Denise McCann (born December 16, 1948 in

Clinton, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt Cl ...

) is an American-

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

singer-songwriter.

Biography

Growing up in a musical family (her grandfather Albert Hews McCann, Sr. was a professional

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...

player and singer in Shreveport, Louisiana), McCann was part of the McCann Family Orchestra that accompanied traveling vaudeville acts at the Shreveport theatre. McCann's family moved to Castro Valley, California during her teen years. After graduating from high school in 1967, she moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury region. McCann became part of the

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

movement when she worked at the Magic Mountain Festival on Mount Tamalpais and then at the

Monterey Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...

, where she befriended a nervous Jimi Hendrix just before his seminal performance. She appears in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary "

Monterey Pop ''Monterey Pop'' is a 1968 American concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey International Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. The pa ...

!" McCann went on to become a folk singer and songwriter, appearing many times at famed

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

folk clubs such as The

Holy City Zoo The Holy City Zoo, which called itself "the comedian's clubhouse", was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that operated from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. Description The Holy City Zoo was located at 408 Clement Street between ...

, The Drinking Gourd, and The Coffee Gallery, where she would play her distinctive

Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gibso ...

J-50 guitar and sing her original songs. McCann joined with Bob Smith and Roy Michaels of "

Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. History Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was co-foun ...

" to form a new group called "Rich and Famous (and Denise)". The group only played a few gigs before going their separate ways. After moving to

Kitsilano Kitsilano () is a neighbourhood located in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Kitsilano is named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano, and the neighbourhood is located in Vancouver's West Side along the south shore of En ...

, a neighbourhood of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, McCann became a fixture performing at local clubs such as Rohan’s Rockpile and The

Commodore Ballroom Commodore Ballroom is a music venue, dance floor and nightclub located on 800 block of Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is regarded as Canada's most influential nightclub, and one of North America's best live music venues. The ...

. In Vancouver, McCann teamed up with Guy Sobell, who produced her first single, the country-tinged "It Still Hurts" and its proposed B side "Tattoo Man". But her record label,

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

in Montreal, decided the second song was too rock and roll oriented to serve as the B side to this country song, and they asked Sobell to extend it by adding a 2-minute percussion break in the middle so they could market it in the new clubs that were springing up all over

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. These clubs were playing a new genre of music that was called " Disco" for the

discotheques A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

where the beat-heavy dance music was popular and they wanted long, extended pieces that could be mixed by the club DJs to make them seamlessly meld into one another. Sobell complied with the request and "Tattoo Man" was released as a five-minute extended play LP that became a hit on the disco charts across North America."Top Singles"
''RPM'', - Volume 26, No. 26. Mar 26, 1977 McCann's follow-up record was "I Don't Wanna Forget You", a song that featured a four-octave vocal improvisation. This second release received more commercial radio exposure than "Tattoo Man". McCann was signed to the ill-fated and short-lived Disco specialty label " Butterfly Records" in Hollywood, and was thereafter dogged by having her record label go out of business twice just as her albums ("Midnight Madness" and "I Have A Destiny") were released. She continued to work professionally in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in many bands, including the Basil Watson Revue, Mad Ivan and the Hornets, Denise McCann Band, Denise McCann and the Dead Marines,

Headpins Headpins are a Canadian rock group, founded as a side project in the late 1970s by then Chilliwack members Ab Bryant and Brian MacLeod. Macleod was impressed by the vocal talents of Vancouver rock singer Denise McCann, and asked her to join hi ...

, and The Night Train Revue. She also appeared as a featured performer on many Canadian TV shows, including The Alan Hamel Show and its replacement The

Alan Thicke Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffrey; March 1, 1947December 13, 2016) was a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is the father of singer Robin Thicke. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Thicke was b ...

Show, the

Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active from 1960 till his death in 1995. Famous for his gravelly voice, he credited it for his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes ...

Show, The

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including "Diana", " Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...

Show, and the Rene Simard Show. She performed at the famed

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater ...

nightclub in 1982. McCann met

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a n ...

of The Guess Who and

Bachman–Turner Overdrive Bachman–Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated BTO, were a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, founded by Randy Bachman, Robbie Bachman and Fred Turner in 1973. Their 1970s catalogue included five top-40 albums and six US top-40 singl ...

at a Christmas fundraiser concert and they married in 1982. She became a Canadian citizen in 1989. Bachman and McCann separated in 2011. Prior to their separation, McCann was heard on CBC Radio as a contributor to Bachman's program ''

Vinyl Tap ''Vinyl Tap'' started as a Canadian radio show hosted by Randy Bachman, musician alumnus of the famous Canadian rock bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. The show ran on CBC Radio from 2005 until 2021, when it was cancelled. In ...

''.

References

External links

Denise Bachman on MySpace
* https://web.archive.org/web/20161003014636/http://rosehipjam.com/

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, Denise American emigrants to Canada American rock singers American women singers Canadian women rock singers 1948 births Living people Writers from Clinton, Iowa Singers from Iowa CBC Radio hosts Canadian women radio hosts 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers