GL's First Hit

[rowtruck1]

Can someone help me settle a bet? What was GL's first hit, ie, that he recorded himself (probably as a single). Was it Ribbon of Darkness or The Way I Feel?

[mikefs]

Can someone help me settle a bet? What was GL's first hit, ie, that he recorded himself (probably as a single). Was it Ribbon of Darkness or The Way I Feel?

[The Rez]

Perhaps the answer lies in "which country."

Marty Robbins reading of Ribbon Darkness in America. I truly don't know about Canadia (sounds more regal that way.)

Hope someone knows that answer. I'd like to learn, too.

Adios,

The Rez

[patrick]

As far as Canada is concerned, I'm pretty sure "Remember Me" was Gord's first hit.

andy

[Andy T.]

As far as Canada is concerned, I'm pretty sure "Remember Me" was Gord's first hit.

andy

[Sydney Steve]

I know this is irrelevant to the crux of your question, (yes we are back woods and it is obviously way later), but thought it may be of interest. The answer in Australia is "If You Could read My Mind". It reached No 7. in our top 40 just 34 short years ago - April 29 1971.

[Sheryl]

I think that's the answer for us in the States, too, Steve.

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by Andy T.:
As far as Canada is concerned, I'm pretty sure "Remember Me" was Gord's first hit.
andy

I guess you are correct android but it also depends on how you define "hit" and where and by whom.
as this site
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...=U1ARTU0002075
puts it:-
"and performed at the 1962 Mariposa Folk Festival. His recording of 'Remember Me' for Chateau was popular locally"
i.e. Toronto area only??
that review does go on to say
"Ian and Sylvia (Tyson) were the first to sing and record his songs, beginning with 'For Lovin' Me' and 'Early Morning Rain.'
The first was a substantial hit in 1965 for Peter, Paul and Mary"
but the very interesting site (that should be required reading for all fans of Canadian music):-
http://www.canadianbands.com/bios_1b.html
from where you could download free desktop mp3 dancers if you are so inclined
says quite unequivocally
"It was during this time that he also had his first single as a solo artist, 1962's "Remember Me"." I note that it does not actually say that it was a "hit" and I do not know how big a hit it might have been(as measured by chart position) anyway
However for me Gord's first major hit in his own right was the rather neglected "Spin Spin" that climbed as high as number 6 in October 1966
See this great chart listing site:-
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Charts/1966/Ch196610.html
[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TwCfArcYlPHQdE0GsSB5a!BVRBZ1EMrtgUOSamrHxJCivsb8G uldqeNnLV*58TzbEQsBLK3u*LoCbFh0na4EjdQEizlQqO2kXCy KaG4WrL!0eMwHSlutWw/spin_spin_19660.jpg[/img]
John Fowles
To be in love is to be insane
Make an old man groan, a young man pain

[ May 28, 2005, 21:45: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by Andy T.:
As far as Canada is concerned, I'm pretty sure "Remember Me" was Gord's first hit.
andy

I guess you are correct android but it also depends on how you define "hit" and where and by whom.
as this site
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...=U1ARTU0002075
puts it:-
"and performed at the 1962 Mariposa Folk Festival. His recording of 'Remember Me' for Chateau was popular locally"
i.e. Toronto area only??
that review does go on to say
"Ian and Sylvia (Tyson) were the first to sing and record his songs, beginning with 'For Lovin' Me' and 'Early Morning Rain.'
The first was a substantial hit in 1965 for Peter, Paul and Mary"
but the very interesting site (that should be required reading for all fans of Canadian music):-
http://www.canadianbands.com/bios_1b.html
from where you could download free desktop mp3 dancers if you are so inclined
says quite unequivocally
"It was during this time that he also had his first single as a solo artist, 1962's "Remember Me"." I note that it does not actually say that it was a "hit" and I do not know how big a hit it might have been(as measured by chart position) anyway
However for me Gord's first major hit in his own right was the rather neglected "Spin Spin" that climbed as high as number 6 in October 1966
See this great chart listing site:-
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Charts/1966/Ch196610.html
[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TwCfArcYlPHQdE0GsSB5a!BVRBZ1EMrtgUOSamrHxJCivsb8G uldqeNnLV*58TzbEQsBLK3u*LoCbFh0na4EjdQEizlQqO2kXCy KaG4WrL!0eMwHSlutWw/spin_spin_19660.jpg[/img]
John Fowles
To be in love is to be insane
Make an old man groan, a young man pain

[ May 28, 2005, 21:45: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[Tyler]

"In 1962 Remember Me (I'm the one) hit the charts in Canada." Where on the charts I don't have a clue.

