Can-Con 45 Of The Day - February 24

[radiofan]

Today's Can-Con 45 is from 1970 ... Vancouver's Poppy Family and "That's Where I Went Wrong" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NMRI4Qiajk

[Richard Skelly]

That’s Where I Went Wrong was the followup to Poppy Family smash Which Way You Goin’ Billy? Unlike Billy, which peaked at #2 on Billboard in June 1970, the successor single only grazed the Top 30 in October, peaking at #29. But it was huge in Canada.

The seeds for the song were sown in the summer of 1965. Terry Jacks was in Vancouver-based The Chessmen. Having snagged a U.S. record deal with Mercury, the band could only afford to Greyhound its way to Nashville sessions. Terry boarded the bus just after being ditched by his girlfriend. Given Terry’s waning interest in studying architecture at UBC, she didn’t fancy marrying an itinerant musician.

The Nashville sessions would yield third Chessmen single, the Jacks written-and-sung Love Didn’t Die. But on the Greyhound trips, Terry sketched out preliminary lyrics about a heartbroken long-haul bus passenger unburdening woes to a seatmate. Back in Vancouver, Terry added melody and continued to pick away at what became That’s Where I Went Wrong. Eventually, he tweaked lyrics to reflect a female viewpoint so wife Susan could interpret it with their new band The Poppy Family.