Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

The single version of "Broken Guitar Blues" (#34 on May 26, 1973):

 

And the single version of "Can You Feel It" (#19 on April 13, 1974):

 

IMO BTO fans already bought the album which somewhat depressed sales. It was played a lot on the radio in any case. Especially on FM.

 

I think BTO are a good example of the problems befitting a band with a commercially-successful 'signature sound': there's a damned if you do, damned if you don't conundrum going forward. Do you keep cranking out variations of your famous sound or do you veer in a different direction? Amazingly, both directions subject you to critical ridicule and diminished returns.

We know the band themselves were getting frustrated with their albums' lack of stylistic diversity, and "Looking Out for Number One" is a really clever way to move the needle (though a whole album's worth would have been a bad idea).

But I'm sure that the song's unsuitedness for long-weekend drunken singalong did affect its chart performance. How could it not have? I think radio and retrospect have been much kinder.

It's a beautiful composition. Lyrically, it's a bit suss, though you can see where Randy was coming from. Wonder what his bandmates thought?

 

At #49 the week of July 3 for the first of two weeks, "Dance" b/w "Don't Wanna Take The Chance (Of Losing You) by Déjà Vu. It was #18 CFRA (Ottawa), #23 CFGO (Ottawa), #24 CHUM, and #27 CKLW (Windsor).



LP version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqTA8dmDsUU



After Skip Prokop left Lighthouse in 1974 and retired from live performing, he indicated to the press a desire to take a behind the scenes role in the music industry. In February 1976, a new group named Déjà Vu was announced to the press, with Prokop being painted as their Svengali. From the February 28 issue of RPM (Canadian "super group" formed in U.S.):

Cal Dodd, one of the band members, burbled to the Toronto Star, "It's unbelievable! This is the largest deal ever signed in the history of the Canadian pop music industry, certainly the largest ever for an unknown band. No one outside the recording studio and outside rehearsals has heard us play. We've not yet had a real audience."

Cal Dodd, one of the three lead singers, you will know from this thread:
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

RPM (May 15, 1976 "Deja Vu to open Cocker concerts")

On bass was Terry Wilkins, who came to Canada from Australia with Flying Circus and also played in Lighthouse. Wally Cameron who drummed with Leigh Ashford and the third and fourth versions of Motherlode. The guitarist was John Lowry, and John Sheard was on keyboards.



Lowry, Gordon, Dodd, Wilkins, Cameron, Bonnell, Sheard

RPM (April 3, 1976)

The group made their debut at a private showcase in Toronto on April 15, the opened for Joe Cocker on a Canadian tour.
RPM (May 15, 1976 "Deja Vu to open Cocker concerts")

From the Ottawa Journal right before they played there (May 7, 1976 "He created a band...and was pleased, for he saw that it was good. And on the concert night he rested.")

Sounds like Cal Dodd. There was a cartoon accompanying the article depicting a shaggy hat-wearing figure labelled "Skip" instructing an equally shaggy group "NOW...PLAY!" (those subscribed to Newspapers.com should check it out.) And John Pimm (The Rabble) was now the band's guitarist. The initial reaction was somewhat positive, mainly in contrast to Joe Cocker.

Toronto Globe and Mail (May 11, 1976 "Cocker not up to par, Deja Vu steals show)

Lighthouse disbanded some years ago.
However, The Toronto Star dissented (May 11, 1976 "Cocker concert a near shambles")

Regina Leader-Post (May 17, 1976 "Cocker was awful, Deja Vu was not")

RPM (May 29, 1976 "Deja Vu rejects 'Super Group' label")

...

...

 

The album A Song For Everyone was released in May. It debuted on the charts the week of June 5, climbing to #48 the week of July 24, stayed there for one more week, then fell to #91 and left the charts completely the next week (after ten weeks there).



Reviews were tepid. From Canadian Press:

Edmonton Journal

"Be Happy" b/w "Don't Want To Say Goodbye" would be the next single, but would not chart.





At the end of 1976, the Edmonton Journal would name Skip Prokop runner up for "Hype Job of the Year" (to Rock 'n Roll by the Beatles)

 

The band would record a second album in November of 1976. The band was no longer involved with Skip Prokop, it was produced by Corky Abdo at Captain Audio in Toronto (Jimmy Ienner was the Executive-Producer. There had been a couple of personnel changes: Doug MacAskill had replaced John Pimm on guitar and Mel O'Brien was on bass instead of Terry Wilkins. MacAskill would then leave in February of 1977 before the album was released in order to replace Rich Dodson in the Stampeders.