[brink]

"In 1962 Remember Me (I'm the one) hit the charts in Canada." Where on the charts I don't have a clue.

[Sheryl]

My God, I remember all those songs.. and loved 'em all!! Jeez, I'm old!

[The Rez]

Originally posted by Sheryl:
I think that's the answer for us in the States, too, Steve.

I don't know Sheryl. Every little once in a while I'm sure I feel "Upside Down."

Like now, if you could see the yoga pose in which I'm typing.

Then again, I used to pay for that feeling, now it's free of charge - I think.

Bad Day (upside down for Good Night)

The Rez

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by brink:
"In 1962 Remember Me (I'm the one) hit the charts in Canada." Where on the charts I don't have a clue.

Actually Deb finding out was a sinch
I merely googled for "Remember Me" Canadian Charts and inmmediately found:-
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Charts/1962/Ch196207.html
showing that Remember Me was at number 3 in July 1962
and was in fact a bigger hit than "Spin spin"

The previous week's chart is interesting in particular Somerset lad Acker Bilk at number 48
That summer I attended the very last Bealieu (Bewley) Jazz festival in England and saw the Bilk band fighting their way onto
the stage I have a vivid memory of the double bass player using it and its splike as a battering ram to clear a way through
the rioting fans crowding the stage and no doubt using some choice Anglo Saxon language to boot
Incidentally in the CBC archives the Country Howdown video after the demonstrationn of Gord's adroitness at country dancing
there is a very sweet video of Remember Me
John Fowles
I'm the one who ran away and left you all alone
I'm the one who broke your heart and scorned the love I'd known

[ May 29, 2005, 15:42: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by brink:
"In 1962 Remember Me (I'm the one) hit the charts in Canada." Where on the charts I don't have a clue.

Actually Deb finding out was a sinch
I merely googled for "Remember Me" Canadian Charts and inmmediately found:-
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Charts/1962/Ch196207.html
showing that Remember Me was at number 3 in July 1962
and was in fact a bigger hit than "Spin spin"

The previous week's chart is interesting in particular Somerset lad Acker Bilk at number 48
That summer I attended the very last Bealieu (Bewley) Jazz festival in England and saw the Bilk band fighting their way onto
the stage I have a vivid memory of the double bass player using it and its splike as a battering ram to clear a way through
the rioting fans crowding the stage and no doubt using some choice Anglo Saxon language to boot
Incidentally in the CBC archives the Country Howdown video after the demonstrationn of Gord's adroitness at country dancing
there is a very sweet video of Remember Me
John Fowles
I'm the one who ran away and left you all alone
I'm the one who broke your heart and scorned the love I'd known

[ May 29, 2005, 15:42: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[Borderstone]

Hey Mike!

In my first months as a GL fan,I went back through all the old Billboard Hot 100 charts from 1965 until GL's last H.100 "Baby Step Back" #50 in '82. From '65 to '70 only other artists had some success here with his songs.

In the states,"If You Could Read my Mind" was his first self-recorded chart hit and it peaked at #5 in Feb. '71. None of his UA singles hit the top 40 here. "If I Could" (from UA) was released just after but reached a measley #111 (outside the Hot 100.)

Before "Sundown" Gord had some minor chart action with "Summer Side Of Life" #98,Talking In Your Sleep" #68. "DQ" LP had "Beautiful" at #58. "O.D's.R" gave us
"That Same Old Obsession w/the flipside "You Are What I Am". #'s 101 & 102.
"Sundown" went to #1,
"Carefree Highway" #10.
"Rainy Day People" #26.
"Wreck" #2 for 2 weeks.
"Race Among The Ruins" #65 and
"The Circle is Small" #33.

