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Shirley Matthews
Private Property / Wise Guys - 7"
Tamarac - 1964
Michael Panontin
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It may be mere conjecture given the dearth of information out there on Shirley Matthews, but I'm willing to bet that the young singer from Harrow (ON) absorbed a heck of a lot of soul influence growing up smack in the middle of the Detroit and Cleveland AM airwaves. What is known for sure is that after singing in her church choir and at local high school dances, the young Matthews made her way up to Toronto, where she worked by day at Bell Telephone and sang by night at places like the Club Bluenote on Yonge Street.
In fact, it was there that an associate of Bob Crewe caught light of Matthews, who soon found herself in New York with the budding producer/songwriter recording a pair of singles for Atlantic. The first of those, the upbeat floorfiller 'Big Town Boy', managed a couple of impressive #4 placings on Toronto's CHUM chart, in Jan. '64 and then again a few weeks later in February. Matthews followed up a month later with the equally ebullient 'Private Property', which despite also failing to chart south of the border climbed to the #18 position on CHUM for the week of April 27th. Both records were issued up here in Canuckistan on Stan Klees' Tamarac label, with promo copies of 'Private Property' sheathed in a tough-to-find picture sleeve sporting a rare pic of Ms. Matthews herself.
In all, Matthews issued just four singles in her brief career. In 1967, she married Jim Vedder, changed her name to Shirley Vedder and dropped out of the music business altogether, ultimately becoming the president and CEO of a chain of racquetball clubs. When she died, suddenly in 2013 at the age of 71, there was barely a peep about it in the press, rather strangely I'd say as 'Big Town Boy' still gets the occasional spin on oldies radio.
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Suggestions
Shirley Matthews
(He Makes Me) Feel So Pretty / Is He Really Mine? - 7"
Amy
Shirley Matthews
Big Town Boy / (You Can) Count On That - 7"
Tamarac
Patty Surbey
(I Want) a Beatle for Christmas / Christmas All Year 'Round - 7"
Aragon
Ian and Sylvia
Northern Journey
Vanguard
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