Can-Con 45 Of The Day - March 1

Can-Con 45 Of The Day - March 1

Postby radiofan » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:09 pm

Today's Can-Con 45 is from 1975 ... Pure Prairie League and "Amie" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY

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Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Can-Con 45 Of The Day - March 1

Postby Richard Skelly » Thu Mar 01, 2018 1:58 am

I fancy myself a dab hand at “naming that tune” from the 70s. For decades, however, I was clueless on who recorded Amie or that the song—which I often heard—was called Amie. It was only a few years ago that I was in the right place at the right time to hear the deejay identify both the song and the group Pure Prairie League.

Again, though, I staggered on with incomplete information thinking the girl being sung about was named Amy. But the title is Amie which is the French feminine form of Ami or friend. Someone really should ask Craig Fuller if that was indeed the name of the gal he immortalized in song...or if her real name was, say, Gertrude or Wilhelmina.

As original lead vocalist of Pure Prairie League, guitarist Fuller cut Amie during sessions for his band’s second album, 1972’s Bustin Out at Studio A of RCA Toronto’s recording operation. Amie the single came out early the next year. It kind of tanked...yet ever-so-slowly continued to pick up airplay across the continent, especially at the college radio level. At one point, RCA allowed the band’s contract to lapse. The band’s future was in doubt when conscientious objector Fuller got a six-month jail sentence for avoiding the draft. He only got released in August ‘73 by agreeing to work in a hospital as a form of alternate service.

Larry Goshorn took Fuller’s place and the League gigged non-stop for the next 18 months. Thus, it was a different band configuration that RCA re-inked a deal with as Amie finally put the altered Pure Prairie League on the charts. Almost three years after being recorded, Amie peaked #27 on Billboard’s April 26, 1975 Hot 100. The League’s biggest hit—Let Me Love You Tonight—came in 1980 on another label (Casablanca) and with yet another lead singer (Vince Gill who’d replaced Larry Goshorn).

Craig Fuller rejoined Pure Prairie League in 1985, after stints in American Flyer, Fuller Kaz and Little Feat. Fuller left again in 2012. Among artists covering Amie over the decades are Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt and Counting Crows.

A minor point: Amie was released in Canada with only one dark quadrant in the MAPL logo. It was the P (Production) portion. As I recall it took two or more dark portions for an MAPL single to get played on rock radio. Maybe one MAPL quadrant sufficed for MOR and country formats. But I stand to be corrected. In any event, within Canada, Amie only reached #40 on RPM.

While RCA Toronto Studio housed the sessions it was Robert Alan Ringe who helmed them. Brooklyn born and raised, Ringe parlayed a brief stint as a talent agent into becoming deputy a & r chief at RCA. He was also a four-year Navy veteran which may have made for interesting interactions with anti-war League frontman Craig Fuller. Whether Ringe cocked an eyebrow when the strings arranger showed up remains to be seen. It was Mick Ronson, flamboyant blond guitarist to glam rock titan David “Ziggy Stardust” Bowie. All in the RCA family.
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