The Toronto Historical Jukebox: 2013

"Brain Washed" by David Clayton-Thomas & The Bossmen

LISTEN: "Brain Washed" by David Clayton-Thomas & The Bossmen

1960s rock 'n' roll from the Yorkville scene

During the 1960s, young people flocked to Yorkville from all over the continent. Some came for the music, some for the drugs, some to escape trouble at home, some just because it was the place to be. And for a few Americans, coming to Toronto also meant they could dodge the draft and the war in Vietnam.

David Thomas-Clayton didn't have to worry about the draft — he grew up in North York — but he knew plenty about trouble at home. He ran away as a teenager to live on the streets, got into trouble with the law, and eventually ended up in a reformatory where a fellow inmate taught him how to play guitar. When he got out, he headed down to the Yonge Street Strip, where he was hired to play in a series of awesome bands: Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks (who would later meet Bob Dylan and change their name to The Band); The Rogues (who were the house band at an after hours soul club on Yonge Street called Club Bluenote, where legends like Stevie Wonder and The Supremes would stop by to jam after their Toronto shows — The Rogues would eventually change their name to Mandala and become a kickass funk group); and finally David Clayton-Thomas & The Shays (a showcase for his famously powerful vocals).

Eventually, he started spending more time in Yorkville, where he could be found playing his guitar into the wee hours of the morning on the steps of a church on Avenue Road. That's when he formed yet another band: David Clayton-Thomas & The Bossmen. He wrote "Brain Washed" in 1966 as an angry protest against the war in Vietnam.

The song was a hit. It roared up the CHUM charts all the way to #6 — and stayed in the top 50 for 11 straight weeks.

Soon, he would leave Toronto. After playing a gig with the blues giant John Lee Hooker, he followed him south to New York City. That's where David Clayton-Thomas finally started singing with the band that would make him famous: Blood, Sweat & Tears.

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Listen to more songs from Yorkville here.

Listen to more songs from the Yonge Street strip here.

All songs are posted to promote the artist and the history of Toronto. When possible, I've sought permission from artists, but if you're the copyright-holder and would like the song removed, please contact me here and I'll be happy to do so.

"Big Town Boy" by Shirley Matthews

LISTEN: "Big Town Boy" by Shirley Matthews

1960s soul from the Yonge Street scene

Back in the 1960s, more than a few Toronto musicians made a name for themselves at the legendary Club Bluenote. It was an after hours soul club on Yonge Street just north of Gerrard. And for a while, Shirley Matthews was the singer with the house band. She'd gotten her start by performing at high school dances while she worked a full-time job as a switchboard operator for Bell. But before long she had a regular gig singing into the wee hours of the morning at the Bluenote, where some of the biggest names in the history of soul music — Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Edwin Starr, The Righteous Brothers, Jackie Wilson — would stop by to jam after their Toronto shows.

She recorded "Big Town Boy" in 1964 and it became a hit — selling more than a million copies.

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Listen to more songs associated with Club Bluenote here.

Listen to more songs from the Yonge Street strip here.

"It's Alright (This Feeling)" by Crack Of Dawn

LISTEN: "It's Alright (This Feeling)" by Crack Of Dawn

1970s funk from the Jamaica-to-Toronto scene

In 1970s Toronto, there were plenty of bands mixing Canadian and Caribbean sounds. Crack Of Dawn was one of the best. When they formed, the group had members from Toronto, Nova Scotia, Jamaica and Grenada. Three of them had already played in The Cougars — a Toronto R&B band featuring the legendary Jamaican reggae musician Jackie Mittoo — and the new group carried on that tradition. Crack Of Dawn blended funk with R&B and a bit of reggae — a dance floor-friendly mix that earned them a reputation for an incredible live show.

By 1977, Crack Of Dawn had become the very first Black band from Canada to ever be signed to a major label, releasing a self-titled debut with Columbia Records. "It's Alright (This Feeling)" was one of the singles off that album — and it became a hit.

"I remember pulling into Edmonton and seeing thousands of people waiting for us and all these girls screaming," guitarist Rupert Harvey recently told the Toronto Star, "We were shocked that all those people were there for us." The band was breaking new ground by touring Canada at a time when a lot of the country hadn't seen many Black immigrants yet. "The first time we played in Saskatoon," Harvey says, "I remember walking back to the hotel early in the morning and a van came up beside us really slowly. This guy looked at us and said 'Howdy, never seen one of you guys before, only on TV.' It was friendly but strange."

