Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Bob Eberly, Benny Goodman w/ Helen Forrest, Eddy Howard, Dick Jurgens, the King Cole Trio, King Sisters, Jack Leonard, Leo Reisman, Martha Tilton and Bea Wain.
Prétends que tu es heureux
Year: 1957
Lyricist and composer:
André Lejeune
(André Lajeunesse, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, 15 April, 1934)
On the strength of an improvised performance at a Montreal radio station, André Lejeune was signed by Music-Hall label founder Jean Bertrand, and subsequently recorded a collection of songs for them. In 1957, his second recording, Prétends que tu es heureux, garnered such resounding success that the young artist had to change his name from Lajeunesse to Lejeune to avoid being confused with another successful performer of the period.
Lejeune's career began as a child when he started singing classical songs, and developed in a spectacular way with series of dates in clubs and ‘boîtes à chansons’. He regularly graced the pages of the newspapers and magazines of the time and was welcomed with open arms by Quebec's artistic community. The great Félix Leclerc himself was a close friend and admirer.
In those days, Lejeune's songs sounded both modern and commercial, and Quebec radio stations were avid takers. André Lejeune was soon known as an artist to be reckoned with.
A pioneer of rock music in Quebec, Lejeune was one of the first Quebec artists to hit the limelight with a decisively electric, American-inspired sound.
André Lejeune performed Prétends que tu es heureux on The Joe Franklin Show in the U.S., the very year the song was written.
Cover artists include: Estelle Caron and Les Masques d’or.
Une promesse
Year: 1957
Lyricist:
Guy Godin
Composer:
André Lejeune
(André Lajeunesse, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, 15 April, 1934)
André Lejeune found the lyrics for this song in the form of a poem left on a table corner by his friend and then neighbour Guy Godin. Touched by the beauty of the text, Lejeune immediately suggested setting it to music. Godin accepted, and thus was born the most successful song of André Lejeune's entire career.
The runaway success of Une promesse brought Lejeune to perform in Europe and in the United States, a rare accomplishment for a French Canadian artist at that time. Charles Aznavour's Manager Jean-Louis Marquis was also very impressed with the young singer, and invited him to Paris for a series of shows.
Interested in pursuing a career in the U.S., Lejeune performed his song on ABC's The Joe Franklin Show. Later nicknamed ‘The French Boy’, Cashbox Magazinepredicted that the Quebec artist was destined to an enormously successful career in the U.S. Lejeune went on to appear on more American variety shows, including The Jack Parr Show on NBC. The young performer made a strong impression on the American public, and received many interesting offers.
Following a bad experience with a sly, aggressive agent, Lejeune returned to Quebec where his popularity had kept growing and where he received a hero's welcome. In 1959, Une promesse won the Best Canadian Composition Award as part of Montreal radio station CKAC’s Grand Prix du Disque. Following the success of the piece, Lejeune toured Quebec's clubs and ‘boîtes à chansons’, and gave a triumphant performance at the Comédie Canadienne theatre with Jean Coutu in a programme of song and poetry. Lejeune continued to perform in the U.S. with well-known orchestras for audiences that wanted to hear more from ‘The French Boy’.
Une promesse remains to this day André Lejeune's greatest hit in a career that produced some 30 top-charting songs and hundreds of original works.
Cover artists include: Lionel Renaud and Cindy Daniels (2006).
Paul Albert Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
Paul Anka is a legendary singer and songwriter whose career spans over fifty years. His music is unique for its swinging melodies and romantic lyrics, recalling starry-eyes and innocence, with a sophisticated old world charm.
His songwriting prowess has offered him remarkable longevity in the business. Anka has always been ahead of the curve, anticipating changes in pop culture and absorbing new musical styles with ease. When writing for others he maintains his objectivity, tailoring his compositions to suit the recording artist. As Anka himself stated, “Songwriting has separated me from the pack. It has allowed me to survive the cultural changes and musical changes…”
Starting as a ‘50s teen pop idol could have been a fleeting achievement, but Anka’s success was only beginning. With remarkable fortitude, he matured into a critically acclaimed singer and songwriter, releasing 125 albums and penning a remarkable 900 songs; 130 of them for the most accomplished and well-known artists in music. He is currently ranked as the 21st most successful artist in Billboard music history.
Born in 1941, Paul Anka is the eldest of three children from a tight-knit Lebanese family. His talents were recognised early on by his parents, as their little boy had performance ambitions by the time he was 12. He learned the basics in the church choir and in school, where he played drums, trumpet and piano. At 13, he was performing locally with his group, the Bobbysoxers. He even used his mother’s car without permission, or a license, to drive to local talent shows.
In 1956, he went to Los Angeles to visit his uncle and break into the music business. He convinced Modern Records A&R man Ernie Freeman to listen to his song Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine, and was signed immediately to the label’s subsidiary, RPM, whose other artists included B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon, Elmore James, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and the Cadets. Anka was their only Caucasian talent.
Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine was released in 1956 with the Cadets on back-up vocals and I Confess on the b-side. Anka was overjoyed when he made his way back to Ottawa, and even appeared on CBC’s Pick the Stars and Cross-Canada Hit Parade. Unfortunately, the record barely caused any waves.
Anka explored journalism as a potential career path, working briefly at the Ottawa Citizen, but music remained a great passion. In 1957, at the age of 16, he traveled to New York with a copy of his song Diana in tow, to meet with ABC-Paramount’s A&R man Don Costa. After playing Diana and a few of his other songs on piano, the label executives were so impressed that he was signed a week later.
Diana was his first single and sold over 20 million copies worldwide. He went on to write and record numerous other Top 10 U.S hits, such as You Are My Destiny, Lonely Boy, Put Your Head On My Shoulder, Puppy Love, My Home Town, and Dance on Little Girl.
