Copperpenny & Steel River

Part 1

The vagaries of the music business are all too well known. Acts that seem to have everything going for them are unable to achieve commercial success even after years of hard work. At the same time, other artists seems to be able to come out of nowhere, and within a few months are reaping the benefits of rock and roll stardom. Today’s article is part 1 of a 2 part article about two talented Canadian groups from Southern Ontario. They both enjoyed relative success in their home markets, but were unable to translate that into international stardom. 

Copperpenny was a group that originated in the Kitchener area in 1965. During the later parts of the 1960’s and the early 1970’s, the group gigged on a regular basis, opening for larger acts and playing smaller venues on their own. The band had a couple of songs released as singles during this time period, and had an album released by RCA (produced by Jack Richardson on Nimbus 9), but were unable to achieve any serious commercial success.  However, better times were on the horizon. After some personnel changes, and a new management deal, in 1972 the band recorded their new album “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne”. Two singles were released from this album; “You’re Still The One” and the album’s title track “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne”. This version of Copperpenny featured Kenny Hollis as their lead vocalist, Rich Wamil on keyboards and vocals, Ron Hiller on bass, Blake Barrett on drums and Bill Mononen on guitar.

Harry Hinde was brought in to produce this record, and he did a masterful job. The album is a wonderful example of “blue-eyed soul” (although in this case perhaps “northern soul” might be more appropriate).  The album was recorded in Dearborn, Michigan and had a strong “Motown” influence. The first single release from the album was the beautiful ballad “You’re Still The One”, which features some classic motifs typical of the genre of music it represents. The bands performance is augmented with strings, layered harmonies and classic accompaniment from female background singers (in this case, the young ladies who performed with Tony Orlando in “Tony Orlando and Dawn”). The song has a great vocal, with a strong melodic chorus, and features a funky Hammond B3 solo and a key change as the singers repeat the chorus to end the song. It’s a slow dance classic, that I am sure was the staple of many high-school dances.  

Copperpenny then followed up with a second single release in 1973, “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne” (the album’s title track). This song would turn out to be the band’s finest hour, and has become a staple of FM radio since its release. It features many of the musical techniques typical of the soul music of the period, and has a real “Temptations” influence to my ears. The arrangements are excellent, including a string section, horns, keyboards (clavinet I think) and some funky “wah-wah” guitar. It has an infectious feel, a great groove and it’s not hard to see why it was a hit, peaking at number 14.

Although “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne” got substantial airplay, and the band was able to tour extensively, (including opening for some the era’s biggest groups) and even had some Canadian television appearances, for some unknown reason they were unable to take the next step and increase their popularity. As another Canadian artist once so succintly put it, "Rock and Roll is a vicious game", and although Copperpenny would continue, albeit with further personnel changes, by 1976 it was over the the group disbanded. 

Copperpenny has an extensive discography but for the collector, here is the information with respect to “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne”. It was released in Canada on the Sweet Plum label, and the album number is SPLP-951. The two most popular singles are as follows: “You’re Still The One/Call Me” was Sweet Plum single 9912 and “Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne/Bad manners” was Sweet Plum single 9914.  

I would like to express my sincere thanks to those individuals who have devoted extensive time and much love to maintaining some great internet sites on Canadian bands (like Copperpenny). Please patronize them and show your appreciation. I would like to mention Gary Lessard in particular for his great site, which includes an excellent page devoted to Copperpenny.

Part 2 will focus on Steel River, a band which was a contemporary of Copperpenny’s, and also called Southern Ontario home.