April Wine: Venerable Canadian band

 

 "You have to hear this," my cousin said. "Listen to the violins chime in, it just makes the song."

Growing up, I idolized my cousin Fred and looked forward to going to spend a couple weeks every summer with his family in Brooks. He was a musician, singer, song writer and aficionado of music. When he talked about a song, I listened.

This time, he was referring to one rock ballad on a record filled with 20 of them by one group – April Wine.

That was my introduction to the band from Montreal fronted by Myles Goodwin. By the end of the decade, I not only owned that same album my cousin was talking about, but had incorporated my own favourite April Wine rock ballad into a work of my own.

I was thinking about all this stuff a couple weeks ago when April Wine was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame along with 12 other memorable Canadian musical acts.

The venerable Canadian rock band April Wine.

Source: https://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/april-wine/

(May be subject to copyright)

In the beginning
April Wine is a band that dates back to the 1960s, and has seemingly always been around. They were another band who got a big boost when Canadian content regulations came into effect.

When I looked at their discography, there were so many songs of theirs that I knew. I heard them all on radio.

In the 1970s, they had songs such as “You Could Have Been a Lady”, which peaked at number two in Canada and number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.

In 1972, “Bad Side of the Moon” went to number 16 in Canada, and number 106 on Billboard.

In 1974, “I’m on Fire for You Baby” peaked at number 64 in Canada, and “I Wouldn’t Want to Lose Your Love” peaked at number17.

In 1975, “Tonite is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love” went to number five in Canada.

In 1976, “Like a Lover, Like a Song” peaked at number 49 in Canada.

In 1977, “You Won’t Dance With Me” peaked at number six in Canada.

There were many more, but these are the songs that I recall.

April Wine’s success would continue right through the 1980s.

The dawn of the decade
The decade began with two more charting singles in 1980. “Say Hello” peaked at number 34 in Canada, and number 104 in the United States, while “I Like to Rock” went to number 75 in Canada, and number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The hits kept coming in 1981, when “Just Between You and Me” went to number 22 in Canada and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” followed that up, going to number 40 in Canada, and number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1982, “Enough is Enough” peaked at number 12 in Canada, and number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“This Could be the Right One” made it to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 but, oddly, did not chart in Canada.

April Wine’s last two singles of the decade were released in 1985 off the album “Walking Through Fire”. “Rock Myself to Sleep” did not chart, although it received good air play, while “Love Has Remembered Me” made it to number 89 in Canada.

Greatest hits
During one summer visit to Brooks, my cousin Fred showed me this album he’d picked up recently. It was called “The Best of April Wine: Rock Ballads”, originally released in 1981.

There was one song that really struck him. It used violins and he just loved that. It was called “You Won’t Dance With Me”, and he played it for me right then and there.

A few years later, I was going to school in Edmonton, saw “The Best of April Wine: Rock Ballads” in a bargain bin, and bought it on vinyl. I only played it once, until I got someone to dub it onto a tape, but I always think of “You Won’t Dance With Me”.

Soundtrack selection
Starting in Grade 11 and finishing in the first part of Grade 12, I wrote a semi-autobiographical play. It was about a high school boy who develops a crush on a girl, and how he tries to deal with that. I initially intended it to be a movie, with a soundtrack. Each song would play during a pivotal scene in the movie.

One of the songs I chose, because it just seemed perfect for the mood of the movie, was “Love Has Remembered Me”.

While I was contemplating the songs for the soundtrack, I stopped with my parents for fish and chips at a place in Lethbridge. As we sat down to eat, “Love has Remembered Me” played on the radio piping music through the restaurant.

I took that as a sign, and put it on the soundtrack.

Back then, I didn’t have a lot of money to buy much music, so I got the entire soundtrack from recordings I made off the radio, preferably FM because it sounded clearer and crisper.

So, I waited with the record button at the ready. I lucked out with “Love Has Remembered Me”, because LA-107 FM used to do these features on bands and albums. Just when I was looking for the song, LA-107 did one on April Wine, and I scored “Love Has Remembered Me”.

It is still my favourite April Wine song.

Parting thoughts
April Wine has had so many good songs, and many have found new life on oldies stations, such as CJOC-FM that currently broadcasts from Lethbridge. In looking at how they did on the charts, I was surprised most of them didn’t do better. They were all well known, because they were played a lot on the radio.

What always sticks out is their ballads, and not just because they put out a greatest hits album full of them.

Instead, it is the vocals of Myles Goodwin. He can just melt my heart with songs such as “Just Between You and Me”, “I Wouldn’t Want to Lose Your Love”, and of course, “Love has Remembered Me.”

April Wine is another artist whose music is woven into the tapestry of Canadian music and pop culture.

That’s why they are another deserving inductee into Canada’s Walk of Fame.