Although famous as a teenage pop icon, Anka also had credibility as a songwriter, penning the hit It Doesn’t Matter Anymore for Buddy Holly and the theme for Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. In later years he penetrated the adult market with Tom Jones’ bestselling record She’s a Lady, Donny Osmond’s cover of Puppy Love, Barbra Streisand’s Jubilation, and the English lyrics to the song My Way, which was made famous by Frank Sinatra and is one of the most memorable songs in modern music history. Other noteworthy artists who have performed Anka’s songs include Elvis Presley, Nina Simone, Sid Vicious, Robbie Williams and Céline Dion.
Anka stunned the industry in 1962 when he purchased his masters and publishing for $250 000 and left ABC-Paramount for RCA Victor. He signed a deal with them to produce his finished masters through his own Camy Productions. He also started Spanka Music Corp, his very own publishing company. At this time he had a few mild hits such as Love Me Warm And Tender, A Steel Guitar And A Glass of Wine and Eso Beso. In the same year, he appeared in the film The Longest Day and composed its theme song, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
The pop paradigm shift caused by The Beatles in the late ‘60s cast Anka and other teen idols off the music scene, but Anka kept at it, performing in Las Vegas for weeks at a time while hanging out with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, and focusing on acting and writing for movies.
Anka reappeared on the charts in 1974 with Odia Coates and their #1 hit Having My Baby, followed by two top ten hits, One Man Woman/One Woman Man and I Don’t Like to Sleep Alone. In 1975 he had success with The Times of Your Life, a single he had composed as a jingle for Kodak and then recorded. Anka was in the top ten of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Charts in 1983 with Hold Me Till The Morning Comes and again in 1996 with his album Amigos from Sony, which featured top Hispanic artists.
His 2005 release Rock Swings featured incredible renditions of some of the hardest rocking songs from the last twenty years, including Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden), Jump (Van Halen), Wonderwall (Oasis), and Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana). His interpretations of these classic songs are boldly different from their originals. The album sold over half a million copies worldwide and went Gold in four countries.
His latest album, Classic Songs, My Way, released in September 2007 is a mixture of new recordings of Anka’s own hits and covers of contemporary staples such as Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and The Killers’ Mr. Brightside. “When you are a musician or a songwriter you dissect everything you hear," Anka has said. "A good song is a good song. And they usually can be done several ways."
Today, Anka is still performing tirelessly. He is on the road for 35 weeks out of the year, makes regular appearances in Las Vegas and tours around the globe, sharing his timeless repertoire of songs with old and new generations of fans.
Anka received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1991, the government of France honoured him with the title of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2005, he received the Order of Canada and received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
Claude Dubois began his singing career at the age of 12 with Les Montagnards, a country-flavoured band whose first album was titled Claude Dubois et ses Montagnards. By 1966, the times were changing and Dubois, who had been influenced by Bob Dylan, Donovan and Gilles Vigneault, recorded his first solo album, and succeeded in making a name for himself among such well-established peers as Claude Gauthier, Robert Charlebois, Georges Dor and Raymond Lévesque. Vigneault gave Dubois his first break when he hired as the opening act on his Quebec tour. Dubois went on to sing at the Festival du Disque as well as Place des Arts, Comédie Canadienne and Expo 67, and received a Discovery of the Year award from the popular Montreal singer-songwriter club Le Patriote. Inspired by the 1960's social and musical changes, Dubois rapidly went back to the studio to record a new psychedelic-rock-influenced album.
In 1972, following the Paris recording of his third album, which included the now classic Le Labrador, Dubois took some time off performing to travel the world, find himself and recharge his batteries. A few months later, in 1973, he released Touchez Dubois, a signature album that yielded some of the artist's greatest hits, including Femme de rêve, Bébé jajou la toune and La vie à la semaine. Dubois was on a roll: he sang with Diane Dufresne and Offenbach, and was offered his own variety show at Radio-Canada in 1973 and later TVA from 1975-76. Décibels and Showbizz, the shows he hosted for these networks, are still fondly remembered by many music lovers.
Claude Dubois' fifth album, Mellow Reggae (1976), was recorded in Paris, London, Miami and Montreal. Two years later, in 1978, Dubois became a star performer of the Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon musical Starmania, where his performance of the song Le Blues du Businessman became a classic of the international Francophone music scene, bringing him the 1979 Félix Award for Best Male Singer of the Year.
The early 1980s were a difficult period for Claude Dubois, who was arrested for drug possession in 1981 and spent the rest of the year in detox. Dubois used this unscheduled hiatus to jot down the music and lyrics of yet another signature album, and made a strong comeback the following year with a sixth album titled Sortie Dubois, a tongue-in-cheek pun meaning ‘Out of the Woods’, that marked the end of that painful time in his private life. This new release included the hit singles Plein de tendresse and Femme ou fille, and sold over 200,000 copies. Dubois headlined performances at the Montreal Forum and Quebec City's Colisée with the internationally renowned Quebec jazz-fusion group Uzeb, and went on to receive five Félix awards, including one for Best Male Performer – a distinction he was to be given two years in a row. He continued to perform for sold-out audiences through the early 1990s and, in 1996, recorded his seventh album, a tribute to Frederico Fellini titled Gelsomina.
In 1998, Claude Dubois had a stroke as he was poised to start a series of performances at the Montreal Casino. He recovered in a matter of weeks and rapidly went back to performing. In 2001, he was awarded SOCAN's National Achievement Award, given to an artist for outstanding success predominantly in the Canadian music industry over the span of his/her career, as well as the ADISQ Tribute Award. Since then, he has continued to perform a series of shows at the Montreal Casino and to give sold-out performances throughout Quebec.
