Denise McCann (born December 16, 1948, in

Clinton, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. It borders the Mississippi River. The population was 24,469 as of 2020 United States census, 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt, Iowa, DeWitt (also located in Clinto ...

) is an American-

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

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. There is also a soprano cor ...

player and singer in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

), 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, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

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 16-18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Ex ...

, where she befriended a nervous

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

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. ...

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

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

folk clubs such as The Holy City Zoo, The Drinking Gourd, and The Coffee Gallery, where she would play her distinctive Gibson 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-fo ...

" 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 in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano, Kitsilano is located along the southern shore of English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay between Fairview, Vancou ...

, a neighbourhood of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, 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. Th ...

. 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 Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a 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 ...

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 is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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

Disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

" for the

discotheques A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...

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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

."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 Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

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

Headpins The Headpins are a Canadian rock band, 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 ...

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

Alan Hamel Alan Hamel (born June 30, 1936) is a Canadian entertainer, producer, and television host. Early life Hamel was born in Toronto of Jewish descent. He was in the television arts program at Ryerson Institute of Technology in 1954 but did not grad ...

Show and its replacement The

Alan Thicke Alan Willis Thicke (né Jeffrey; 1 March 1947 13 December 2016) was a Canadian-American actor, songwriter, and game/talk show host. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. Thicke was best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitco ...

Show, the

Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. He was famous for his gravelly voice, and credited it with his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on ...

Show, The

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also wr ...

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

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

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. He was the writer and singer of several hit rock songs, ...

of The

Guess Who Guess Who may refer to: *Guess Who (Jesse Belvin song), a 1959 hit song for Jesse Belvin *Guess Who (B. B. King album), ''Guess Who'' (B. B. King album), 1972 *Guess Who (Slim Whitman album), 1971 *Guess Who (EP), ''Guess Who'' (EP), a 2021 EP by S ...

and

Bachman–Turner Overdrive Bachman–Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated BTO, is a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, founded by three brothers: Randy Bachman, Randy, Robbie Bachman, Robbie, and Tim Bachman; along with Fred Turner (musician), Fred Turner, in 19 ...

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'' was 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. A syndicated v ...

''.

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