Tommy Ambrose -- People City

 

Reminiscings of Youth is providing a second article tonight in addition to the regular one earlier. Nope, there is no statutory holiday in Canada today nor is there one in Japan. It's just that I was reminded yesterday that my hometown of Toronto became 190 years old, and yep, the above picture is from 15 years ago. I was thinking about how I could possibly bring this point into a ROY article and I found the perfect song.

But before that, I should provide some background context. I've mentioned about some of our TV stations here in Toronto over the history of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". We have the major Canadian networks: CBC and CTV, joined by Global in the 1970s. But for T.O., we also got our own little local station in 1972 called City TV, founded by Moses Znaimer along with a few other people although Moses was indeed the face of the then-Channel 79 Cable 7. My impression was that it was truly an independent and slightly rough-around-the-edges station with its own eclectic group of original shows such as "Boogie", Toronto's answer to America's "Soul Train", and the late-night softcore porn show "The Baby Blue Movie"...which I swear that I never saw. 😲

Some pretty hip personalities were born on City TV as well, a few of whom even made the really big time in the United States. There was J.D. Roberts who was one of the mullet-sporting hosts on the popular music show "The New Music" who is now veteran news anchor and reporter John Roberts, currently on Fox News. And then there is the voiceover guy above giving the station identification. He would later become one of the original cast members on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and several years after that, he even got to be one of the very first Ghostbusters. Yep, it's Dan Aykroyd.

But for a channel known for its devil-may-care approach to programming and young and cool on-air personalities, founder Znaimer went with a very soothing theme song for the station and basically one that became the theme song for Toronto itself. "People City" was used as the sign-on and sign-off song for City when stations used to sign on and off daily and it was created by Tommy Ambrose and Gary Gray with the former singing it. 

Released as a single by Ambrose in 1973, the song is a mix of very sweet and comfy classical pop and AOR. Just watching the accompanying video brings back a lot of memories of my childhood in Toronto. Good heavens, the fashion (and the public transit) back then! 

There was even a documentary regarding "People City" a few years ago which was provided by YouTube channel Retrontario. I've read comments here and there that "People City" ought to be revived as Toronto's theme or anthem once more, but I think the song, as much as I appreciate it, would probably need to be rearranged greatly since the Toronto that Ambrose was singing about back in the 1970s is not the Toronto we have now. Still, the Ambrose-and-Gray original is a nice aural reminder of what was.

For this ROY, I can provide the songs that won the Popular Prizes at the Japan Record Awards in 1973.

Megumi Asaoka -- Watashi no Kare wa Hidarikiki（わたしの彼は左きき）

Garo -- Romance (ロマンス)

Kenji Sawada -- Kiken na Futari （危険なふたり）