In 2007, Claude Dubois indulged himself with the release of an album of his most popular songs performed as duos with prominent French and Quebec singers such as Gilles Vigneault, Richard Desjardins, Patrick Bruel, Francis Cabrel, Céline Dion, Isabelle Boulay, Garou and many others. Duos Dubois was a resounding success and turned platinum with 100,000 copies sold within three weeks of the album's release. By the end of August 2007, the album had passed the double platinum mark with over 200,000 copies sold.
Artistes
Year: 1976
Lyricist and composer:
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
A seasoned traveller, Claude Dubois set out to discover the world on numerous occasions during his wanderlust period. From 1968 to 1980, he visited all five continents and become acquainted with the world's musical traditions and cultures, an education that was to have a noticeable impact on his art and permeate many of his albums.
Following a visit to Jamaica, Dubois became one of the first Francophone artists to integrate reggae rhythms to his songs, long before French singer Serge Gainsbourg did so in his classic 1979 album Aux armes et cætera. First heard on Claude Dubois' 1976 Mellow Reggae album, Artistes is the result of the songwriter's exposure to reggae and West Indian sounds.
At a time when Jean-Pierre Ferland was singing Le show-business and Robert Charlebois was performing Urgence, two songs that were highly critical of pop music and the superficiality of the recording industry, Dubois preferred to sing the praises of all artists with his own show-business song, claiming that everyone is an artist at heart.
The Mellow Reggae album was recorded in Paris, Montreal and Miami in 1977, and yielded the hits songs Artistes and Sarabande. Artists taking part in the recording of the album included Sonny Binns and Trevor Star.
Aimes-tu la vie comme moi ?
Year: 1975
Lyricist:
Georges Thurston
(Bedford, Quebec, 29 December, 1951 – Montreal, 18 June, 2007)
Composers:
Billy Clements
Phillip Mitchell
After playing in a variety of soul/R&B groups in the 1960s, Georges Thurston took a gig as the on-stage percussionist to Quebec singer Claude Dubois and began working as a record producer with Tony Roman. Equally at home on keyboards, guitar and drums, Thurston wrote and performed with many artists including Robert Charlebois, Nanette Workman and François Guy.
A true French-language soul, disco and funk music pioneer, Georges Thurston first came to prominence with Aimes-tu la vie comme moi ?, a hit song that helped him top Quebec and European charts. His popularity was confirmed with his performance in front of an audience of 300,000 in Marseille, France, where he shared the stage with such prominent artists as Joe Cocker and Weather Report.
Thurston released his first album in 1975 under the title of Boule Noire (litteraly translated as Black Ball), a reference to the shape and colour of the fashionable Afro hairstyle he was currently sporting. Later incorrectly introduced as ‘Boule Noire’ on a television show by host Pierre Lalonde, the name stuck, and the persona of ‘Boule Noire’ was born.
With its life afferming lyrics and contagious energy, Aimes-tu la vie comme moi ? became a huge hit and earned Thurston a Gold Record in Quebec in 1976. Loto Québec also used it in one of their commercials.
In 1995, Georges Thurston received a SOCAN Classic Award for Aimes-tu la vie comme moi ? for reaching 25,000 radio plays.
In 2006, Georges Thurston learned that he had incurable and inoperable cancer. He donated the song Aimes-tu la vie comme moi ? tothe Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada. Thurston recorded a moving acappella version of the song for a television commercial to be used as part of a prevention blitz, which garnered two awards of excellence for Cossette advertising agency. Aimes-tu la vie ? is also the title of an autobiographical book that was released days before the musician's death.
Georges Thurston unfortunately passed away on Monday, June 18, 2007.
Canadiana Suite
Canadiana Suite
Year: 1963
Composers:
Oscar Peterson
(Montreal, Quebec, 15 August, 1925 - Mississauga, Ontario, 23 December, 2007)
Canadiana Suite is Oscar Peterson’s best-known work. Composed in 1963, it is a collection of eight compositions that moves its listeners across the Canadian landscape on a conceptual railway journey, starting in the Maritimes (Ballad to the East), sweeping through the Laurentian Mountains (Laurentide Waltz) to Montreal (Place St. Henri), Toronto, (Hogtown Blues) Manitoba (Wheatland), Saskatchewan (Blues of the Prairies) Calgary (March Past) and ending in British Columbia (Land of the Misty Giants). The composition artfully captures the vastness and diversity of the Canadian landscape through a thoughtful blending of blues and swing, altering rhythm and mood as the mythical railway travels across the nation.
Peterson was moved to create this enormous masterpiece to express his deep affection for his native land. As he himself once stated, “My profession has taken me to every part of the world, none of them more beautiful than where I live. As a musician, I respond to the harmony and rhythm of life, and when I'm deeply moved it leaves something singing inside me. With a country as large and as full of contrast as Canada, I had a lot of themes to choose from when I wrote the Canadiana Suite. This is my musical portrait of the Canada I love.”
Canadiana Suite was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965 for best jazz composition. In 1979, CBC created a television special designed and directed by Durnford King, who set Peterson’s expressive music against the beautiful backdrop of our country’s natural landscape.
Various jazz musicians have executed pieces from Canadiana Suite, which runs a total of 35:10. American jazz musician Ellis Marsalis perfected Wheatland for his Canadian Tour in the late ‘90s. In 2007, Peterson was honoured with a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall, where he had dazzled audiences for the first time so many years before. The show featured two movements from Canadiana Suite. Eldar, who noted Peterson as an inspiration while growing up in Kyrgyzstan, played a fiery rendition of Place St. Henri, while Renee Rosnes gave a beautiful delivery of Ballad to the East.
Cover artists include: Gary Burton (Wheatland), Eldar (Place St. Henri), Benny Green & Russell Malone (Wheatland), Oliver Jones (Place St. Henri), Ellis Marsalis (Wheatland), Marian McPartland (Place St. Henri), Renee Rosnes (Ballad of the East) Billy Taylor (Laurentide Waltz)
Comme un million de gens
Year: 1966
Lyricist and composer:
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
In 1966, with two albums already under his belt, a young Claude Dubois flew to Paris to record some of his new songs, including the iconic Comme un million de gens.
