Can-Con 45 Of The Day - July 6

[radiofan]

Today's Can-Con 45 is from 1978 ... Nicolette Larson and her hit version of Jesse Winchester's "Rhumba Girl" ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4laxkwi1P60

[Richard Skelly]

American ex-Pat Jesse Winchester was still ensconced near Montreal and the ongoing royalties from Nicolette's cover version
helped put bread on his table. Her biggest hit, Lotta Love, burnished the bank account of a Canadian ex-pat songwriter..Neil Young. She came by that song while adding harmonies to Comes A Time, the Harvest-like Young album that featured his version.

Nicolette passed from cancer at way too young an age.

[drmusic]

Rhumba Girl was a bit of an oddity for an American artist, reaching #15 in Canada while missing the US Top 40

[jon]

Even though I have seen very few live concerts in my life, I have actually seen Jesse Winchester twice, once in Edmonton and once in Halifax, both times on a shared bill.

When he was touring to promote his Talk Memphis LP, circa 1981, "Rhumba Man" was one of the best received songs that he sang, even though it was not on that album.

Funny thing is that I actually never heard the Nicolette Larson version until I started listening to Oldies stations in the late 1990s.

Then as now, I like both "versions" of the song.

[drmusic]

Even though I have seen very few live concerts in my life, I have actually seen Jesse Winchester twice, once in Edmonton and once in Halifax, both times on a shared bill.

When he was touring to promote his Talk Memphis LP, circa 1981, "Rhumba Man" was one of the best received songs that he sang, even though it was not on that album.

Funny thing is that I actually never heard the Nicolette Larson version until I started listening to Oldies stations in the late 1990s.

Then as now, I like both "versions" of the song.

It must have been difficult during the boom of "oldies" stations in the early-mid 90s to come up with enough CanCon to meet the requirements. They were supposed to be covering an era that had very little Canadian music because it predated those same requirements. You can only play "Clap Your Hands" and "Shakin' All Over" so many times. So anyway, they extended into the early 80s with Jesse Winchester and the like.