Dallas Murray Richards,
CM,
OBC (5 January 1918 – 31 December 2015) was a Canadian
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
leader.
Richards and his band performed in the
Lower Mainland, at
PNE bandstand and the annual New Year celebration at the Bayshore Hotel. The band played 79 consecutive New Year's Eve concerts until his death on 31 December 2015.
Richards led his band for many years in a weekly
CBC Radio
CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...
show broadcast nationally from the Panorama Roof Ballroom of the
Hotel Vancouver. He hosted a weekly one-hour show on radio station
CISL.
Richards was commonly thought to be the lyricist of "Roar You Lions Roar", the
fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
of the
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions played their first season ...
football club set to the music of "I Love the Sunshine of Your Smile". However, Peggy Miller of CJCA, an Edmonton radio station, wrote the lyrics in 1953, and Richards arranged and popularized the song with his band's performance at games. His 1968 album ''CFL Songs'' popularized "Roar You Lions Roar", "Go Argos Go", "On Roughriders" and many other songs still heard to this day in CFL stadiums.
Awards and honours
* 1994: Order of Canada, Member
* 1994: First inductee into the
BC Entertainment Hall of Fame
References
External links
Official site archived