“We’ve been working on this Canadiana album for a year now,” says George Koller. He’s mother-henning around the studio, making sure everything is just so before the main act arrives. The main act, in this case, being the immortal David Clayton-Thomas, one of the most recognizable voices in music as lead singer with Blood, Sweat & Tears and famed for his composition “Spinning Wheel”, now enshrined in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. The guy’s only sold, like, 40 million records.
“We’ve got 13 tunes planned for the album, and they’re all Canadian,” Koller states proudly. “But here’s the thing: everyone expects a record like this to have stuff by Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Leonard Cohen, Shirley Eikard. But how many people know that one of the biggest songs of all time was written—words and music—by a Canadian girl back in 1939?”
That girl would be Ruth Lowe. And while she was assumed by many to be American, because she was living in the U.S., having married a lad from Chicago, Ruthie hailed originally from Toronto.
“And I’ll bet you didn’t know this,” George adds. “DCT and Ruth share some amazing similarities. Think about it. Both of them are Canadian. Both are Grammy Award winners. Both enjoyed huge musical success with tunes in the U.S. and around the world. Both moved to the U.S. Both returned home to Canada. She wrote ‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ and he sings it on the new album.” He stops, looks up and smiles at this compendium of parallels.
Meanwhile, the studio gets busy as various musicians arrive. Coffees are poured, instrument cases are opened.
And then, David Clayton-Thomas himself ambles through the studio doors.
“Waz happenin?” he calls out to no one in particular. “Gonna make some magic today?”
DCT opens a briefcase full of lyric sheets and begins setting up on the singer’s podium.
“So, what was your criteria in choosing tracks for this album?” he’s asked.
“Well, we looked at what we could bring to each song, you know, to give it a different sense,” he explains. “‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ was always on the list. Not just because it’s such a great song, but because we wanted the album to have a historical presence, not just modern rock songs.”
Indeed, DCT’s background includes immersing himself in the jazz and blues scene as a younger man, attracted by superb musicians like Oscar Peterson, Moe Koffman, and Lenny Breau. He’s no stranger to tunes like the one Ruth Lowe wrote.
And let the record show that David Clayton-Thomas is no shrinking violet in his enthusiasm for her song. “We’re doing something rather unorthodox with this recording,” he explains. “Going right back to a retro version. You know, The Willows (an all-girl singing trio) filling in for the Pied Pipers. Russ Little’s doing a little Tommy Dorsey tribute on the trombone. Going to recapture that sound, that spirit of the Tommy Dorsey/Frank Sinatra style. Going to be a beautiful track. Absolutely one of the best tracks on the album, no question.”
Back to Ruth. It’s more than intriguing that competing songs in 1940 all hailed from Broadway and Hollywood musicals, so they were unfailingly up-beat, happy-go-lucky lilts. And then, along comes her sad lament that rockets to the top of the charts.
“What’s with that?” Clayton-Thomas is asked.
“Well, you’ve got a great tune and wonderful lyrics,” he says. “And you know what: quality always comes through. Doesn’t matter whether it’s happy or sad. ‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ is well-written. It has a tune that sticks in your mind once you’ve heard it. I can’t imagine it being a better song. Neither could Frank Sinatra: he said it many times publicly. ‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ was the one he loved to sing the most in concert.”
George Koller is ready to try making a record. “Two minutes,” he calls out. Meanwhile, DCT is contemplating Ruth Lowe’s life after “I’ll Never Smile Again”: how she shunned the limelight and returned to Canada.
“I made a similar decision,” he states. “I’d lived in New York for almost 40 years. But in 2005, I found myself the last remaining member of BS&T. Half the guys coming into the band weren’t even born when we started it, and I just got fed up. We were almost like a tribute band at that point, with me as the last man standing. They were never going to make another record. Making millions on the road was their style, so who wants to go into the studio? Me!! So, I came home to Toronto.”
And when you hear David Clayton-Thomas sing “I’ll Never Smile Again” on Canadiana, you’ll be glad he did.
But how is it that a guy who began life as a homeless street kid and developed into one of the most recognizable voices in music is in a studio recording a lament written nearly 80 years before?
Ah. Now in that, we have a story.