While much has been written about how Canadian content regulations allegedly spurred the development of a vibrant and financially stable domestic music industry, there are some that can argue that the content regs did precisely the opposite. One of the leading talent entrepreneurs in the pre-Cancon era was Toronto-based Bill Gilliland who signed a hit parade of Canadian acts to the Arc and Yorkville record labels, selling hundreds of thousands of records by regional stars in the Maritimes and Ontario. Along with enviable record sales , Arc and Yorkville racked up an enviable number of hits on stations such as CHUM AM. Two Maritimers that Gilliland nurtured were Anne Murray and Brian Ahern. Here are their stories from the early days.
by Bill Gilliland
Sugar Shoppe: In the spring of 1967, Peter Mann was looking to do something with the new vocal group he had just put together. I suggested that a hip version of “Canada,” the song Bobby Gimby had written for the nation’s centennial celebration, could establish a new group quickly. Peter agreed to give it a shot, so I put him into Arc/Yorkville’s Bay Studio with Brian. The resultant production sounded like a hit single to me.
The name, The Sugar Shoppe, was chosen for the group, and during the week of May 27, 1967, their single “Canada” was released on Arc’s Yorkville label. The very next week, on the CHUM chart dated June 5, 1967, it was a “pick hit.” Within weeks, The Sugar Shoppe began performing at a brand new night club called Granny’s where they quickly became Toronto’s hottest attraction.
During the summer of 1967, Peter and I did a handshake deal under which Yorkville would do a second single with Brian producing. If the single went Top 10 on CHUM before the end of the year, Yorkville would have an option to sign The Sugar Shoppe to an exclusive worldwide, three-album deal with Brian producing.
I okayed the song “Attitude,” written by Peter and published by Arc/Yorkville’s Bay Music (not Bay Studio), as the second single. The Sugar Shoppe moved from Granny’s and opened at The Friar’s on September 18, 1967, and introduced the song there. RPM, the music biz newspaper, reported the opening as one of the biggest of any Toronto nightclub.
The single “Attitude” was released on the Yorkville label during the week of September 28, 1967. The very next week, on the CHUM chart dated October 2, 1967, it was a “pick hit.” During that week, Peter told me that so many major labels wanted to sign The Sugar Shoppe, he had to reconsider our deal. I tried, in vain, to convince him that he and I and Brian were a winning combination. I was so pissed off, I asked CHUM to stop playing “Attitude” immediately (I may have been a little heady that week: Yorkville’s single “Gaslight” by The Ugly Ducklings was #1 on CHUM). Brian would not get a chance to produce albums with The Sugar Shoppe.
Ronnie Hawkins : In October 1967, immediately following The Sugar Shoppe disappointment, I put Ronnie into Arc/Yorkville’s Bay Studio with Brian to record “Home From The Forest.” It was a Gordon Lightfoot song that I thought could be a hit single for Ronnie. It was a big deal for me to get Ronnie on the Yorkville label: he had his own label, Hawk Records.
Brian recorded a solid rhythm track for “Home From The Forest” and Ronnie did a great vocal. I felt the production needed sweetening, so I had arranger Bob Halley write string parts (Halley had worked with me on The Ugly Duckling’s “Gaslight” single). It was Brian’s first exposure to a full-blown sweetening session, and as he would later show on his production of “Snowbird,” he was a quick study.
The single “Home From The Forest” was released during the week of November 6, 1967, and the very next week, on the CHUM chart dated November 13, 1967, it was a “pick hit.” Album production would begin a.s.a.p.
Curiously, just before I put Brian back into the studio to begin production on Ronnie’s album, the following headline appeared in Billboard dated January 13, 1968: “Sugar Shoppe, Canada Act, Inks Pact with Colgems” (the U.S. label was the home of The Monkees). Then, just after Brian finished the production of Ronnie’s album, the following headline appeared in RPM dated March 23, 1968: “Sugar Shoppe to Capitol.”
The “Home From The Forest” album was released on the Yorkville label on April 15, 1968. It was, and still is, the best-selling Ronnie Hawkins album ever.
