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Susan Taylor
Don't Make Promises / Twelfth of Never - 7"
Yorkville - 1967
Michael Panontin
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'Don't Make Promises' was the first song on side one of Tim Hardin 1. And while it is now overshadowed by the heart-rending 'Reason to Believe' (which kicked off the other side of that LP), it was not for lack of effort. Since its release in June of 1966, 'Don't Make Promises' has been covered at least forty times, including nearly a dozen in 1967 alone.
Susan Taylor's upbeat version came out in February and was the first one that year. Taylor at the time was singing around town in a group called Susan Taylor and the Paytons, whose biggest gig was surely their slot on the blockbuster Toronto Sound show at Maple Leaf Gardens the previous September. Those insiders in the music business would have also known her as the music librarian at local radio station CKFH.
'Don't Make Promises' was the first of just two singles she would release in her brief music career. RPM reported in May '67, somewhat cryptically, that "her backers are influential and are intent on using every means available in making Susan Taylor a household word from coast to coast". The magazine also noted that these two tracks were reportedly recorded in an "internationally famous recording centre" for $2500 - quite a sum back then - with Taylor's vocals dubbed in Toronto at Bay Studio.
'Don't Make Promises' did well enough, especially for a then-unknown singer on a relatively smallish label. RPM named it in early March as one to watch in its 'We Pick' section, and by the end of the month the song had reached a respectable #29 position on Toronto's CHUM chart. It didn't manage as much success elsewhere, but it was certainly getting spins in places like Halifax (CJCH), Belleville (CJBQ), Kenora (CJRL) and Kirkland Lake (CJKL). What's more, RPM placed 'Don't Make Promises' at #5 for two straight weeks in May on its Canadian Hits chart.
Taylor left CJFH to find greater success hosting CTV's popular After Four program. She released her final record later that year, a breathy single called 'If You Love Me', with Hardin's 'Reason to Believe' on the backside. And though both sides were co-produced by a young Brian Ahern, they failed to trouble any charts. Still, fans of 'Don't Make Promises' will have a sizeable rabbit hole to go down on YouTube. Of the more recent renditions, of which there are notably fewer, Paul Weller's 2004 recording of it, from his Studio 150 covers album, is a good starting point. And Canuckistani scholars should definitely check out the Hidden Cameras' roots-rock reworking, from their 2016 Home on Native Land set.
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