This socially inspired song describes the poverty and hardship faced in the 1960s by many Quebec families, including that of the songwriter himself. Dubois paints a faithful portrait of the political landscape during a time when the province was still under the firm grip of the Catholic Church, and when many of its residents felt that they lacked the education to challenge the English Canadian-dominated business world. The song thus reflects the deep economic, social and environmental changes affecting the life conditions and quality of thousands of Quebec families.
After returning home from France, Claude Dubois experienced his first chart-topping success with this song, which delivered a powerful social and political message on the rock-flavoured catchy rhythm of the period.
During the 1970s, Comme un million de gens became the flagship song of the Quebec labour movement and was sung, literally, by millions of people.
Comme un million de gens was most recently covered by Lynda Lemay as part of the tribute album Duos Dubois.
In 1994, Comme un million de gens became a SOCAN Classic after reaching over 25,000 airplays.
Cover artists include: Lynda Lemay
Diana
Year: 1957
Composer and lyricist: Paul Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
Written as a plea from a teenage boy who has fallen in love with a girl a few years older, Diana launched Paul Anka into stardom and made him an international pop icon. The song was inspired by a crush Anka had on an older girl named Diana Ayoub. It was the first example of his remarkable songwriting talent and remains one of the most popular love songs of the 1950s.
In 1957, A&R man Don Costa of ABC-Paramount Records received a lead sheet for Diana from a disc jockey in Toronto. He skimmed it and seeing potential requested a demo from the composer.
Anka, only 16 at the time, traveled from Ottawa to New York to hand-deliver Diana to Costa. He stayed in a suite with fellow Canadian musicians The Rover Boys at the President Hotel and slept in the bathtub for lack of space. During the day he wandered around the city, anxiously waiting until Costa had time to see him.
When they finally met, Anka settled behind the piano and played him a few of his songs, including Diana. Costa quickly called the other record executives into his office to listen. Impressed by the teenager’s confidence and exceptional talent, they offered him a record deal. Soon after, Anka’s father flew in from Ottawa to sign the necessary paperwork on his son’s behalf, as Anka was too young to sign them himself.
Diana was Anka’s first release with ABC-Paramount and earned #1 status on the Billboard chart for eighteen weeks. It went on to sell 20 million copies worldwide and become one of the most successful pop records in history, having reportedly been recorded over 300 times in 16 countries between 1957 and 1963.
Cover artists include: Frankie Avalon, Mike Berry, George Faith, Conway Twitty, Alejandra Guzman, Mar-Keys, The Misfits, The Pete Best Band and Caetono Veloso.
Femme de rêve
Year: 1973
Lyricist and composer:
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
Femme de rêve, a track from the 1973 album Touchez Dubois, is a tribute to the women of the world and to their freedom, hopes, and solidarity. The song was first recorded at the Universal Studio in L.A. with well-known studio musicians, and has since become a signature piece of Claude Dubois' repertory.
Espousing the ideals of the eventful 1970s, when the only real hope lied in the future, Dubois affirmed that women's quest for freedom represented a happy hope.
Paradoxically, Dubois was also asserting his own right to personal freedom and his yearning for closer contacts with women without losing his own independence.
With more accessible pieces and runaway hits, the album Touchez Dubois marked a commercial shift in Dubois' career. The Femme de rêve single, backed with the song Bébé jajoue la toune, became a double chart success. At the time, the influential Barclay label boasted an impressive stable of Quebec artists that included Robert Charlebois, the group Offenbach and Diane Dufresne.
Readily recognizable from its first whistled notes, Femme de rêve, an integral part of the history of Quebec pop, became a SOCAN Classic in 1994 after reaching 25,000 airplays.
Cover artists include: Corneille.
Heart Like a Wheel
Year: 1970
Composer and lyricist:
Anna McGarrigle
(Montreal, Quebec, 4 December, 1944)
Anna McGarrigle and her sister Kate were well known performers on Montreal's folk scene of the 60s but it wasn't till 1970 that Anna wrote her first song. Spurred on by Kate and fellow musician Roma Baran who were already out playing the Northeastern circuit she sat down one day at the old Steinway upright in the family home of St Sauveur QC and wrote Heart Like a Wheel. The next time Kate and Roma blew through town she played it for them. She remembers them working it up that very same evening, Kate on piano, Roma on cello.
They introduced the song at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in Summer in 1970 and then started closing their set with it. Jerry Jeff Walker of Mr. Bojangles fame heard Kate and Roma do it one night and asked them for a copy of it which he later played for his friend Linda Ronstadt.
Folk rock group McKendree Spring were the first to record Heart Like A Wheel on their 1972 record McKendree Spring 3. Ronstadt’s version appeared on her 1974 album Heart Like A Wheel. The album reached #1 and spent 51 weeks on Billboard’s top 200 album charts. Although the song did not make a prominent appearance on the charts, fans and critics alike agreed that it was one of the best tracks on Ronstadt’s record.
After Ronstadt’s success with the song, Anna and Kate recorded Heart Like a Wheel on their 1976 debut album Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
Anna and Kate were born in Montreal and raised in St Sauveur and Montreal, QC. Anna attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts and Kate studied Science at McGill University. While they were in school they formed part of the folk group the Mountain City Four with Peter Weldon and Jack Nissenson. Anna and Kate were signed to Warner Bros in 1975.