Rare TV appearance on CBC-TV's 90 Minutes Live (March 4, 1977). That's Ralph Cole (Lighthouse) on guitar, and Terence "Terry" McKeown now on bass. The do their lone hit "Dance", and two songs from their upcoming album, "That's A Melody" and "The Mighty Emerald". Get It Up For Love would be released later in March in Canada and the U.S. It would contain two earlier songs recorded with Prokop, including a cover of "Pretty Lady"






"Love, I'd Like To Thank You" b/w "Somebody To Believe In In" would be released as a single in Canada and the U.S.



"Get It Up For Love" b/w "All Night Long" would be released in Australia only.




Déjà Vu would quietly break up later in 1977.

D

 

At #50 for the first of two weeks (week of July 3), Thundermug with "Clap Your Hands And Stomp Your Feet" b/w "Duckworth Stomp". Neither is on youtube.



"Duckworth Stomp" would also serve as the B-side to "Jeanine", a track from the last album released with a picture sleeve in the Netherlands the same year on the Papillon label.



By now, Joe de Angelis had left the band and the remaining trio (Bill Durst, James Corbett and Ed Pranskus) recorded the single "Old Songs", The B-side "Love Is" is on Youtube





Thundermug (band) - Wikipedia

They would reunite and make the CanCon chart in 1994.

Canadian Bands.com - Thundermug

 

At #49 the week of July 3 for the first of two weeks, "Early Riser" by the T.H.P. Orchestra (#26 on the MOR Playlist). Album version:



45 edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt56sEEC7iQ



12" Disco Sampler version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8E0AgGlttI



B-side "Manha De Carnival (Black Orpheus)" 12" Disco Sampler version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J1HnzhqWI4

"Early Riser" would be released in the U.K. as the B-side of "Sugar Sugar"

 

Early Riser was also the title of their first album which would come out in 1976. It entered the RPM charts on May 29, peaking at #42 the week of July 10, nine weeks on the chart.



Red vinyl promo

 

At #51 the week of July 10, Suzanne Stevens with "Knowing How, Knowing When" b/w "Good Times" (#13 MOR Playlist). Neither is on Youtube.



Unusual special promo pressing





Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

 

Her previous single, "Doesn't It Seem Like A Miracle" b/w "Love's The Only Game In Town" reached #51 the week of April 17 (#23 on the Pop Music Playlist). We didn't hear that at the time because neither side was on youtube (very few of her songs are). The A-side was written by Gene MacLellan (disco Gene MacLellan?).



Montreal Gazette (June 15, 1977 "Singer strikes bronze in Europe")
The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search

She returned to the MOR Playlist with "Take Me Away" b/w "Soldier Of Fortune" (#40 week of February 5, 1977)



It came from the 1977 album Crystal Carriage



"Goodbye Yesterday's Heartaches" from 1977 didn't chart but it's on Youtube!

 

It came from the 1978 album Stardust Lady





"You Saved Me" (written by Paul Naumann of A Foot In Coldwater) was released as a single in February 1978 (it made the Top 40 in Hamilton)



German picture sleeve



An album track "I Can't Live Without You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnyMKZZE7N4

"Let It Burn" made it to #43 on the Adult Orientated Playlist (week of November 10, 1979)

https://images.45cat.com/suzanne-stevens-let-it-burn-columbia-s.jpg

 

During this period, Stevens would still have hits in Quebec:
"L'as-tu vu le soleil? (#9, June 1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Am4RAMxEk

"Les Nuits sont trop longues" (#6, February 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhbuqPD660I

It would be the title of her final French language album in 1979



"L'Amour tendre" (#10, October 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqb-Hbckyvo

And then...not only did the hits stop in 1979, but the records as well, both in French and English. The only mention of her in the press were a half dozen stray appearances on local Montreal TV over the next couple of years. A final mention in the Montreal Gazette came in June 21, 1983. It reported that she had recently moved to Toronto and could be now heard crooning jingles for the Royal Bank. According to several sources, she recorded a cover of Sylvia Robinson's "Pillow Talk" in 1983 using the pseudonym of Lustt





To complicate matters further is the emergence of a Montreal disco singer going by the name of Susan Stevens in 1983. French wiki and some other sources have her as being Suzanne Stevens as well.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/87028-Susan-Stevens


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDGD8gWzWVA

 

At #70 the week of July 10 for the first of two weeks, "My Lady" by Fullerton Dam.





https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thre...e-discussion-thread-196page-162#post-26848212

Fullerton Dam would release the album Breaks in 1976 on their new label, Condor.
Fullerton Dam - Breaks (fantasy cover)




Alternate cover



Fullerton Dam would break up in 1977, and Grant Fullerton and Brad MacDonald would put together a new band, Madcats.

