don york

Céline Dion 1968-
superstar chanteuse, was born at Charlemagne, Quebec in 1968. Dion is the youngest of 14 children whose parents operated a small club east of Montreal, where she started performing at age 5 with her entire family. Her first song, composed at age 12, caught the eye of manager René Angelil, who financed the recording of her debut album, and later married her. In 1982, she won the Gold Medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo. In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France. In 1988, she won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland, before a TV audience of 600 million. Her English language breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the Disney hit Beauty and the Beast, which garnered an Academy Award and a Grammy. Her second English album, 'Celine Dion,' had such hit singles as Love Can Move Mountains, Water From The Moon, If You Asked Me To and Did You Give Enough Love. In 'The Colour Of My Love', Dion duetted with British singer Clive Griffin on When I Fall In Love, featured on the soundtrack of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Her most recent hit is My Heart Will Go On, the theme song from the film Titanic, that she sung at the Oscar ceremony.

Ian Dawson Tyson 1933-Ian Dawson Tyson 1933-
country singer, born at Victoria BC in 1933. Tyson wanted to be a rodeo cowboy, but an accident at age 19 ended that dream, so he learned to play the guitar, moved to Toronto in 1959 and started to sing in coffee houses, where he teamed up with Sylvia Fricker, and in 1960 they started performing as Ian and Sylvia. In 1961 they cut their first album, and Ian's song Four Strong Winds became a major world hit. In 1970 they pulled together their Great Speckled Bird country rock band, and started a TV network show, Nashville No

The Guess Who

Robbie Bachman 1953-
rock & roll drummer, born in 1953. Bachman is the younger brother of Randy Bachman, who started Bachman-Turner Overdrive in 1970 when he left the Guess Who, and enlisted his brother Robbie, Chad Allan and Fred Turner into a new band called Brave Belt, then BTO. Click here to find out more about Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Randy Bachman 1943-
rock & roll singer/guitarist, songwriter, music producer, was born in 1943. Bachman was one of the leaders of Winnipeg supergroup The Guess Who, and wrote ShakinŐ All Over, These Eyes, Laughing, No Time, American Woman, and No Sugar Tonight. In 1970 he founded Bachman-Turner Overdrive; some of his more notable BTO songs are Let it Ride, Roll On Down The Highway, TakinŐ Care of Business, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Gimme Your Money Please and Blue Collar Lookin' Out for #1. Check out this seven part interview at his Official Web site.

also Burton Cummings

Beverly 'Buffy' Sainte-Marie 1941-
singer, songwriter, was born February 20, 1941 to a Cree mother at Craven, Saskatchewan, on the Piapot Reserve. Sainte-Marie was sent out for adoption, and raised in Maine. She started out her singing career in folk, and wrote the popular protest song Universal Soldier for her debut album, It's My Way (1964). Other albums include Many a Mile (1965), Little Wheel Spin and Spin (1966), Fire and Fleet and Candlelight (1967), I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again (1968), She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina (1971), Moonshot (1972), Quiet Places (1973), Native North American Child (1974) and Sweet America (1976).

Anne Murray
from Springhill, Nova Scotia  The first woman and first Canadian to win the Country Music Association's Album of the Year Award for 'A Little Good News'; sold over 12-million copies.(October 8, 1984)

Neil Young and Crazy Horse 

Singer and songwriter, was born at Toronto in 1945.

Young started playing garage rock and roll in 1960, and by 1963 had cut his first record with the Squires,
a Group from Winnipeg.

In the mid 60s, he played with 4 To Go, and in 1965 cut 16 songs at Motown studios in Detroit with
The Mynah Birds.

1966 he helped found Buffalo Springfield - later CSNY (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - and toured southern
California with them, selling out at the Whiskey A Go Go in LA. In 1968 he toured the US solo, then Canada solo
and released the album Neil Young (1969).
He toured U.S. east coast with Crazy Horse, then released After the Gold Rush (1969), then toured with CSNY
and Friends.

1971 he recorded most of the album Harvest with The Stray Gators, released the album 4 Way Street, and the
following year played the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto solo.

1973 he toured with The Santa Monica Flyers, and started playing prison and Indian Community benefits.

1976 he played The Last Waltz Concert with The Band and Joni Mitchell. Other albums from this period include Zume (1975) Long May You Run (1976 - Stills Young Band), Decade (1977), Comes a Time (1978) and Rust Never Sleeps (1979).

