From the Toronto Star:
Lightfoot is still the one
May 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Canadian roots music legend Gordon Lightfoot still remembers the thrill of hearing one of his early recordings, "Remember Me, I'm The One," on 1050 CHUM's Top 40 playlist back in 1962.
"It came as a real surprise," Lightfoot told the Star.
He's performing a short set at the vintage station's 50th anniversary concert at Nathan Phillips Square this afternoon at 4, along with 1960s Toronto R&B survivors Little Caesar and the Consuls, and Robbie Lane and the Disciples.
"I'd been recording in Nashville with a crack studio band, but I had no idea that this song would be playlisted on CHUM.
"At the same time, they also playlisted Pat Hervey's `Mr. Heartache,' which was written by Les Pouliot – another Canadian record.
"What was more exciting was that I started selling records as soon as the song was added. I didn't have that kind of success on Canadian radio again 'til 1971, when I released `If You Could Read My Mind.'"
That was a full year before the CRTC-enforced 30 per cent Canadian content regulations came into effect, which changed the style and sound of Canadian radio and spawned a domestic recording industry the following decade, Lightfoot added.
"To be accepted on CHUM was a big deal in those days."
Greg Quill
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