![]() for their oldies-radio staple "You've Got Your Troubles." Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1963 as the Cliftones, the group was originally a vocal trio consisting of Rod Allen (bass, lead vocals), Glen Dale (guitar, vocals), and Barry Pritchard (guitar, vocals) (born April 3, 1944). By this time, Lightfoot had begun playing occasional solo dates, and had a regional hit in Canada with the single "Remember Me (I'm the One)," a moody pop ballad.Ī fairly typical British Invasion quintet inspired by the bouncy, harmony-driven sound of Merseybeat, the Fortunes are probably best-known in the U.S. While the Two Tones were popular enough to play at Canada's celebrated Mariposa Folk Festival and release an album in 1962, the duo was short-lived, and Lightfoot gave Europe a try in 1963, spending some time in Great Britain and hosting an eight week BBC-TV series, The Country & Western Show. In 1960, he became a member of the Swinging Eight, the in-house vocal group on the popular Canadian television series Country Hoedown, a position he held for two years, and formed a duo with fellow singer Terry Whalen called the Two Tones. While Lightfoot found work singing on demo recordings and commercial jingles in Hollywood, he didn't care for life in California, and returned to Toronto to focus his efforts on folk and country music. ![]() After graduating from high school, he moved to California to study orchestration and jazz composition at the Westlake College of Music. After Lightfoot's voice changed, he taught himself to play guitar and began performing with a folk group called the Teen Timers, and also took up drumming and singing with a barbershop quartet. ![]() At 12, Lightfoot began studying piano and voice, learning the rudiments of both pop and classical styles, and after winning a Toronto Kiwanis Festival music contest in 1951, he performed as part of a special concert at Toronto's Massey Hall (widely regarded as Canada's equivalent to New York's Carnegie Hall in terms of prestige). His mother had an interest in music and recognized her son's talent at an early age he was singing in church at the age of five, and came in second in a local talent competition when he was ten. Lightfoot was born in Orilla, Ontario on November 17, 1938. Lightfoot's songs are literate but down to earth, and deal with personal matters as well as global issues in a manner that's poetic yet accessible, and his rich, strong voice is a superb vehicle for his material, though his songs are versatile enough that many artists have enjoyed success with his tunes. One of the leading singer/songwriters of the 1960s and '70s, Gordon Lightfoot was Canada's most successful contemporary folk artist, establishing himself as an important songwriter in the mid-'60s and going on to become a major international recording star in the following decade. ![]()
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