Cover artists include: Billy Bragg, Heidi Berry, Christine Collister, Bob Davenport, Dolores Keane, McKendree Spring, Linda Rondstadt, Sangsters, June Tabor and The Corrs
Hymn to Freedom
Year: 1962
Composer: Oscar Peterson
(Montreal, Quebec, 15 August, 1925 - Mississauga, Ontario, 23 December, 2007)
Lyricist: Harriette Hamilton
(New York, New York, USA, 14 April, 1936)
Recognised as one of Oscar Peterson’s most significant compositions, Hymn to Freedom was written in 1962and swiftly embraced by people the world over as the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.
The piece was Peterson’s first major work and written with encouragement from his producer and dear friend Norman Granz. During those initial recording sessions, Granz urged Peterson to create a tune with a “definitive early-blues feel”.
For inspiration, Peterson drew upon various church renderings of Negro spirituals recalled from his childhood in Montreal. He aimed to maintain the unadorned, yet poignant quality of these early Baptist hymns while composing the beginning chorus of Hymn to Freedom. Upon its completion, Peterson and Granz decided that lyrics would complement the music and contacted Malcolm Dodds, composer, arranger and choir director of The Malcolm Dodds Singers; a backup group for many popular artists of the day.
Dodds turned to his collaborator Harriette Hamilton, who had been writing lyrics for the choral group’s original compositions for several years. According to Hamilton, “all the lyrics had to do was express in very simple language the hope for unity, peace and dignity for mankind. It was easy to write.”
With Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums, the trio recorded the piece on Night Train (Verve 1962), which became one of their most commercially successful albums. Critical acclaim moved Peterson to record Hymn to Freedom on several albums that followed.
During the 1980s, fellow Canadian jazz musicians Oliver Jones and Doug Riley recorded their own renditions of Hymn to Freedom.
In 1986, 10 children’s choirs from around the world met in Helsinki, Finland, for the International Choral Sympaatti (the biggest international festival for children’s choirs ever organised in Finland), and performed their version of Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom.
In 2000, the Deutsche Welle Choir of Fifty Voices performed Hymn to Freedom in Aachen, Germany, where Peterson was awarded the UNESCO International Music Prize. Today, it has been adopted as the unofficial anthem of youth choirs throughout the world, and is frequently chosen as a choir’s closing piece.
In 2002, Oscar Peterson and his trio, along with various other Canadian artists, performed the Hymn at the end of a Gala Tribute Concert to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee celebrations in Canada.
Hymn to Freedom is, indeed, one of Peterson’s most relevant and timeless pieces. Acknowledgements are due to this Canadian legend for creating this superbly moving composition, capturing a period of Western history that saw radical change, and becoming a powerful force for freedom and equality.
Cover artists include: Oliver Jones, Doug Riley, Suzanne Davis Quartet, Deutsche Welle Choir of Fifty Voices
It Doesn't Matter Anymore
Year: 1958
Composer and lyricist: Paul Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, an empowering ballad about moving on after suffering from a broken heart, was written by Paul Anka especially for Buddy Holly to record. “Buddy wanted to do something like I did with ‘You Are My Destiny’ with the violins,“ Anka recalled. The song was recorded by Holly on October 21, 1958 with Anka present during the session.
It Doesn’t Matter Anymore was released the following January. A month later, Holly died tragically at the age of 22, in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians J.P Richardson and Ritchie Valens. The artists were all in Clear Lake, Iowa for the Winter Dance Party show, which also included a performance by Anka. They finished their show at the Surf Ballroom and boarded a small aircraft chartered to take them to their next show in Fargo, North Dakota. The plane crashed a few minutes after take-off, killing every one aboard. Divine intervention saved Anka from boarding the flight, as his manager Irvin Feld told him to stay behind because he had promised Anka’s father he would keep an eye on him.
Soon after Holly’s untimely death, It Doesn’t Matter Anymore became a hit, reaching #1 on the British charts and climbing to #13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. "The success of ‘It Doesn't Matter Anymore’ gave me a broader parameter of credibility as a writer,” Anka once stated.
The song has been covered by many artists, from Linda Ronstadt on her #1 album Heart Like A Wheel (1974) to the late Eva Cassidy on her 2002 album Imagine.
Cover artists include: Mike Berry, Suzy Bogguss with Dave Edmunds, Eva Cassidy, Connie Francis, Freddy & the Dreamers, Vince Gill, Alan Price, Linda Ronstadt, Serena Ryder, Martin Simpson, The Supernaturals and The Astronauts.
La Bittt à Tibi
Year: 1975
Lyricist and Composer:
Raôul Duguay
(Val D’Or, Abitibi, Quebec, 13 February, 1939)
As he reminds us in the lyrics of his mythical autobiographical song La Bittt à Tibi, released on his first solo album Alllô Toulmond!, Raôul Duguay was born in Val d'Or, Abitibi, on February 13, 1939. This folk-inspired song, which blends traditional music with the modern-sounding progressive rock of the era, remains to this day a Quebec classic. Though clearly a tribute to the songwriter's native Abitibi region, it can be said that La Bittt à Tibi became an instant Quebec emblem. No other region of Quebec has been celebrated in song with as much passion.
Located in North-Western Quebec, the Abitibi region (now know as Abitibi-Témiscamingue) is a vast territory of mostly pristine lands dominated by forests and lakes, and rich in mining and forestry resources. The Abitibi region has a colonial past of nearly 100 years and a 8,000-year Amerindian history. With a major part of the region's revenues flowing from lumber exploitation, agricultural development began in 1911, In 1923, the discovery of the deposit that became the Noranda Mine attracted gold prospectors and settlers to the area from every part of Canada and Europe.
With La Bittt à Tibi, Raôul Duguay brings us right into his ‘country’ of Abitibi, while paying tribute to the hard work of the lumberjacks and miners who built the economy of the region and of the province as a whole. Duguay's lyrics also draw on images of rivers, wild blueberries, forests and hard winters, and his puns and playful descriptions bring back memories of a childhood coloured by wilderness, happiness, courage and poverty.
