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Canadian Songwriters
Canada scores well when it comes to contributing to the Music industry on a global scale. Many well known artists and bands originate from Canadian soil but producing the performers is not the only quality this nation excels in, Canada also has brought us some of the best songwriters the world has ever known who are responsible for many hits everybody knows.
Older generations may know him as a singer but Paul Anka, born in 1941, was much more than that. The teen idol from the 1950’s has written several hits with the largest names in the industry. Paul Anka co-wrote on several songs for the now deceased king of pop: Michael Jackson, and also wrote and performed the songs used in The Christmas cartoon George and the Christmas Star in 1985. To this day Paul Anka continues to write and perform.
Another songwriter and performer which older generations may know is Terry Jacks. While a musician himself, he has written songs for famous artists like Nana Mouskouri and The Beachboys. Many number 1 hits have come from his hands, and to this day he continues to do the occasional performance.
R. Dean Taylor is best known for his work with the Motown record label where he wrote most of the material for Diana Ross and the Supremes during the sixties and seventies. Taylor currently owns his own record label and continues his work.
Besides delivering songwriters that write for other artists, many of the great Canadian songwriters only write for themselves or their band. A good example of this is Bryan Adams who did write most of his own material and scored many hits while doing so during the eighties and nineties. Besides writing and performing his own material he also wrote and performed all the tracks for the DreamWorks animated film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, of which “Here I am” reached the top 5 in the British charts. Bryan Adams to this day has sold more records than any other Canadian artist and was the first to sell over one million copies of his album in Canada.
The above are only a small selection of the wide variety of excellent songwriters and performers that Canada holds. There are many better known and lesser known writers and performers producing excellent material that will reach us in the very near future, in one form or another.
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