Great Canadian Musicians and Tunes #3 Quiz

Answer: "Sweet City Woman" and "Carry Me"

The three members of The Stampeders, Rich Dodson, Ronnie King, and Kim Berly, won the Juno Best Song Award in 1971 with their number one hit, "Sweet City Woman" and had "Carry Me" reach number two at the same time. "Sweet City Woman" hit number one in the U.S. and also had the number one position on the Canadian Adult Contemporary music charts. "Carry Me", along with the number two rank in Canada, hit number 11 in the U.S., and amazingly, also reached number one on the Canadian Contemporary ranks in 1971 by knocking "Sweet City Woman" to number two.

The song that hit number eight in Canada was "Devil You", while "Gator Road" got to number 28 on the Contemporary listings in Canada. The Stampeders reunited in 1992. During their run in the 70s they were considered to be Canada's 'second best' group, only because of the presence and success of The Guess Who.

Some diehard fans would argue that dubious honor.

Answer: Bif Naked

When she was young, her school chum called her Bif because of being unable to pronounce 'Beth' properly. The nickname stuck over the years and when her music career started, she decided to combine Bif with something she felt partially defined her liberal attitude, and the name Bif Naked was adopted as her stage name. Beth is a determined individual; not only has she fought cancer, but also lives with a cardiac aneurysm.

She is recognized as a heavily-tattooed performer and the clue offers a hint to her name by saying she doesn't 'show them all' while performing, meaning she doesn't perform 'naked'.

Answer: Sum 41

If you paid careful attention to the clue you see the hints 'add up'(sum) and 'single(1) four-person(4)' band, then you should have come up with Sum 41. Along with their 2003 Juno, they also won the 2005 Juno award for Best Album with "Chuck", which was named after a U.N. peacekeeper they met when on tour in the Congo in 2004. Days after arriving there, fighting broke out and the band spent six hours face down on the floor of their hotel room as the hotel was peppered with bullets and hit by shells. So fierce was the fighting, that band member Deryk Whibley took time to write a letter to the band's families as he truly believed they were not going to live.

Answer: I Just Wanna Stop

Gino Vanelli, a 1970's Canadian heartthrob, hit it huge with "I Just Wanna Stop" in 1978, with the song hitting number one in Canada, and number four on the U.S. Billboard and Adult Contemporary charts. So wild were the frenzied female fans about his smooth sultry voice and hairy-chested physique, that he often needed fifty+ guards to keep the women away from the stage! In 1979, he was closing a concert with "I Just Wanna Stop", when an overwhelming number of frantic ladies rushed the stage. Gino had to escape with ten security guards in tow. Before he was even able to finish the song, he had his satin shirt ripped off, both of his shoes were gone, and he was barely able to hold onto his trousers. Also taken were his neckchains AND several chunks of his hair, which had been torn out of his head and chest. Even crazier, the ladies were so "oblivious with desire", that they had completely disrobed three poor security guards, who had some similarities to Gino, before additional police and guards were called in to quell the uprising. Even Elvis never had this happen to him.

Answer: Patrick Swayze - "Road House"

In 1989, Jeff played himself in the movie "Road House" that starred Patrick Swayze, another cancer victim who passed away a year after Jeff. At only eight months of age, Norman Jeffry Healey, born March 25, 1966, lost his sight due to retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer. Best known for the hit songs, "See The Light", and "Angel Eyes", Jeff was a master guitarist. Because of his blindness, he learned to play it by laying it flat on his lap and actually fingered the strings upside down with the hand that used the neck of the instrument.

He often made appearances with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, ZZ Top, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton to name a few. He was 41 years young.

Answer: The Headpins

"Don't It Make Ya Feel Like Dancing" was The Headpins biggest single and came from their first album "Turn It Loud". A year after beginning their touring, they 'traded' drummers with another big Canadian group called Loverboy. Bernie Aubin came over and Matt Frenette went to Loverboy.

It's hard to decide who 'got the better drummer'; Loverboy has had more success and a longer career, but there are few drummers who can extract sound out of drums the way Aubin can, which is especially evident on the song, "Don't It Make Ya Feel Like Dancing." *Personal note: I can attest to that fact as I saw them in concert in the summer of 1981 and had to move back from my spot 20 feet in front of the stage because the music Aubin carried on the drums was actually making my heart skip beats!

Answer: Music Box Dancer

The internationally acclaimed Mills, would probably never have had "Music Box Dancer" recognized had his new record label not sent a copy of it by accident to pop-station CFRA-AM in Ottawa. After playing the A-side, the DJ couldn't understand why they had sent the record to his station, but decided to try playing the B-side which had "Music Box Dancer" on it.

The rest is history. Frank retired from music in 1990 after a successful twenty year career.

Answer: Big Sugar

Before becoming the group, Big Sugar, the founding members played for the semi-successful Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. In 2001, they became the only group in Canada to record two albums of exactly the same material with one being in English ("Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?") and the other being in French ("Brothers and Sisters, Etes Vous Ready?").

After their mutually accepted breakup, the members all went on to other bands and all achieved good success with their new bands. *Personal Note: I had the pleasure of signing this band to do a concert at the community college I worked for in the 1990s.

They are a truly respectful and hard-working bunch and put on a powerhouse two and one half hour performance. I have a nice autographed poster of them kicking around somewhere.

Answer: Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams has had so many hit songs that have hit every major music chart in the world, that I don't know where to start. Born November 5, 1959, his credits include Juno Awards, Grammies, he and is widely acclaimed as having the most successful song of the 90', "Everything I do, I Do For You", which was the title-track for Kevin Costner's big screen success, "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".

As well, Adams is also credited by the music world's head honchos as having one of the best albums of the 80s, "Reckless", that gave us the song from the question, "Summer of '69" and another massive hit, "Run To You". Bryan is also one of North America's busiest social activists and also has several award-winning photography collections to his credit.

Answer: Prism

The band Prism made a good run of it from 1977-1984, winning the 1981 Juno for Group of the Year, then took a four year hiatus. Two other commercial hits they had were "Armageddon" and "Young and Restless", which were good love-rock ballads. The group broke up in early 1984, but were discussing a reunion late in the year. Everything was on track and excited about having a rehabilitated Ron Tabak rejoin them, as he'd been fired in 1981 due to substance abuse issues and constant run-ins with the law. On Dec 24, 1984, Tabak was riding his bicycle on route to dinner with bandmate Al Harlow, when he was struck by a vehicle, striking his head on the pavement.

At the hospital, he became violent, causing the police to take him to jail. Tabak collapsed in his cell and despite his immediate return to the hospital, died the next day from an aneurysm in his brain, just before life-saving surgery could be performed.

The remaining members decided it was too big of a blow to begin the reunion without Ron, and cancelled all plans indefinitely.