The Halifax Three | |
---|---|
Genres | Folk music |
Years active | 1963–64 |
Labels | Epic Records |
Past members | Pat LaCroix Denny Doherty Richard Byrne Zal Yanovsky |
The Halifax Three (or the Halifax III), originally the Colonials, was a folk music band in Canada in the 1960s. The band performed in Toronto and Montreal before becoming part of the New York folk scene and recording an album.
Denny Doherty, Pat LaCroix and Richard Byrne formed the Colonials in 1960 in Halifax NS where they hosted a CBC TV program. [1] [2] After performing in Toronto and Montreal, the band changed its name to The Halifax Three in 1963, [3] and, with the addition of Toronto born Zal Yanovsky, [4] toured with the Journeymen and played Carnegie Hall in New York City. The band signed with Epic Records and released two albums. [5]
The band broke up in 1965. [6] Doherty and Yanovsky formed the Mugwumps with Cass Elliot and Jim Hendricks. When that band ended, Yanovsky, with John Sebastian formed the Lovin' Spoonful while Doherty joined the Journeymen's John Phillips and his wife Michelle, to, later, along with Cass Elliot, form the Mamas & the Papas.
LaCroix became a Toronto photographer and jazz vocalist. Byrne returned to Halifax where he formed the short-lived New Halifax III with Scott McCulloch and Michael Stanbury from CBC-TV's Singalong Jubilee.
In 2001 music from the Halifax Three was included in the retro compilation album The Magic Circle. [7]
The Mamas & the Papas was a folk-rock vocal group which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. Formed in New York City, the group consisted of the Americans John Phillips, Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips and Canadian Denny Doherty. Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips – the songwriter and leader of the group – who adapted folk to the new beat style of the early 1960s.
Zalman Yanovsky was a Canadian folk-rock musician. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky and teacher Nechama Yanovsky, who died in 1958. He played lead guitar and sang for the Lovin' Spoonful, a rock band which he founded with John Sebastian in 1964. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 as a member of the Lovin’ Spoonful. He was married to actress Jackie Burroughs, with whom he had one daughter, Zoe.
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band was among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influenced many of the contemporary rock acts of their era. Beginning in July 1965 with their debut single "Do You Believe in Magic", the band had seven consecutive singles reach the Top Ten of the U.S. charts in the eighteen months that followed, including the number-two hits "Daydream" and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" and the chart-topping "Summer in the City".
Ellen Naomi Cohen, known professionally as Cass Elliot, was an American singer. She was also known as "Mama Cass", a name she reportedly disliked. Elliot was a member of the singing group the Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance for "Monday, Monday" (1967). In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with the Mamas & the Papas.
Dennis Gerrard Stephen Doherty was a Canadian singer and musician. A tenor, he was a founding member of the 1960s musical group the Mamas & the Papas for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
John Edmund Andrew Phillips was an American musician. He was the leader of the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas and remains frequently referred to as Papa John Phillips. In addition to writing the majority of the group's compositions, he also wrote "San Francisco " in 1967 for former Journeymen bandmate Scott McKenzie, as well as the oft-covered "Me and My Uncle", which was a favorite in the repertoire of the Grateful Dead. Phillips was one of the chief organizers of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson. They began performing together in 1959, married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975.
Hugh Hagood Hardy, was a Canadian composer, pianist, and vibraphonist. He played mainly jazz and easy listening music. He is best known for the 1975 single, "The Homecoming" from his album of the same name, and for his soundtrack to the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea films.
Daydream is the second album by the Lovin' Spoonful, released in 1966. It features two hits, "Daydream", which reached No. 2 in the U.S. Billboard Top 40 charts, and "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice".
Patrick "Pat" LaCroix is a Canadian musician and photographer.
"Creeque Alley" is an autobiographical hit single written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas in late 1966, narrating the story of how the group was formed, and its early years. The third song on the album Deliver, it peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard pop singles chart the week of Memorial Day 1967, becoming their last Top 10 hit. It made number 9 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 4 on the Australian and number 1 on the Canadian charts.
The Mugwumps was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Signed to Warner Bros., the group released one single before disbanding in late 1964. An album by the band went unreleased until 1967, when some of its former members had become famous in the Mamas and the Papas and the Lovin' Spoonful.
Jerome Alan Yester is an American former folk rock musician, record producer, and arranger. He became the Lovin' Spoonful's guitarist after Zal Yanovsky left the band in 1967. Yester also has released two solo albums.
Erik Jacobsen is an American record producer, song publisher and artist manager. He is best known for his work in the 1960s with Tim Hardin, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Charlatans, and Sopwith Camel, and later with Norman Greenbaum, Tazmanian Devils and Chris Isaak. Retiring after forty years in the studio, he began working in video production. His first major video project was an auto-biographical webside, All About Erik, launched in 2019. His next, Erik's Travels, features his prize-winning travel documentaries, and was launched in 2024.
Steve Boone is an American bass guitarist and music producer, best-known as a member of the American folk-rock group the Lovin' Spoonful. Steve co-wrote two of the groups' biggest hits, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" and "Summer in the City".
The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful is a 1967 compilation album by the Lovin' Spoonful featuring hits and other tracks from their first three albums. It charted the highest of the group's career, hitting number three on the Billboard Top LPs chart.
Denny's Sho is a Canadian music variety television series which aired on CBC Television in 1978.
James Richard Hendricks is an American guitarist and folk musician.
The Journeymen were an American folk music trio in the early 1960s, comprising John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Dick Weissman.
In May 1966, Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone of the American folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful were arrested in San Francisco, California, for possessing one ounce of marijuana. The Spoonful were at the height of their success, and Yanovsky, a Canadian, worried that a conviction would lead to his deportation and a breakup of the band. To avoid this eventuality, he and Boone cooperated with law enforcement, revealing their drug source to an undercover agent at a party a week after their initial arrest.