How 'Wildflower' bloomed on West Coast
By John P. McLaughlin, The Province April 3, 2011
It is earworm of the first order. You very likely don’t know it’s called “Wildflower” but you certainly know the big hook line that will bury itself deep into your neocortex and resist any and every attempt at extrication.
Henna one, henna two, henna
. . . “Let her CRYYYEE ’cause she’s a la-dyyy, Let her DREE -EEEM for SHEEE’S a chi-ild.”
Yes, that one. Composed at a Hammond organ in a quiet North Van basement almost 40 years ago, the song went No. 1 in Canada and top 10 in the U.S. on its original release and has been covered by some 70 artists over the years, like Johnny Mathis, Hank Crawford and the O’Jays, and more latterly sampled by a bunch more, including Kanye West.
On Saturday, “Wildflower” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in Toronto attended by one Doug Edwards, the guy who sat at that organ, and Valley Hennell, self-described “Wildflower” protectress. She’s been guarding the song’s progress from the beginning.
Vancouver in 1972 was a very different place than today. There were a lot less people, Granville Island was an industrial mess and all that soaring glass downtown had yet to be trucked in. Food-wise it was Chinese, pizza and beef. That’s it.
A group called Skylark was coalescing around Edwards and a young Victoria couple, singer B.J. Cook and an immensely talented and ambitious young David Foster, recently decamped from Ronnie Hawkins’ band. Seems Rompin’ Ronnie didn’t think much of Foster’s stiff stage presence and fired his ass so here they both were, back on the coast and putting their own band together. There would eventually be a dozen members of Skylark over its 24-month lifespan.
Dave Richardson was a rookie Saanich policeman, part-time poet and an old friend of Foster’s. When he heard there was a new band starting up he knew they’d be needing material and mailed over a sheaf of his poetry. Foster told the rest of the players about the poems, dropped them on a table and left it at that. Eventually Edwards pulled a sheet out at random, sat down at the Hammond organ and started noodling.
“It took a while, you kinda have to sit and wait for the inspiration to strike and then you just proceed,” says Edwards. “I don’t really remember the process, I just sorta remember doing it, thinking this is a nice melody, maybe I can go to this chord or this chord. Yeah, it is a nice melody. It’s certainly stood the test of time.”
It was Cook who landed the group a U.S. recording contract with Capitol Records — an amazing coup — and before long Skylark were in Los Angeles, making their first record. When it came time to tape “Wildflower,” both David Foster and Vancouver organ legend Robbie King took a pass playing keys on the song and walked away, unable to give it anything.
The bed tracks we hear of drums, bass and Edwards’ flawless, searing guitar are actually the first run-through of the song. “The heavens opened up,” Edwards says today. Donny Gerard’s lead vocals and all harmonies and colour instruments were overdubbed later.
Meanwhile Vancouver’s Valley Hennell was in Ibiza teaching people how to sail. A few years earlier she had attended UBC, where she befriended Anne Mortifee. The two began writing songs together and Hennell went about setting up small local concerts.
While in Ibiza, who should turn up but Mortifee, accompanied by Doug Edwards, who told her about this little song he had out that was doing quite well, “Wildflower.” Hennell asked him what he had earned from the song and he gave a paltry figure.
Back in Vancouver that fall she ran into Edwards again, asked again how the song was earning and was persuaded he was being ripped off. She made a deal she would share in whatever she could claw back.
And so she plunged into the arcane world of song publishing. Indeed Edwards and Richardson had signed away their copyright and Hennell managed to get that back eventually. She wrestled back a piece of the publishing Foster had sold off. She’s been a real den mother for “Wildflower.”
“Within two years this song had a very big life,” says Hennell. “And it’s a fine curve thing, it rises and falls. It doesn’t consistently earn but over the four decades I’ve worked with it, just when we think it’s over, the Golden Goose lays another egg. The main beneficiaries are the writers and I can tell you, it’s better than CPP.”
jpmac@gmx.net
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