Crack Of Dawn broke up only a year after releasing their debut record, but would have a lasting impact. Some of the members would go on to play for bands like Toots & The Maytals and Messenjah, while others became record producers, managers and music professors, passing down their experiences to the next generation of Torontonian musicians.

The band has also reunited a few times in one form or another: to record a second album in the early '80s; to play a reunion show at the Club Bluenote (an after hours soul club on Yonge Street); and again for a few shows in 2012.

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You can learn more about Crack Of Dawn on the band's website here.

Listen to more from the Jamaica-to-Toronto scene here.

Listen to more songs associated with Club Bluenote here.

Photo via CanadianBands.com.

Song posted with permission of the artist.

"CN Tower" by The Poles

LISTEN: "CN Tower" by The Poles

1970s new wave punk from the Queen Street scene

"We were the first new wave punk rock group in this country," says lead singer Michaele Jordana, "It didn't exist before us." She was an artist before she was a rock star — a trip to the Arctic with the experimental electronic musician Douglas Pringle inspired a landmark series of paintings about the whale hunt, a performance art piece, and the name of their new band: The Poles. According to Pringle, "We just got back to the city from this white out and walked into the punk scene and said, 'Hey, this is survival. This is the same thing. It was amazing.'"

The Poles were on the artsy, new wave end of the punk rock spectrum taking over Queen West in the late 1970s. They were one of the bands who played Crash 'n' Burn — the club at centre of the scene for a few brief and glorious months during the summer of 1977, before it got shut down for noise complaints. They shared the bill with local punk legends like The Diodes, The Viletones and Teenage Head. Eventually, they'd find success in New York City, too. They played CBGB's and Max's Kansas City with acts like The Ramones and Patti Smith, and were produced by The Velvet Underground's John Cale.

"CN Tower" was released that same year, 1977, when the iconic tower was a brand new landmark in Toronto, towering over the city as a symbol of modernism and cutting edge communication.

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Listen to more Queen Street punk here.

Learn more Michaele Jordana on her website here or here and in an archival video on YouTube here.

Song posted with permission of the artist.

"Blue Lipstick" by Patrician-Anne

LISTEN: "Blue Lipstick" Patrician-Anne

1960s girl group rock

Patrician Anne McKinnon was just 16 years old when she recorded "Blue Lipstick". It was written for her by the famous songwriter P.F. Sloane, the same guy who wrote "Eve of Destruction", "Secret Agent Man" and hits for bands like The Turtles, Herman's Hermits and The Mamas & The Papas. The song would wind up being her biggest hit, but it was far from her only claim to fame. By then, she had already been singing on the CBC for years — as part of the choir in the 1960s music show Singalong Jubilee (which is where Anne Murray got her start, too). Patrician-Anne — and her better-known sister, the singer and actor Catherine McKinnon — split their time between the East Coast and Toronto. Sadly, her career would slow down after she was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1970s. She released a full-length self-titled album in 1984 and died of Hodgkin's in 2001.

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"Take It Slow" by Jack London & The Sparrows

Jack London & The Sparrows at Chez Monique, 1966

LISTEN: "Take It Slow" by Jack London & The Sparrows

1960s rock 'n' roll from the Yorkville scene

You probably know Jack London & the Sparrows as the band they would later become: Steppenwolf. But before they moved to California and became famous for songs like "Born To Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride", they were a British Invasion-style group playing as part of the rock scene in Yorkville in the 1960s — first as Jack London & The Sparrows and then later just as The Sparrows. They were best known for playing a residency at Chez Monique (a club on Yorkville Avenue near Bellair) and for regular gigs at El Patio (down the street, closer to Avenue Road).

"Take It Slow" is a track off their self-titled record released in 1965.

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Buy more music by Jack London & The Sparrows here.

Listen to more songs associated with the 1960s "Toronto Sound" here.

Photo via York University's Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections here.

All songs are posted to promote the artist and the history of Toronto. When possible, I've sought permission from artists, but if you're the copyright-holder and would like the song removed, please contact me here and I'll be happy to do so.