1980 Young played the Bread & Roses Festival with Friends, and released the album Hawks & Doves (1980), Re-Ac-Tory (1981), Trans (1982- Friends) , Everybody's Rockin' (1983- Shocking Pinks).

1984 he played Austin City Limits with the International Harvesters.

1985 he helped record "Tears are Not Enough" with Northern Lights, and played Live Aid in Philadelphia, and Farm Aid with The Grey Riders. He has played other benefits for Vietnam Veterans, Greenpeace, Get Tough on Toxins, Hungerthon, Walden Woods and the Nelson Mandela Benefit.

On June 27, 1987 he played with his old band The Squires in a concert in the Blue Note Cafe, Winnipeg, and in 1988 joined Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen on stage for several concerts.

He played Saturday Night Live in 1989 and in the 1990s released Ragged Glory (1990), Arc (1991), Harvest Moon (1993) and Broken Arrow (1996).

He has toured with Crazy Horse and Friends, and played with Nicolette Larson, Nils Lofgren, the Grateful Dead,
(the late) Warren Zevon, Brooker T. and the MGs, Willie Nelson, Led Zeppelin, Brendan O'Brien and Pearl Jam (MTV Video Music Awards).

In 1994 he received the Canadian Governor-General's Performing Arts Award, and the following year was inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, thirty albums after he began.

Paul Anka

Ottawa-born pop singer  has #1 Billboard hit with his singles, 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' and 'Puppy Love'.

Also Jeff Healey 1966-
singer, guitarist, was born at Toronto in 1966. One of the world's finest blues guitar virtuosos, Healey lost his sight at age one to retinoblastoma (eye cancer). His parents gave him his first guitar at age three and his adversity led him to develop an unconventional lap-top technique that involves using all five fingers for effects and bending strings with his thumbs. Healey's technique has been praised by blues guitarists Albert Collins, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughn, who said that Healy would revolutionize guitar playing. In 1982 he recorded an independent video called Adriana which was played on MuchMusic. The Jeff Healey Band came together in 1985, at Grossman's Tavern, when he joined forces with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. They signed with BMG Music Canada Inc. and released their debut album See The Light, in 1988. In 1990 their second album, Hell To Pay, featured a guest appearance by ex-Beatle George Harrison on a cover version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The first single, I Think I Love You Too Much, featured Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. The Band's biggest hit was the pop ballad, Angel Eyes, that reached the Billboard #5 spot in 1989. In 1995, the band released Cover to Cover, a compilation of cover songs; Healey's friend Amanda Marshall sings back-up vocals on one track and John Popper of Blues Traveller plays harmonica on another.

Percy Faith 1908-1976
composer, conductor, was born at Toronto in 1908; died in Los Angeles Feb. 9, 1976. A music producer, bandleader and pianist, Faith is best known for his composition, Theme From a Summer Place.

Richard Manuel 1943-1986
singer, pianist, keyboardist, drummer, of The Band, was born Stratford, Ontario in 1943; dies by his own hand in a Florida motel room Oct. 28, 1986, to universal sadness; buried in Stratford. Eric Clapton dedicated his song, Holy Mother, to Manuel. Here is a list of his greatest tracks:

• In A Station / Tears of Rage / Lonesome Suzie / I Shall Be Released "Music From Big Pink" The Band, 1968
• King Harvest (Will Surely Come) / Across The Great Divide / Whispering Pines / Rockin' Chair "The Band" The Band, 1969
• The Shape I'm In / Sleeping "Stage Fright" The Band, 1970
• The Moon Struck One "Cahoots" The Band, 1971
• Share Your Love With Me / The Great Pretender "Moondog Matinee" The Band, 1973
• Hobo Jungle / Rags & Bones "Northern Lights-Southern Cross" The Band, 1975
• Georgia On My Mind / Right As Rain / Let The Night Fall "Islands" The Band, 1977
• Country Boy - (Recorded Woodstock, 1985) "Jericho" The Band, 1993
• She Knows - (Recorded New York City, 1986) "High On The Hog" The Band, 1996

Carmen Lombardo 1903-1971 died at age 67; born in London, Ontario July 16, 1903. Singer, saxophonist, composer and arranger for the band he and his brother founded - the Guy Lombardo Orchestra.