Today I heard some old April Wine on the radio, and it occured to me that they were almost unknown in the United States, but had multi-platinum albums in Canada.
There have been a few other artists who were huge in Canada but for some reason never found an audience in the U.S. The ones that come to mind are The Tragically Hip and Colin James. Any others?
Do any non-Canadians listen to these bands? Any theories why they never made it in the U.S.?
I don’t think Harlequin did, and I can’t see why.
How about Rough Trade?
April Wine and the Tragically Hip would probably be the biggest Canadian artists to not make it very well in the United States. I was just looking at the list of their hits over at allmusic.com, and it was surprising how many they had:
*You Could Have Been a Lady
Roller
I Like to Rock
Just Between You and Me
Sign of the Gypsy Queen
Say Hello
Tonight is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love
Rock n’ Roll is a Vicious Game
You Won’t Dance With Me
Fast Train
I Wouldn’t Want to Lose Your Love
Oowatanite
*
Every one of those songs were top-10 hits in Canada. But the best any of them did in the U.S. was #11 for “Just Between You and Me”. The rest of those songs were all way back on the U.S. charts.
I’m not even sure the Tragically Hip had as many hits, although it’s close. But April Wine probably had a bit more success in the U.S. than the Hip.
Then there’s Colin James, a great blues guitarist who was first noticed by Stevie Ray Vaughan. While not quite in Vaughan’s league for guitar virtuosity, he’s no slouch, and he’s at least as good a songwriter. He’s kind of a cross between Vaughan and Brian Setzer. Look at this list of Canadian hits:
*Five Long Years
Voodoo Thing
Chicks 'N Cars (and the third world war)
Why’d You Lie
Just Came Back
Cadillac Baby
National Steel
Saviour
Keep on Loving Me Baby
*
At least two of his albums went double-platinum in Canada, and all of the songs above were top 10 hits, or close to it. Only ‘Voodoo Thing’ cracked the top 10 in the U.S, and only “Just Came Back” and “Keep on Loving Me Baby” cracked the top 100.
I have no idea how popular (if at all) these two bands are in Canada, but I’m from the States and I like them a lot.
and
I’m pretty sure that they’re not exacly mainstream, though. I only heard of them from a buddy that lives up in Saskatoon.
It’s not like the Tragically Hip are unknown in the States: they’ve had at least two concert tours in that country and recorded a live album in Detroit. They just aren’t the phenomenon there that they are in Canada.
Yeah, I know they’ve had some success, especially down in some southern areas.
What I can’t figure out is why they aren’t as big as they are in Canada. Same with April Wine. It’s not like they write a lot of Canadiana-type music like Gordon Lightfoot or something. Their stuff is as American-friendly as The Guess Who or Rush, but for some reason they just never had an impact.
I wonder if it’s just something as simply as poor marketing?
How popular are Sloan in the States? How popular are they on the Canadian west coast, for that matter?
I dont know, April Wine arent what I would call unknown. They used to be far more well known, especially in the 70s. Back then, the charts and popularity/record sales had nothing to do with each other. The charts were AM radio. Much like 10 Years After, maybe theyre the type of band where people remember the songs, just not the name of the band.
I just had to laugh at the ‘american friendly as The Guess Who’. 
I like Cummings, but I think it would be hard to call him American friendly, at least in their heyday.
Hows about our National Treasure…
Stompin’ Tom Conners
Well yeah… I meant ‘American Friendly’ in that it’s the kind of music that Americans like. Driving rock with guitars, power vocals, etc. The thing is, in terms of musical tastes Canadians and Americans seem to have almost identical tastes. So it’s just interesting that a handful of acts that are absolutely gigantic in Canada just don’t really take off in the U.S.
How big would they be in Canada without the MAPL rules on your radio industry? What’s so special about any of these guys, especially being “American-friendly” (and perhaps we’d better not go into that with you in any more depth)?
There’s no mystery about the popularity of music, or any other cultural aspect, partly being manufactured by the industry - we’re told about some groups that “these guys are good” and we don’t hear it about others, and, if they’re acceptable, then stars they’ll be. Just as Britney Spears, for instance, is popular because she gets air time as well as vice versa, perhaps some of these not-uniquely-talented Canadian groups are popular in Canada partly because they get guaranteed air time there?
Ha, Cyros you beat me to it!
My very next thought was Jann Arden
My money’s on CanCon. Personally, I doubt the Hip would be as big in Canada if they weren’t Canadian and this benificiaries of Canadian Content laws.
At least in the case of The Tragically Hip, their success isn’t at all related to Canadian content rules. Their initial popularity was based wholly on their popularity as a touring band and a well-marketed debut EP. They were quite popular before getting much airplay - mostly through a very devoted following of live music aficionados, which pumped sales of the EP. By the time they had their first really big radio hit the EP was already a platinum record. Every other Canadian band gets the same CanCon advantages, but none have sold as many albums in Canada.
As to what’s “Special” about them, that depends on the listener. They are certainly a better act than, say, Nelly Furtado or Alanis Morrissette, Canadian acts who made it big in the States. It could be any number of things, but my guess is that their market niche was already taken. Furtado and Morrisette (to pick on them) came along at a time when “singer/songwriters” were the Next Thing. The Tragically Hip came along at a time when “hard rock white boy band” marketing trend was towards Seattle grunge rock, which they aren’t. It just wasn’t what was In at the time, and by the time the grunge craze was wearing off, they were out of their peak. So yeah, it was just a marketing issue and the timing.
I don’t feel sorry for them, they’re millionaires anyway.
How about Chilliwack(sp?) ?
They had a minor hit in the USA in 1971 with “Lonesome Mary”.
Were they more popular in Canada?