Anne Murray: On May 16, 1968, I signed Anne to Arc with Brian as producer. The deal gave Arc the right to one album in 1968 and an option for a second album in 1969. The first album, “What About Me,” was released on September 4, 1968.
During the spring of 1969, I had to decide whether or not to exercise my option for the second album. It was not an easy decision to make: I knew Capitol was interested in signing Anne with Brian as producer, and I knew that being signed to Capitol, the home of The Beatles, was a dream of most recording artists. If I exercised my option, would Anne and Brian be able to give Arc 100% in the studio, or would they consciously or subconsciously be distracted by unfulfilled dreams of Capitol and The Beatles? Additionally, I believed that CanCon quotas in radio were coming very soon, and I believed that the Canadian subsidiaries of the multi-national record companies would see the quotas as a threat to their market share and would begin spending more money than ever on Canadian recording artists.
Capitol had already shown they were prepared to spend big-time: in 1968 they had flown The Sugar Shoppe to Hollywood and put them in the studio with American record producer Al De Lory.
I was in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t dilemma. I was in a David versus Goliath nightmare. Discretion being the better part of valour, I reluctantly decided not to exercise my option.
On the positive side, Capitol would be renting Arc/Yorkville’s Bay Studio for the recording of their first Anne Murray album. Further, if Capitol had a U.S. hit with Anne, I could market her Arc album there.
In September 1969, Brian went into Arc/Yorkville’s Bay Studio to begin work on Anne’s first album for Capitol. The recording engineer on the album was Arc/Yorkville’s Gary Starr, the very guy who had worked with Brian on Anne’s Arc album and Ronnie Hawkins’ Yorkville album. I was glad to see Brian get a shot at producing Anne for Capitol and I wanted him to be successful. After all, I was the guy who brought him to Toronto from Halifax and began touting him as the best record producer in the world.
While recording Anne’s first album for Capitol, Brian asked me to listen to “Snowbird” and the sweetening arranger Rick Wilkins had done on it. Before telling him “Snowbird” sounded like a surefire hit, I teased him by saying the sweetening was almost as good as the sweetening arranger Bob Halley did on Ronnie Hawkins’ hit single “Home From The Forest.”
When Anne’s first Capitol album, “This Way Is My Way,” was released in 1969, I was very surprised that “Snowbird” was not the first single from the album.
Anne’s second Capitol album, “Honey, Wheat & Laughter,” was released in May 1970. My favorite song on the album was “Put Your Hand In The Hand.” However, I did not think it could be a hit single for Anne. For some reason, it reminded me of Levon and The Hawks’ single “The Stones I Throw,” and I sure as hell did not think “Stones” could be a hit single for Anne (as you know, Levon & The Hawks were the guys who left Ronnie Hawkins and became The Band).
During the autumn of 1970, when Brian was producing Anne’s third album for Capitol, I was working with a newly formed Canadian group called Ocean, and I thought “Put Your Hand In The Hand” could be a hit single for them. I asked Brian if Capitol was going to release Anne’s version of it in Canada or in the U.S. He said, “no.”
When Ocean’s version of “Put Your Hand In The Hand” became a multi-million selling single in the U.S., there was a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking at Capitol (FYI: “Put Your Hand In The Hand” went #1 on the CHUM chart dated March 6, 1971, and climbed to #2 on the Billboard chart dated March 13, 1971). The record would have gone to #1 but was thwarted by Three Dog Night’s “Joy To the World” which proved to be the biggest record of the year in 1971.
We were a wonderfully eclectic Canadian talent company, not only did we record contemporary artists like Anne Murray, Catherine McKinnon and Ronnie Hawkins, we also recorded the likes of author Pierre Berton reading the poems of Robert Service, and actor Gordon Pinsent singing Newfie folk songs. And we did our first exercise album long before Jane Fonda exorcised herself from Barbarella.
In the years prior to the Cancon lobby forming, we had charted more Canadian artists in CHUM’s Top 20 than anyone – and that included the majors. And radio stations all across Canada were working with us. Cancon quotas were not necessary.
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