Recently, under the same-sounding new title of Le Beat à Ti-Bi, the song was covered with great success by Raôul Duguay and the hip pop artist Anodajay, who also hails from Abitibi. Some ten covers of La Bittt à Tibi have been released by well-known artists, but Raôul Duguay's own original version remains the universal reference.
Le Labrador
Year: 1972
Lyricist and composer:
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
This magnificent piece became a Quebec classic immediately following its release. A social and personal view of the isolation the remote territory's developers and pioneers faced in the beginning of the 20th century, the song's lyrics evoke the beauty of the region's summers and winters and express feelings of love for nature and the wilderness and of respect for the Amerindian way of life.
Recorded in Paris at the Vogue Studios, with his guitar and a bottle of Scotch at his feet, Dubois was actually singing the praises of his country's very existence and national fibre.
An intimate and personal song with lyrics partly based on his father's memories, Dubois' Le Labrador leaves no listener indifferent.
Recorded with arrangements and orchestral direction by François Rauber, a long-time collaborator of Jacques Brel, Le Labrador was released in Quebec 18 months after its recording, on the French label Barclay.
Le Labrador was recently covered by two Quebec singing legends, Gilles Vigneault and Richard Desjardins, as part of their contribution to the Duos Dubois album.
Speaking of this recent new collaboration, Claude Dubois said that "this song has now regained the meaning it had when I first recorded it with a guitar and a bottle of Scotch . .. I played it for a few people and saw friends break into tears . . . Gilles said: 'We're three guys from the North . . . .'"
Cover artists include: Richard Desjardins and Gilles Vigneault.
L’infidèle
Year: 1974
Lyricist and composer:
Claude Dubois
(Montreal, Quebec, 24 April, 1947)
With L’infidèle, Claude Dubois professes his boundless love for music, and places his passion squarely at the centre of his life in periods of intense touring. Music and his love for the stage then take over his life, and become a metaphor for infidelity.
L’infidèle had already been written for some time when Dubois recorded it in 1974 at Bearsville Studios outside Woodstock, N.Y., where Bob Dylan had once recorded his mythical album with Canadian group The Band. L’infidèle was recorded with such session musicians as the Mothers of Invention's Billy Mundi on drums and Toronto musician Richard Bell on keyboards. Both this piece and the En voyage album were produced by Utopia member Jean-Yves Labat.
In 1995, L’infidèle became a SOCAN Classic after reaching 25,000 airplays. Dubois' song received the same award 20 nearly years later, in 2004, in a new version by Stéphanie Lapointe for the popular reality television show Star Académie that gave the song a second life and maintained the #1 position on the Quebec Francophone Top 100 chart from May 31 to July 26, 2004.
The piece also received a SOCAN Pop Award in 2005.
In 2007, Patrick Bruel and Claude Dubois performed the song together as part of the tribute album Duos Dubois.
Cover artists include: Stéphanie Lapointe, Wilfred Le Bouthillier and Patrick Bruel.
Love Child
Year: 1968
Composer and lyricist:
R. Dean Taylor (Toronto, Ontario, 1939)
Co-wrote with:
Frank Wilson (Los Angeles, California)
Pam Sawyer (Romford, Essex, United Kingdom)
Deke Richards
Love Child is the late sixties Motown hit written for, and made famous by, Diana Ross & the Supremes. The song is about a woman who resists her lover’s unrelenting sexual advances in order to avoid the risk of becoming an unwed mother. At the time, it offered a fairly provocative commentary on the matter of illegitimacy; an interesting break from the group’s usual love songs. The lyrics were tailored to mirror Diana Ross’ fatherless childhood, which included having to share the emotional, social and financial burdens with her mother; something she swore her own children would never have to experience.
Motown creator Berry Gordy gathered the Motown Clan, a group of highly successful songwriters and producers, together at the Pontchartrain Hotel in Detroit, where they sat down and wrote Love Child specifically for the label’s “sweethearts”. The Clan included songwriters Frank Wilson, Henry Cosby, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards and Canadian singer/songwriter R. Dean Taylor.
R. Dean Taylor began his career in Toronto, where he played piano and sang in clubs while working on his recordings. He wrote and recorded in New York before moving to Detroit in 1963, where Motown Records signed him as an artist and writer. At Motown, Taylor co-wrote and co-produced numerous hit songs for many of the label’s popular artists, including The Temptations, the Four Tops, and Brenda Holloway.
Diana Ross & the Supremes added Love Child to their string of hits when it reached #1 on the Billboard charts in 1968 and remained there for two weeks. It was their best-selling single and the last #1 for the disintegrating group before Ross embarked on her solo career in 1970. Ironically enough, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong did not actually sing on the record, though the album was presented as a group endeavour.
In 1990, female trio Sweet Sensation covered Love Child as their album’s title track, and the single reached #13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Yet another female trio, Broadzilla, redid Love Child with a hard punk flair on their 2003 Lady Luck album.
Cover artists include: Albino Gorilla, Booker T and the M.G’s, Broadzilla, Gina Glocksen, Latoya Jackson, and Sweet Sensation.
My Way
Year: 1969
Lyricist: Paul Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
Composers:
Claude François (Ismaïlia, Egypt, 1 February, 1939 – Paris, France, 11 March, 1978) Jacques Revaux (Azay-sur-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, France, 11 July, 1940)
Gilles Thibault (21 September, 1927 – Paris, France, 2 August, 2000)
My Way is one of the most recognisable songs in the world and is renowned as Frank Sinatra’s signature song. The melody originated from the French tune Comme d’habitude, written in 1968 by Claude François, Jacques Revaux, and Gilles Thibault.
Paul Anka first heard Comme d’habitude on the radio in 1968 during a visit to Paris. He secured the rights and wrote the now legendary English lyrics specifically for Frank Sinatra, who had revealed that he wanted to retire and wanted Anka to write one last song for him.
