Terry Black (February 3, 1949 – June 28, 2009) was a Canadian pop singer and teen idol, born in Vancouver, British Columbia, known as "the Canadian Fabian,"
Terry Black was just 15 years old when he began singing on Buddy Clyde’s Dance Party show on CHAN TV in Vancouver. The fan mail received by the station prompted Bill Gilliland of Arc Records to sign him to a recording contract. Buddy Clyde helped connect Terry with the owners of Dunhill Records in Los Angeles. He became a teen idol with his first hit single, Unless You Care, featuring Wrecking Crew members Glen Campbell on guitar, Hal Blaine on drums, and Leon Russell on organ. That single was released in the United States on the Tollie label near the end of 1964.
Black had several further singles through 1966, such as "Kisses for My Baby" and "Say It Again", Sam Cooke's "Only Sixteen", and "Baby's Gone" which was written by Graham Bonney and Barry Mason. He released an album, Only 16 in 1965, on the Canadian ARC Records label. By now, Black was Canada's number one teen singing sensation. In addition to his hit singles, he went on tour across Canada.
Almost all of Terry Black’s several Canadian hits were written and produced by P F Sloan and Steve Barri, the guys who also worked with Jan And Dean, The Turtles, The Grass Roots, and many more 1960’s superstar recording artists. Terry Black won the Top Male Vocalist Of The Year award at the 1964 RPM Magazine Maple Music Awards, which later became known as the Juno Awards. In 1966 ARC immediately put out another Sloan-Berri produced
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album, The Black Plague which contained Blacks remaining unreleased tracks plus some alternate versions of released songs.
album, The Black Plague which contained Blacks remaining unreleased tracks plus some alternate versions of released songs. Terry Black also got involved in acting. Following a job transfer, Terry’s father moved his family to Hollywood in January 1966 and Terry's popularity now spread from Canada into the U.S. music world. Shortly afterward, a movie script was made that was designed to feature Terry as the brother of Elvis Presley. His hopes of becoming the next Fabian or Frankie Avalon were dashed when the movie didn’t pan out, but he did release an album for Decca Records under the name of Terence titled “An Eye for An Ear” which was released in the U.S. in 1969.
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The album was also released with a different cover by MCA Records in Germany, but it went unreleased in Canada and few, if any, copies were distributed there. Disgusted by the politics of the movie business and encouraged by his old boss Bill Gilliand, Terry decided to go back to Canada.
He performed in clubs around Toronto, then joined the cast of the Toronto production of Hair! during 1969. Terry shared that stage with singer Laurel Ward and the two of them were married in 1970. They started performing and recording together as Black And Ward for Doug Riley’s band called Dr. Music. They released several singles together, such as the minor hit "Goin' Down (On the
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Road to L.A.)", peaking at No. 57, in 1972 and the Canadian hit "Sun Goes By" In 1979, Black performed the song "Moondust" on the soundtrack for the movie Meatballs. Throughout the 1980’s Terry Black sang jingles for commercials and sang country music duets with his wife. Black and Ward had two children but eventually divorced in 1993.
After 2000, Terry could be heard hosting an evening oldies show called The Sixties At Six on NL Radio in British Columbia. Most radio hosts need to research their material in advance, but Black experienced much of the '60s music scene first hand.
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Black had turned to painting as a form of artistic expression. And although he hadn't performed in years, he continued to love music and write songs. He suffered from multiple sclerosis late in life and died as a result of the condition on June 28, 2009, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. He was just 60 years old.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Kamloops Daily news & Musicmasteroldies.com)