1 of 1- paterson1
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Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
Just looking at Billboards charts for the coming week of December 5th shows Canadian artists in 4 of the top 10 songs. And 3 of the 4 songs are cancon. Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes and Drake are all in the top 10 this week. All of these artists are from Southern Ontario, and other than Bieber from the GTA.
I remember about 20 years ago when Canadian female artists like Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette and Diana Krall dominated the charts. For the last few years it has been the male performers mentioned above and also Michael Buble that have been among the most popular artists worldwide.
And next month, on January 18th 2021 will mark the 50th anniversary of the cancon regulations on AM radio. I am sure there will be much to talk about, and debate closer to the date. I guess any of us that were adults or around on January 18, 1971 could officially be classified as old....but hopefully not too grumpy or overly stubborn!! 
- RadioActive
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
Tundra? The Dorians? Terry Bush? Anyone ever heard of any of them? They were on CKOC's playlist the day CanCon began.
From Jan. 1971:
- Lorne
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I remember Band Bandit by Tundra ... partly because I thought that they had a cool name. 
- Fitz
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I remember Tunrda and Band Bandit but might have forgotten that had I not -re-heard that on an air check about 6 years ago.
Last edited by Fitz (December 3, 2020 10:26 pm)
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
One of the links in the Can Con article above goes to the Terry Bush song. On the YouTube page, he actually comments on the origin of "Do You Know What You're Doing?" which a) apparently got played on CKLW and b) was an anti-drug song but was banned by some North American stations because they thought it was just the opposite. Maybe that's why I don't remember it at all.
Terry Bush:
"I wrote this for The Council on Drug Abuse for a commercial and then I released it as a single. But then the stations didn't want to play it because they felt it was promoting drugs! It got pulled in the States and also here in Canada! Pretty tame in these times!"
- paterson1
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
That is a good article from January 1971. Except the criteria for cancon didn't expand beyond two parts in classification. It was never 3 or 4 parts. Really liked that Nevin Grant and CKFH certainly had the right attitude. Not sure that CHUM had a playlist of 50 songs in 1971 and the article doesn't say if their 7 songs were based on a playlist of 50 like CKFH and CKOC.
I remember the group Tundra but not the Dorians. Actually I do remember Terry Bush and the song Do You Know What Your Doing Baby. Not sure if it was the airplay of the song or the fact it was first used as an anti drug commercial for the Council on Drug Abuse and was played on various rock oriented radio stations across Canada as RA mentions above. There may have been a TV psa for this too. It was a pretty cool song for the time. Good on CKOC and likely CKFH playing this song in January 1971. Terry Bush was also known for writing the theme song Maybe Tomorrow for the Littlest Hobo TV show.
Last edited by paterson1 (December 3, 2020 11:55 pm)
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
CHUM switched to a Top 30 format the week of Aug. 10, 1968, so they wouldn't have had a 50 song chart by '71.
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RadioActive wrote:
. . . was an anti-drug song but was banned by some North American stations because they thought it was just the opposite
Remember the Black Day in July thread of some time ago? "Banned" was effectively blacklisted and replaced with "pulled". We don't want to go through w. that again, right?
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I remember Band Bandit by Tundra ... partly because I thought that they had a cool name.
I had not seen your reply when I replied that I remembered the group and tune. Another tune and group like this was Thundermug and Africa. That one got a second life in Toronto via Psychedelic Sunday. Perhaps Band Bandit could have accomplished same but was maybe too AM radio orientated.
Last edited by Fitz (December 4, 2020 10:09 am)
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
Africa by Thundermug is an awesome rockin little song. A station like BOOM should play it once in a while to mix things up a bit. That song has a "wow" factor to it because you no longer hear it on the radio. Many of BOOM's listeners in the "upper demographic" would appreciate and remember this little cancon gem. That song has actually aged well and gotten better over time. The kazoo bridge makes Africa one of a kind!
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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I normally listen to Roger Ashby's Oldies Show Saturday mornings on line at AM 580 CKWW in Windsor. I am usually too busy in the afternoon when Jewel is running the show. AM 580 is a good but somewhat overlooked station. It probably has more listeners in Michigan than Windsor.
Great tunes on this weeks show including Africa by Thundermug!! Roger gave a nice backgrounder about the song too. Also he played the Ugly Ducklings Gaslight, a classic Toronto hit which I think reached Number 1 on CHUM. Don't Give Up a fantastic small hit by Petula Clark from 1968. You never hear that song on the radio anymore.
A couple of things I find interesting is how Ashby gets a fair number of requests from Michigan which would likely be listeners of CKWW, and he also gets a fair number of requests for cancon. I am wondering if he is dropping the all request shows and just playing more requested songs during the regular program. He usually plays about 4 requests per hour now.
Last edited by paterson1 (December 12, 2020 1:25 pm)
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Thread Starter- mike marshall
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
Speaking of CanCon (as they used to say on the radio), here's a song I fluked on yesterday while bouncing
around on the Stingray music channels on Cogeco. You probably know more about Charlotte Cardin than I
do: 25, from Montreal, grew up in Mount Royal. This knocked me out. First, the song, and the more I
listened, her voice...
***** Maybe just watch the first 2 minutes...the video gets kinda weird...
Last edited by mike marshall (December 12, 2020 6:54 pm)
- paterson1
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I don't much about her Mike but she is really good. Great video, but can't say I have heard her material on the radio. She does get airplay on CBC Music and had a number one song (Main Girl) on their top 20 in 2017, and she gets regular airplay on Indie 88.1. But it looks like commercial radio so far hasn't picked up on this great new talent, who in fact has been around for quite some time.
Being from Montreal she speaks perfect English and French and records in both languages. She also was a finalist in the first season of the French version of The Voice (La Voix) on TVA in Quebec back in 2013.
There is a lot of material on YouTube and she gets great viewership; here is a nice cover of The Chris Isaak hit Wicked Game...
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: Lots Of Cancon On Billboard Top Ten This Week
she gets regular airplay on Indie 88.1. But it looks like commercial radio so far hasn't picked up on this great new talent
I mean, other than the commercial station you just mentioned
I've seen her live; she's a tremendous talent.
- mace
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I have never heard of Chalotte Cardin. Passive Aggressive is a great tune. Don't get the video, but then I rarely do,
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Thanks, guys, for your thoughts on Charlotte Cardin. Tried to say thank you earlier but, for some reason, was not able to navigate the site once I signed in. She should enjoy quite the future.