Sitting in his New York apartment during a thunderstorm late one night, Anka sat behind his typewriter, listened to the music and wondered ‘what would Frank say if he was writing this?’ He began typing, ‘And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain’ and finished the song by 5 a.m.
Sinatra recorded the song in under half an hour, requiring only two takes. My Way was released in 1969 and peaked at #27 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It spent a record 124 weeks on the UK singles chart, reaching the #5 position.
Other famous artists have recorded My Way throughout the years with great success. Elvis Presley’s live recording of the song was released in December 1977, months after his death and peaked at #2 on Billboard. The Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious recorded his version of the song in 1979, which charted at #6 in the UK.
Anka has often said that he credits My Way as the turning point in his career as a songwriter. His label wanted him to keep the song for himself, but he declined, believing that he was too young to give the powerful lyrics justice.
Cover artists include: Shirley Bassey, Sammy Davis Jr., Roy Drusky, Aretha Franklin, Gypsy Kings, Nina Hagen, Elliot Humberto Kavee, Julio Iglesias, Tom Jones, Los Piratas, Eric Miller and his Orchestra, Luciano Pavarotti, Elvis Presley, Ray Quinn, Nina Simone, Barbara Streisand, The Anita Kerr Singers, Sid Vicious, Andy Williams, Robbie Williams, and George Wright.
Put Your Head on my Shoulder
Year: 1959
Composer and lyricist: Paul Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
Put Your Head on my Shoulder is one of the most cherished love songs of all time. Paul Anka wrote and recorded it in 1959, at the height of his fame as a pop idol. Like his previous hits, Anka’s song captured the coy tenderness of the 1950’s teenage popular culture.
His inspiration came from his fans, whom he would observe in the audience during his performances. “I was very much aware of the ambience of these record hops…that was a room full of kids, and a lot of ballads, and everyone was holding each other, and I am up there singing alone to all of these teenagers and everybody’s head was on each others’ shoulders. It was kind of important back in the 50’s, a time of innocence and romance…”
Put Your Head on my Shoulder reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Nine years later, it resurfaced at #44 on the charts with The Lettermen’s 1968 rendition.
Canadian singer Michael Bublé—who began as Anka’s protégé—also covered Put Your Head on my Shoulder on his widely successful 2003 self-titled debut album.
Cover artists include: Ronnie Aldridge, Michael Bublé, Ray Franky, Leif Garrett, Good Charlotte The Lettermen, Maureen McGovern, P.J. Proby, Gustavo Rivera, Jerry Vale and Albert West.
She’s A Lady
Year: 1971
Composer and lyricist: Paul Anka
(Ottawa, Ontario, 30 July 1941)
Paul Anka wrote She’s A Lady in 1971, while on a plane returning home from London, England.
Tom Jones’ manager, Gordon Mills, had asked Paul Anka to write a song that would be a guaranteed hit in the U.S., so as Anka sat on the plane, he began thinking, ‘Tom…women…’ and the rest is history.
Brimming with male bravado, She’s A Lady became a tremendous hit for Tom Jones, who recorded it in 1971 on his album Sing She’s A Lady. The song reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and became Jones’ biggest selling single of all time, giving Anka his first #1 hit in the USA and his only #1 hit in CashBox Magazine.
The success of She’s A Lady was another notch in Anka’s belt and yet another example of his versatility as a songwriter. The cheeky lyrics and swinging beat were perfect for Jones, a crooning Casanova known for his sexual energy on stage.
Other artists have produced unique renditions of this standard, including a house version by Funkstar de Luxe on his 2001 album Keep on Moving (It’s Too Funky in Here), and a jazzy, tongue in cheek version by Patricia Barber on her 1998 album Modern Cool.
Cover artists include: Patricia Barber, Big Cock, Funkstar de Luxe, Highliners, Nicky Harris, Joe Jones, Tom Jones, Red Mitchell, Frank Pourcel, The Persuasians and The Ventures.
Signs
Year: 1971
Composer and lyricist: Les Emmerson
(Ottawa, Ontario, 17 September, 1944)
The concept for Signs originated as Les Emmerson was driving down Route 66 in California. He became aware of the countless billboards and advertisements, which effectively blocked all views of the scenery. Emmerson viewed this as a metaphor for the obstacles that Five Man Electrical Band faced as they struggled to break into the music scene. The radical lyrics were also representative of the harsh social climate of the time.
Formed in Ottawa in 1964 under the name The Staccatos, Les Emmerson joined the band in 1965 after the departure of guitarist Peter Fallis. At their height, the band consisted of Les Emmerson, Brian Rading, Ted Gerow, Rick Belanger and Mike Belanger.
Signs was released on the B-side of the 1970 single, Hello Melinda, Goodbye. Sadly, it did not receive much enthusiasm and, feeling defeated, the band left LA for Ottawa. A year later, they re-released the song as the first single off their album Goodbye and Butterflies, with Signs now on the A-side, this time with very different results.
As Signs began to garner airplay, especially in the southern U.S.A., the downtrodden band was on the verge of breaking-up. Abe Hoch, the bands manager, urged them to reconsider since it seemed like their hard work was finally paying off. They conceded, swiftly traveling back to the U.S.A. to perform some spur-of-the-moment shows in Detroit, West Virginia, and across the country in Seattle, where their popularity had grown tremendously.
Five Man Electrical Band were finally able to enjoy the fruits of their labour when Signs reached #3 on the Billboard charts and went on to sell over a million and a half copies. Emmerson has received a BMI Award for 1 million airplays and a SOCAN Award for over one hundred thousands plays on Canadian radio for the song.