Gordon hasn't been on the charts himself since March of 1978 I.E. 27 years.

He was last on as a songwriter when the group,"Stars On 54" did a disco version of "..Read My Mind" in 1998 for the movie "54". It actually made the top 60,outdoing some of Gord's own chart hits.

well,there you have it,your answer and then some. Later!

[The Rez]

Great Work Brother John,

All us Yanks seem to think Gord's career began w/ The Mind Reading Song. Did he chart as an artist before that in the US?

I saw him solo at The Golden Bear and Troubador in the 60's & have been doing Black Day in July since, well, Black Day in July.

Is this the one and only time I've been ahead of the curve?

Thanks GoogleJohnny. You are priceless.

The Rez

. . . Motor City's burning and the flames are runnin' wild

[johnfowles]

[quote]Originally posted by johnfowles:

The previous week's chart is interesting in particular Somerset lad Acker Bilk at number 48
That summer I attended the very last Bealieu (Bewley) Jazz festival in England and saw the Bilk band fighting their way onto
the stage I have a vivid memory of the double bass player using it and its spike as a battering ram to clear a way through the rioting fans crowding the stage and no doubt using some choice Anglo Saxon language to boot

Oops

After I posted that I thought that maybe I had the wrong year for the Beaulieu riots and
did a google search I then found an interesting article in the UK Guardian newspaper on-line at:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/criti...744505,00.html
Summers: the top 10
Summer of Trad (1960)
Key work: When the Saints Go Marching In, by Mr Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band

Note the picture above has been added by me to illustrate Bernard (Acker) Bilk as he looks nowadays

No musical trend seems as alien today as the trad jazz revival. But at the start of the 60s, rock'n'roll had waned in popularity. In a musical vacuum, the sound of Mr Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band was, bogglingly, adopted as a
teenage alternative. Their dress sense suggested that trad-jazz ravers were trying to imitate American beatniks. Somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, however, the signals got confused. Bare feet, jeans and CND symbols were big, but so were bowler hats. Cider replaced marijuana as the drug of choice. The liberating modern jazz favoured by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady was roundly dismissed in favour of perky readings of When the Saints Go Marching In. Newspapers mocked the ravers' dancing as "jumping from foot to foot like a performing bear".

The strength of feeling against modern jazz caused a riot as the movement reached its zenith in the summer of 1960. Irked by
Johnny Dankworth's modern playing at the July Beaulieu Jazz Festival, ravers began chanting for Acker Bilk. Then they began fighting. A lighting tower was toppled. One game raver scaled the outside of the stately home and, in a protest as bizarre as the trad revival itself, began waving his bowler hat from the battlements.It was all very peculiar, and it wasn't built to last. While jazz fans were thumping each other in Hampshire, the Silver Beatles were in Liverpool, packing their bags for a long residency in a Hamburg nightclub. Events were about to overtake the ravers and consign the trad jazz craze to history
Note trad jazz (traditional i.e. New Orleans style) kept me occupied music wise from my early love of Rock and Roll in its initial "pure' period (Presley/Holly/Everlys) through the later phase before the Beatles changed pop music for ever in 1964.And then in 1966 I discovered Gordon Lightfoot
John Fowles
Don't beat me down, don't beat me down
I've got one life to live and that's all I can give, so don't beat me down

[ May 30, 2005, 13:07: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[johnfowles]

[quote]Originally posted by johnfowles:

The previous week's chart is interesting in particular Somerset lad Acker Bilk at number 48
That summer I attended the very last Bealieu (Bewley) Jazz festival in England and saw the Bilk band fighting their way onto
the stage I have a vivid memory of the double bass player using it and its spike as a battering ram to clear a way through the rioting fans crowding the stage and no doubt using some choice Anglo Saxon language to boot

