Denise McCann
Encyclopedia
Denise McCann is an American-Canadian singer/songwriter.
player and singer in Shreveport, Louisiana
) Denise began performing early, taking the stage from the age of eight years.
The McCann family moved to California
in 1960, first to Berkeley
, then Mountain View
, and finally Castro Valley, where she attended high school at first Foothill High in Hayward
, then the newly-built Canyon High School in Castro Valley in 1964.
McCann became part of the hippie
movement during 1967's "Summer of Love
" when she worked at the Magic Mountain Festival on Mount Tamalpais and then at the Monterey Pop Festival
, where she was befriended by a nervous Jimi Hendrix
just before his seminal performance. She appears in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary "Monterey Pop
!"
She went on to become a folk singer and songwriter, appearing many times at famed San Francisco folk clubs during the early 1970s, such as The Holy City Zoo
, The Drinking Gourd, and The Coffee Gallery, where she would play her distinctive Gibson
J-50 guitar (named Betsy Gibson) and sing her self-penned songs.
In 1972 she joined with Bob Smith and Roy Michaels of "Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
" to form a new group called "Rich and Famous (and Denise)". The group only played a few gigs before going their separate ways.
McCann travelled to British Columbia
in 1973 and discovered that there she could actually make a living as a singer, so she moved permanently to Vancouver
's Kitsilano
neighbourhood, where she became a fixture performing at local clubs such as "Rohan's Rockpile" (see music of Vancouver
) and The Commodore Ballroom
.
In 1975, McCann teamed up with Guy Sobell, who produced her first single, the country-tinged "It Still Hurts" and its proposed B side "Tattoo Man". But her record label, Polydor Records
in Montreal, decided the second song was too rock and roll oriented to serve as the B side to this country song, and they asked Sobell to extend it by adding a 2-minute percussion break in the middle so they could market it in the new clubs that were springing up all over Montreal
. These clubs were playing a new genre of music that was called "Disco
" for the discotheques where the beat-heavy dance music was popular and they wanted long, extended pieces that could be mixed by the club DJs to make them seamlessly meld into one another. Sobell complied with the request and "Tattoo Man" was released as a five-minute extended play LP that became a hit on the disco charts all over North America
during 1977.
McCann's follow-up record was "I Don't Wanna Forget You", a song that featured a four-octave vocal arpeggio improvisation at the end of the first verse. This second release received far more commercial radio exposure than "Tattoo Man".
McCann was signed to the ill-fated and short-lived Disco specialty label "Butterfly Records" in Hollywood in 1978, and was thereafter dogged by having her record label go out of business twice just as her albums ("Midnight Madness" and "I Have A Destiny") were released, causing her work to vanish before it got to the public's attention.
She continued to work professionally in Canada
in many bands, including the Basil Watson Revue, Mad Ivan and the Hornets, Denise McCann Band, Denise McCann and the Dead Marines, Headpins
, and The Night Train Revue. She also appeared as a featured performer on many Canadian TV shows, including The Alan Hamel
Show and its replacement The Alan Thicke
Show, the Wolfman Jack
Show, The Paul Anka
Show, and the Rene Simard
Show.
In December 1981 McCann met Randy Bachman
of The Guess Who
and Bachman–Turner Overdrive at a Christmas fundraiser concert and they married in March 1982. She became a Canadian citizen in 1989.
Bachman and McCann separated in June of 2011.
Biography
Growing up in a musical family, (her grandfather Albert Hews McCann, Sr. was a professional cornetCornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
player and singer in Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
) Denise began performing early, taking the stage from the age of eight years.
The McCann family moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1960, first to Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, then Mountain View
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
, and finally Castro Valley, where she attended high school at first Foothill High in Hayward
Hayward, California
Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...
, then the newly-built Canyon High School in Castro Valley in 1964.
McCann became part of the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
movement during 1967's "Summer of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
" when she worked at the Magic Mountain Festival on Mount Tamalpais and then at the Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
, where she was befriended by a nervous Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
just before his seminal performance. She appears in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary "Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop is a 1968 concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles...
!"
She went on to become a folk singer and songwriter, appearing many times at famed San Francisco folk clubs during the early 1970s, such as The Holy City Zoo
Holy City Zoo
The Holy City Zoo was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that operated from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. It was considered the Cradle of Comedy Civilization for many comedians who passed through San Francisco during that era....