In 1990, American rock band Tesla covered Signs on their live album Five Man Acoustical Jam, which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Singles chart. Fatboy Slim sampled lines from the song for his track, Don’t Let the Man Get You Down.
Cover artists include: Tesla, Bobby Vee, and Fatboy Slim.
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson
(Montreal, Quebec, 15 August, 1925 – Mississauga, Ontario, 23 December, 2007)
Very few jazz musicians have achieved such great heights of success as this Canadian legend. The career of internationally renowned jazz pianist and composer Oscar Peterson spansed over sixty years. As a virtuoso performer with unmatchable dexterity, speed, and expressiveness, as well as a talent for creating evocative compositions, he distinguished himself as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.
He led the way in establishing a space for Canadian jazz legends such as Oliver Jones, Joe Sealy, Maynard Ferguson and Ed Bickert on the international music scene, and influenced musicians from all across the world while paving the way for contemporary Canadian artists such as Diana Krall. Global renown did not stop him from paying tribute to Canada through numerous compositions dedicated to his homeland, as well as committing his time to educational endeavours that nurture the growth and development of young Canadian talents
Peterson was born in Montreal on August 15, 1925, the fourth of five children. His gift was discovered and nurtured early on by his father, a porter with Canadian Pacific Railways who had taught himself how to play piano while in the merchant marine.
Throughout high school, Peterson studied with Louis Hooper, Canadian veteran of the Harlem jazz scene, and the distinguished pianist Paul de Marky, who reinforced the importance of technique and confidence. During this time, he was inspired by artists such as Teddy Williams, Nat King Cole, James P. Johnson, and in particular Art Tatum. In fact, the first time he was exposed to one of his father’s Tatum records, the young Peterson was so impressed and intimidated by what he heard that he avoided the piano for over a month.
Peterson won a CBC national amateur contest, at only 14 years of age, after his sister Daisy, who became a noted piano teacher in Montreal, persuaded him to audition. He became a regular on the Montreal radio show Fifteen Minutes’ Piano Rambling and the CBC broadcast The Happy Gang.
Peterson’s big break came in 1949 when Norman Granz, producer of Jazz at the Philharmonic, was on his way to the Montreal airport in a taxi and heard Peterson and his trio on the radio performing live from the Alberta Lounge. He immediately asked the driver to take him there, thus sparking the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between the two men.
Granz offered Peterson an opportunity to play as a surprise guest at Carnegie Hall and he accepted, performing a brilliant set with bassist Ray Brown and motivating Granz to offer him a permanent position with Jazz at the Philharmonic.
Peterson toured the United States extensively with the company and eventually formed the Oscar Peterson Trio with Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. They worked hard, motivating and inspiring each other unflaggingly. Despite the demands of touring and recording, fellow musicians constantly clamored to be a part of the trio, due to a desire to work with Peterson and be part of his vision and talent.
Peterson’s career involved continuous performing and recording. His discography of group and solo work amounts, incredibly, to over hundreds of records. He collaborated with such notable names as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Stan Getz and others. Although Peterson never recorded or performed with his idol Art Tatum, they did become friends.
In addition to being a brilliant pianist, Peterson was also a gifted composer. One of his first major works, Hymn to Freedom (1962) is a protest piece that became an anthem for the civil rights movement. His best known work, Canadiana Suite (1963), is self-described as “a musical portrait of the Canada I love”; Fields of Endless Day (1978) is a film score about the journey of black slaves who escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad; City Lights (1977) composed for the Ballets Jazz de Montreal, is a waltz composed about the city of Toronto. Canadian filmmaker Norman MacLaren’s film Begone Dull Care was made to the music of Oscar Peterson.
Other compositions include African Suite (1979), A Royal Wedding Suite (1981), Easter Suite (1984) and The Trail of Dreams Suite (2000) for the Trans-Canada Trail. He has composed works for Bach 300, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the opening of the Skydome in Toronto and countless films and documentaries, including The Silent Partner, for which he won the Canadian Film Award for Best Original Score in 1978.
His compositions have been recorded by such prominent jazz musicians as Count Basie, Ray Brown, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Marian McPartland, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Jackson.
Throughout his career, Peterson was always been involved in creating and supporting music education programs in one capacity or another. From co-creating and training at his short-lived, yet highly-esteemed Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto in the early 1960s, to his role as Chancellor at York University three decades later, he remained adamant about supporting the development of young Canadians: “I've been fortunate to have a successful jazz career, and I believe it's now my turn to use that experience to help direct students."
Peterson received innumerable awards throughout his prolific career, including eight Grammys, two Junos, one Genie, one Gemini, nine Lifetime Achievement Awards from various organisations, eight Hall of Fame awards, thirteen consecutive Downbeat Awards, and is the recipient of 13 honourary degrees. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972 and promoted to Companion in 1984. He received the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Arts Association in 1999 (the arts equivalent of the Nobel Prize; the first Canadian and first jazz musician to receive this award) and the UNESCO International Music Prize in 2000. He was the first recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. He had a stamp issued in his honour by Austria in 2003 and by Canada Post in 2005.
Peterson was forced to slow down momentarily in 1993 after suffering a stroke while performing at the Blue Note club in New York, which slightly weakened his left hand. In more recent years arthritis caused him to perform less frequently, although his performances contained as much passion and verve as they did half a century ago. Indeed, he is not only inspiring as an exquisite pianist and gifted composer, but also as a human being with unparalleled fortitude.
On June 8, 2007, a tribute concert featuring jazz icons such as Hank Jones and Clark Terry was held for Peterson at Carnegie Hall, the same place where his prolific career began nearly 60 years before. Although ill health prevented him from attending, fellow jazz greats, young virtuosos, family and friends gathered together in his honour to celebrate the profound and prolific achievements of this beloved Canadian.
On December 23, 2007, Oscar Peterson passed away at his family home in Mississauga, Ontario.