"Wasn't It You" by 3's A Crowd

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1960s folkpop from the Yorkville scene

3's A Crowd first formed in Vancouver, but moved to Toronto to be part of the Yorkville folk scene in the mid-1960s, playing regular gigs at the famous Riverboat Coffeehouse. Their radio-friendly folk-pop sound is frequently compared to The Mamas & The Papas — and that's not a coincidence. Papa Denny was another familiar face in the Yorkville scene and when 3's A Crowd headed to California to record their first full-length album, Christopher's Movie Matinee, it was co-produced by Mama Cass.

A few of the songs on the record were written by Bruce Cockburn, another Yorkvillian, and he would join a later version of the group. Meanwhile, the band's bass player, Ken Koblum, had played in one of Neil Young's first Toronto bands — The Squires — and even traveled with him when he moved to California, briefly playing bass for Buffalo Springfield.

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You can buy Christopher's Movie Matinee on vinyl here.

Listen to more songs from Yorkville here.

"The Casa Loma Stomp" by The Casa Loma Orchestra

LISTEN: "The Casa Loma Stomp" by The Casa Loma Orchestra

1930s swing music

By 1927, when The Orange Blossoms started an eight month stint as the house band at Casa Loma, they had already featured an impressive line-up of musicians over the years — including the Dorsey brothers and the alcoholic trumpet genius Bix Beiderbecke. But it wasn't until after their time at the then-classy-hotel-and-nightspot now-cheesy-tourist-trap that they changed their name to The Casa Loma Orchestra and went on to become one of the most popular swing bands in North America. Their biggest hits included "No Name Jive", "Maniac's Ball" and "The Casa Loma Stomp". They would stay together in one form or another for decades to come; they didn't break up until 1963.

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"That Big Old Moon" by Buddy Burke & The Canadian Meteors

LISTEN: "That Big Old Moon" by Buddy Burke & The Canadian Meteors

1950s rockabilly from the Yonge Street scene

In the late 1950s, Toronto was all about rockabilly. The early rock 'n' roll country sound was popular at the bars and taverns along the Yonge Street Strip. And one of the best songs to come out of the scene was "That Big Old Moon" by Buddy Burke & the Canadian Meteors. This was back in the days before CanCon regulations made the Canadian music industry a viable enterprise, so the band headed down to New York City to record the single. It came out in 1957 and it was a hit — it even scored a spot on the Billboard Top 100.

Eventually, Burke would move out of Toronto and head up into cottage country. He was still plugging away at music as recently as 2007, when he released a new jazz record from his new home in Muskoka.

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Listen to more songs from the Yonge Street strip here.

All songs are posted to promote the artist and the history of Toronto. When possible, I've sought permission from artists, but if you're the copyright-holder and would like the song removed, please contact me here and I'll be happy to do so.

"We Were Meant To Be" by The Plague

LISTEN: "We Were Meant To Be" by The Plague

1960s rock 'n' roll

The Plague were formed in Thunder Bay, but ended up spending enough time living in Toronto that they're considered to be part of "The Toronto Sound" — what people called our city's particular brand of 1960s garage rock. The Plague released "We Were Meant To Be" in 1965 and would break up soon after. Lead singer Lyn McEachern went on to record a few singles as a solo artist and the other members of the band would keep playing together, but eventually rename themselves Lexington Avenue.

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Listen to more songs associated with the Toronto Sound here.

All songs are posted to promote the artist and the history of Toronto. When possible, I've sought permission from artists, but if you're the copyright-holder and would like the song removed, please contact me here and I'll be happy to do so.

"Bright Lights, Big City" by Scales Empire

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1990s Toronto hip hop

Beat Factory was one of Toronto's most important early hip hop labels and management companies. It was founded all the way back in the early 1980s — when hip hop was just beginning — and quickly made its mark thanks to popular acts like Dream Warriors and Michie Mee. The label side of the business was especially well-known for their RapEssentials compilations. Volume One came out in 1996 and featured singles by Rascalz and Kardinal Official, along with this mellow track from Scales Empire, which spent some time in rotation on MuchMusic.

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Listen to more early Toronto hip hop here.