Oops

After I posted that I thought that maybe I had the wrong year for the Beaulieu riots and
did a google search I then found an interesting article in the UK Guardian newspaper on-line at:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/criti...744505,00.html
Summers: the top 10
Summer of Trad (1960)
Key work: When the Saints Go Marching In, by Mr Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band

Note the picture above has been added by me to illustrate Bernard (Acker) Bilk as he looks nowadays

No musical trend seems as alien today as the trad jazz revival. But at the start of the 60s, rock'n'roll had waned in popularity. In a musical vacuum, the sound of Mr Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band was, bogglingly, adopted as a
teenage alternative. Their dress sense suggested that trad-jazz ravers were trying to imitate American beatniks. Somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, however, the signals got confused. Bare feet, jeans and CND symbols were big, but so were bowler hats. Cider replaced marijuana as the drug of choice. The liberating modern jazz favoured by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady was roundly dismissed in favour of perky readings of When the Saints Go Marching In. Newspapers mocked the ravers' dancing as "jumping from foot to foot like a performing bear".

The strength of feeling against modern jazz caused a riot as the movement reached its zenith in the summer of 1960. Irked by
Johnny Dankworth's modern playing at the July Beaulieu Jazz Festival, ravers began chanting for Acker Bilk. Then they began fighting. A lighting tower was toppled. One game raver scaled the outside of the stately home and, in a protest as bizarre as the trad revival itself, began waving his bowler hat from the battlements.It was all very peculiar, and it wasn't built to last. While jazz fans were thumping each other in Hampshire, the Silver Beatles were in Liverpool, packing their bags for a long residency in a Hamburg nightclub. Events were about to overtake the ravers and consign the trad jazz craze to history
Note trad jazz (traditional i.e. New Orleans style) kept me occupied music wise from my early love of Rock and Roll in its initial "pure' period (Presley/Holly/Everlys) through the later phase before the Beatles changed pop music for ever in 1964.And then in 1966 I discovered Gordon Lightfoot
John Fowles
Don't beat me down, don't beat me down
I've got one life to live and that's all I can give, so don't beat me down

[ May 30, 2005, 13:07: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[Tyler]

Borderstone, you sound like a DJ great information. That must have taken a lot of research thanks.

[brink]

Borderstone, you sound like a DJ great information. That must have taken a lot of research thanks.

Gordon hasn't been on the charts himself since March of 1978 I.E. 27 years.

According to Wayne Francis'site, "Anything for Love" from the '86 "East of Midnight" album hit #71 on the Billboard C&W chart.

RMD

Gordon hasn't been on the charts himself since March of 1978 I.E. 27 years.

According to Wayne Francis'site, "Anything for Love" from the '86 "East of Midnight" album hit #71 on the Billboard C&W chart.

RMD

[The Rez]

Cool shot of Mr. Acker Bilk and the Boys.

Like you, John, I loved traditional jazz. Most folks don't know it, but trad jazz isn't the same as Dixieland.

Long ago I thought so too, until I started playing it. There was a group, The Orange Pealers Jazz Band, here in OC (hence the name) and they did all is great stuff. They were all older guys at it a long time.

When the piano guy couldn't make a gig, I filled in. They had this little 3/4 size piano, wonderfully out of tune thru transport in a pickup.

And nobody had a trumpet. Two Cornets (trad jazz style) 4-String Kid Ory type Banjo (like Eddie Peabody, too) Licorice Stick. Small trap
set w/ all sorts of horns & percussion.

All instrumental: Lu Watters "Sweet Lotus Blossom" (they specialized in Lu Watters, who knew very well what Sweet Lotus Blossom was) "Big Butter and Egg Man" So cool.

And all the charts had "road maps" for who lead when, & form, etc. Then they thru some Jelly Roll Morton in front of me. My Dear Lord, that man must have had five arms. I could approximate it, but never got close to hittin' all the notes.

Those Cornet guys would cut loose w/ Bix Beiderbecke and I was in heaven. Thank goodness Bix didn't play piano.

More sheer fun that i've had playing any other style of music.

Put a cork in it, Rez. OK.

The Rez

[Sheryl]

I used to love Dixieland. Haven't listened to my records (L.P.'S!!) in quite a while...