, The Drinking Gourd, and The Coffee Gallery, where she would play her distinctive Gibson
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...
J-50 guitar (named Betsy Gibson) and sing her self-penned songs.
In 1972 she joined with Bob Smith and Roy Michaels of "Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s.- History :...
" to form a new group called "Rich and Famous (and Denise)". The group only played a few gigs before going their separate ways.
McCann travelled to British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
in 1973 and discovered that there she could actually make a living as a singer, so she moved permanently to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
's Kitsilano
Kitsilano
Kitsilano is an upmarket neighbourhood on the West Side of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Known colloquially as "Kits", this neighborhood is home to many yuppies, young families and students as well as yoga studios, organic markets, cafes and Vancouver's Greektown. The primary...
neighbourhood, where she became a fixture performing at local clubs such as "Rohan's Rockpile" (see music of Vancouver
Music of Vancouver
Vancouver, a city in British Columbia, is one of the major cultural centres of Canada. The music of Vancouver is diverse, representing the many peoples that live in the city, ranging from classical and modern avant-garde orchestras and composers through a wide range of pop, rock, rap, jazz, world...
) and The Commodore Ballroom
Commodore Ballroom
The Commodore Ballroom is a renowned music venue, dance floor, and nightclub located on 800 block of Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. The building was built in the Art Deco style of the late 1920s by George Conrad Reifel and designed by architect H.H. Gillingham. Best known for...
.
In 1975, McCann teamed up with Guy Sobell, who produced her first single, the country-tinged "It Still Hurts" and its proposed B side "Tattoo Man". But her record label, Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
in Montreal, decided the second song was too rock and roll oriented to serve as the B side to this country song, and they asked Sobell to extend it by adding a 2-minute percussion break in the middle so they could market it in the new clubs that were springing up all over Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. These clubs were playing a new genre of music that was called "Disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
" for the discotheques where the beat-heavy dance music was popular and they wanted long, extended pieces that could be mixed by the club DJs to make them seamlessly meld into one another. Sobell complied with the request and "Tattoo Man" was released as a five-minute extended play LP that became a hit on the disco charts all over North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
during 1977.
McCann's follow-up record was "I Don't Wanna Forget You", a song that featured a four-octave vocal arpeggio improvisation at the end of the first verse. This second release received far more commercial radio exposure than "Tattoo Man".
McCann was signed to the ill-fated and short-lived Disco specialty label "Butterfly Records" in Hollywood in 1978, and was thereafter dogged by having her record label go out of business twice just as her albums ("Midnight Madness" and "I Have A Destiny") were released, causing her work to vanish before it got to the public's attention.
She continued to work professionally in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in many bands, including the Basil Watson Revue, Mad Ivan and the Hornets, Denise McCann Band, Denise McCann and the Dead Marines, Headpins
Headpins
Headpins are a Canadian rock group, founded as a side project in the late 1970s by then Chilliwack members Ab Bryant and Brian MacLeod. Macleod was impressed by the vocal talents of Vancouver rock singer Denise McCann, and asked her to join his new venture...
, and The Night Train Revue. She also appeared as a featured performer on many Canadian TV shows, including The Alan Hamel
Alan Hamel
Alan Hamel was the co-host of a Canadian children's television show called Razzle Dazzle from 1961 to 1964. The show featured a talking turtle named Howard.Hamel was born in Toronto, Ontario...
Show and its replacement The Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.- Early life :...
Show, the Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
Show, The Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
Show, and the Rene Simard
René Simard
René Claude Simard is a pop singer from Quebec, chiefly popular in the 1970s. He was discovered and managed by Guy Cloutier...
Show.
In December 1981 McCann met Randy Bachman
Randy Bachman
Randolph Charles "Randy" Bachman, OC, OM is a Canadian musician best known as lead guitarist, songwriter and a founding member for both the 1960s–70s rock band The Guess Who, and the 1970s rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive...
of The Guess Who
The Guess Who
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...
and Bachman–Turner Overdrive at a Christmas fundraiser concert and they married in March 1982. She became a Canadian citizen in 1989.
Bachman and McCann separated in June of 2011.