 

Madcats released a self-titled album in 1978, peaking at #47 the week of June 24, 1978 (19 weeks on the chart). It came in gold vinyl with a die-cut cover on the Skyline label.
Madcats - ST



The rest of the world though the Canadian LP cover was too offensive-so they went with this:





Canadian Bands.com - Madcats

 

Madcats had one more album, 1981's Street Game on Freedom Records
Madcats - Streetgame





After Madcats, Fullerton would release the EP Killers as the Grant Fullerton Band the same year.

 

July 10, 1976 RPM

 

Here's Suzanne Stevens' "Knowing How Knowing When":



According to Nanda Lwin, the song made what was by then the 40-position Steede Report chart, spending one week at #40.

 

Over on RPM's adult contemporary chart (at the time called the 'MOR Playlist'), Enrico Farina spent the week of July 24, 1976, at #1 with "Let Me Love You Forever":





Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto (1963):


Born in Italy, Farina emigrated to Canada in 1952 at age 13. He founded his own EF record label in 1962, recording exclusively in Italian until 1975.

Starting with "Let Me Love You Forever", Farina would reach the top of RPM's adult contemporary chart three times in less than twelve months. At the time, the two radio stations I most listened to were both AC stations in Montreal, CJAD (because they had the best school closure information) and CFCF (because they had Canadiens and Expos games). If I ever heard any of these three songs on the radio, I do not remember it.

 

Today's catch-up song is "We'll Have It Someday" by Copasetic Magafus, which reached #38 on the CanCon chart on August 22, 1970. It did not make RPM's main chart.



The song was on the Big Chief label, which, as I have mentioned previously, depicted a caricature that it has hard to fathom in 2021 the general public had no problem with fifty years ago. I have edited the label.

 

181. I'M EASY
by RON NIGRINI
ATTIC AT 116
Highest ranking for 6 weeks: August 7 (25), 14 (24), 21 (22) and 28 (28), September 4 (31) and 11 (24), 1976



​

Man, there have been a lot of covers lately, haven't there? "I'm Easy" won the Academy Award in 1976 for Best Original Song, but that had nothing to do with Mr Nigrini. It was written by actor Keith Carradine, who performed it in Robert Altman's Nashville. The version he performs in the movie is more stripped-down than the version he put out on a single on ABC Records and, in 1976, on his début album on Asylum Records. Carradine's version was a reasonable hit in the USA, particularly on the easy listening chart where it hit number one, but it stiffed up here, only reaching number 72.

Ron Nigrini, for his part, put this on his second album on Attic Records, which was called Rich Things. It would end up being his last album for a decade. Nobody's ever bothered to even make a Wikipedia page for Ron Nigrini, and I can pretty much see why. "I'm Easy" was the top-ranked Canadian song for a frankly unbelievable six weeks, but during that time it never climbed higher than number 22 on the chart. It just managed to sneak in at a period when the Canadian music industry didn't have anything more interesting out there.

I just listened to both of Carradine's versions and Nigrini's version back to back, and I think I need to lie down now.

Only Attic put it out. No one else bothered.

 

Looking Out For Number One : Sorry. Never been a fan of this song.

Find Out About Love : I've never thought of this as a disco song before but since the OP brought it up, I can hear a hint of it. Maybe it's the congas.

Liars : It's strange to hear Ian Thomas do a song that rocks this hard . What's even more strange is that he pulls it off convincingly. It's shame he didn't do more songs in this vein.

 

And there, ladies and gentlemen, signified the birth of a new pressing plant. In its first year, Capitol Canada's Mississauga, ON plant only pressed 45's; would not press LP's until a year later. Like with their U.S. plants, the Canadian plant's pressing dies had 360 interlocking serrations embedded to press their patented "non-slip" discs - and the center label diameter reduced to 3.3125" from the standard 3.625". The justification seen on the B side label would become a trademark of Capitol Canada and be used for most of the product they pressed - including for other clients.

That prior single was pressed by RCA Smiths Falls. Note the difference in label size. Until Capitol's own plant got going with LP pressings, Keel and apparently Quality handled LP pressing for Capitol.

 

Sounds almost like Australia circa 1970 when a dispute led to radio stations banning foreign records, and local acts' covers of popular tunes from around the world making the charts.