The Best Canadian Artists With The Worst Hit Singles

While these days there seem to be a plethora of great Canadian artists who do what used to be seemingly impossible and cross over into an international audience, for a long time it seemed that great Canadian artists were only known stateside or across the pond when they stumbled upon a stupidly popular hit single that was Top 40 radio fodder. This has led to tons of great Canadian artists being misrepresented as one-hit wonders, or coming to be known solely for that one terrible radio hit that somehow seeped over into U.S. airwaves. But now that it’s 2015, we should stop thinking that all the Guess Who was good for was bringing us “American Woman”. Because, as we all know, we have guitarist Randy Bachman to thank for giving birth to Tal Bachman who brought us the wondrous sonic masterpiece “She’s So High.” That song, however, is the exception to this rule, because there’s a reason no one has heard anything from Bachman since the rest of his stuff… well, I’m not even sure he has any other stuff. And on second thought, the Guess Who are actually pretty terrible, and I blame them for letting Lenny Kravitz become popular, which as far as I’m concerned is as close to a musical crime against humanity as you can get. But let’s be honest here, “No Sugar Tonight,” is a jam!

Anyway, more often than not, this means that people only seem to know the most vapid, generic and usually terrible songs by great Canadian artists. The songs that are everywhere in movies, television spots, and terrible coffee house acoustic sets are usually some of the worst songs in that artist’s catalogue, and that’s just not fair. So, in the interest of clearing up some of the terrible assumptions about some of Canada’s more popular musicians, we’ve collected a list of great artists who are known for pretty terrible songs that became radio hits, and trawled through their extensive catalogues to bring you the solid jams that they should be known for.

Leonard Cohen – “Hallelujah”

Songs of Leonard Cohen

Joni Mitchell – “Big Yellow Taxi”

absolutely god-awful Counting Crows cover that features early 2000s pop siren Vanessa Carlton Shine Blue

Feist – “1,2,3,4”

Leslie Feist had her finger in a number of pies in the Canadian music scene before she hit it big with the Steve Jobs-endorsed, nursery rhyme styled “1,2,3,4.” From touring with Canadian electronic musician Peaches as “Bitch Lap-Lap,” to lending her soaring, wailing croon to songs like “Almost Crimes,” with indie supergroup Broken Social Scene, Feist did it all before the Apple moguls thought that “1,2,3,4,” could shift a whole lot of units. While the song’s not necessarily bad by any means, the fact that it took until 2007 when Apple decided to use “1,2,3,4” in an iPod Nano commercial for Feist to break out internationally is absolutely crazy. That she gets her dues because of an mp3 player commercial seems more than a bit insulting.

Unlike a lot of entries on this list, the success of “1,2,3,4” didn’t really lead to Feist changing a whole lot about her solo career. In fact, she took a few years off after that because she became a bit disillusioned with the whole “price of fame” thing. When she reappeared on the scene, it was with the criminally gorgeous, wonderfully understated album Metals in 2011.

Joel Plaskett – “Nowhere With You”

Even though Plaskett mostly spends his days writing fluff-pop that could act as the theme song to a really middle-of-the-road CBC show that your parents rave about, he did have some pretty raucous tunes back in the day. That a guy responsible for an incredible, jaw-dropping solo record like La De Da—probably one of the best records by a Canadian singer-songwriter ever—or a slew of seminal Canadian alternative rock albums in the 90s with his band Thrush Hermit could come to be most well known for the jingly-jangly piece of radio fodder that is “Nowhere With You,” is just kind of… silly. Considering there are so many more catchier, and way better written tunes in the dude’s oeuvre that you could chuck a rock and hit a handful, it’s a bit depressing to have this severely overwrought and unforgivingly maudlin love-letter to Halifax serve as the musical banner for the guy’s entire career. Add to the fact that it’s gone on to inform the musical direction of everything he’s done since doesn’t net him any points, either. To think that someone could gloss over an upbeat, catchy and witty tune like “Happen Now”—which could have served as an amazing radio hit that retained some serious emotional depth—or the explosive, anthemic choruses of “Natural Disaster” in favour of a pop ballad that people only like because of its quaint Atlantic Canada references just kind of sucks. This song is Juno bait, through and through.

Wintersleep – “Weighty Ghost”

Welcome to the Night Sky

Gob – “I Hear You Calling”

Blink 182

Anyway, the point is that these guys had two albums of solid, searing punk rock and catchy, upbeat numbers like “Asshole TV,” “Fido Dildo,” and “Censorshit,” and yet all they’re known for is this monstrosity that sounds like a cross between Maroon 5 and the Gin Blossoms. I remember when I first heard this song on MuchMusic in like 2001, I screamed “Gob is shit, now!” at the television, I was so enraged. I was 12 at the time. That’s some perspective for you.

Prozzak – “Sucks To Be You”

Jay Levine and James McCollum are bonafide pop geniuses Hot Show Saturday People

So, while all of these Canadian artists certainly deserve the notoriety they eventually achieved, it’s kind of a bummer that it had to come from songs that don’t do their catalogue the justice it deserves. Never be afraid to dig a bit deeper than the hits, because chances are there’s a whole bunch of deep album cuts that you’re gonna love a whole lot more.

Nick Laugher liked you better on vinyl – @largiantribune