#185: If I Call You By Some Name by the Paupers

City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: January 1967
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on the Canadian RPM Top 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “If I Call You By Some Name”
Lyrics: “If I Call You By Some Name”

The Paupers were a band from Toronto formed in 1964. Originally, they were called The Spats. The members were Skip Prokop, the former drummer with the Riverside Three (born in Hamilton (ON) in 1943), former Last Words guitarist Bill Misener (who also went by his alias Bill Marion), guitar-player Chuck Beal (born in Scarborough (ON) in 1943), and bass guitar-player Denny Gerrard (born in Scarborough (ON) in 1947). In 1965, the band released their debut folk-rock single titled “Never Send You Flowers”. The haunting tune got airplay in a number of radio markets across Ontario, and topped the CKEY Instant Five Survey in Toronto that showcased Canadian recording artists. This was followed by the British Invasion sounding “If I Told My Baby”, and “For What I Am”.

In 1966, Roman Records released an album titled Somethin’ Else. It featured tracks by David Clayton-Thomas, the Shays, and the Paupers. Included on the album were the Paupers’ minor hits “If I Told My Baby” and “For What I Am”. In 1966, the band released a cover of Little Richard’s 1956 R&B hit “Long Tall Sally”. Bill Misener (Bill Marion) left the band and was replaced by Scottish immigrant Adam Mitchell (born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1944). Mitchell moved with his family to Toronto from Scotland at the age of 12. In the early sixties, he joined the folk group called Common Folk.

The band was styled with a Beatles-British Invasion look:

Later in the fall of ’66, The Paupers released what would become their biggest hit in Canada, “If I Call You By Some Name”.

“If I Call You By Some Name” was written by African-American songwriter and producer Rick Shorter. He was born in 1934 in the Rochester (NY) area and was raised in a Seventh-Day Adventist family. His father was a jazz guitarist and lay preacher in the denomination. Young Rick was singing in gospel camps by the age of ten, and featured in religious radio shows in his teens. He released four secular R&B singles between 1965 and 1967. In 1966, Shorter wrote “Blue Color” which was recorded by Gene Pitney on his Backstage album. His songs were recorded by Burl Ives, the Blues Magoos, Johnny and the Hurricanes, the Esquires, Big Dee Irwin, Jimmie Rodgers, and many others. Shorter died at the age of 87 in 2017.

“If I Call You By Some Name” is a ballad about a guy who has only recently broken up with “the one (he) love’s.” It would seem, given his state, that he was dumped. But, now he’s dating someone else and his emotions are conflicted. He looks into his new sweetheart’s eyes as though he’s trying to see the eyes of his ex. As well, he calls his new sweetheart by the name of his ex girlfriend as well. This is understandably off-putting, so he pleads:
Will you try to understand
That I never had it planned
But at times my thoughts do slip
And her name comes to my lips
And I’ll call you by some name
That perhaps is not your name. 

Now, unless the new girlfriend has the same name as the ex-girlfriend, which is far-fetched given the whole premise of the song, starting from its title, there is no “perhaps” at all. He’s calling the new girlfriend by a name that is not hers at all. So, the guy is trying to fudge the matter by saying “perhaps is not your name.” I bet by now he’s losing a lot of points in the new girlfriend’s books.

In the third verse, the narrator offers:
If I give you all my love
Like I once gave all my love,
You can tell yourself at last
He’s forgotten all the past
And the thousand yesterdays
need no longer cross your way.

At the root of the song is a question people starting to date each other should ask: Have you been dating anyone else that you’ve broken up with in the past while? If so, are you over them? If not, maybe we should just be friends until you are free of them.

“If I Call You By Some Name” reached #6 in Toronto, #7 in Hamilton (ON), and #8 in Kitchener (ON). It reached #31 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada.

The Canadianbands.com website chronicles how the Paupers next “travelled to NY to open for Jefferson Airplane that March (1967) before working on their album debut with producer Rick Shorter. Upon completion of the sessions they found themselves on the West Coast where they became regulars at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium, LA’s Whiskey A Go Go, and then the Monterey International Pop Festival that June.”

The Paupers’ follow-up release was “Simple Deed” which spent seven weeks on the CHUM Hit Parade in Toronto between February and April 1967. In late summer of ’67, “One Rainy Day” was a Top 30 hit in Kirkland Lake (ON). From August to October 1967, The Paupers managed to crack the Top 30 in both Sacramento, San Francisco, and Riverside, California, with their psychedelic rock tune “Magic People”.

In January 1968, “Think I Care” was a charting single Winnipeg (MB), Pullman (WA), Davenport (IA) and Charlottesville (VA). The Paupers toured constantly for over a year. By the summer of 1968, Denny Gerrard left the band and was replaced by Brad Campbell, formerly of Last Words. The band went back to the recording studio to release a second album titled Ellis Island. At this point the Paupers styled themselves in a psychedelic beatnik image. Their final single releases later that year were a Beatles Sgt. Pepper-esque “Cairo Hotel”, and “South Down Road”.

A few line-up changes ensued and then the band dissolved.

Skip Prokop left the Paupers in 1968 to form Lighthouse. Skip Prokop later found success in making advertisements and as a record producer. He died in 2017 at the age of 73.

In 1969, Denny Gerrard released a solo single “Sinister Morning”, then  joined Luke & The Apostles briefly before forming Jericho in March 1970. He spent a few years as a studio musician. In the mid-70s, Gerrard joined the mid 70’s in the Lisa Hartt Band.

Brad Campbell went on to play with Janis Joplin and other recording acts.

Adam Mitchell pursued a path as a folk musician successful folk career, releasing a number of singles in the 70’s & 80’s. As well, starting in 1969 he produced recordings by McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Fludd, Gordon Lightfoot, Manhattan Transfer, Ian Tyson, Ian Thomas, and others. Mitchell also wrote songs recorded by Nicolette Larson, Olivia Newton-John, Anne Murray, Stonebolt, Paul Anka, Waylon Jennings, KISS, Art Garfunkel, Lynn Anderson, Chicago, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Tyler, Commander Cody and others. By the 2000s, Mitchell had been teaching “The Great Song Master Class.”

Chuck Beal worked as a record producer and manager, and was latter worked at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, producing a talking book series. He died suddenly at the age of 80 on August 12, 2024.

September 23, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“The Paupers,” Canadian Encyclopedia, February 7, 2006.
“The Paupers,” Canadianbands.com.
“The Paupers,” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.
The Paupers, “Never Send You Flowers“, Red Leaf Records, 1965.
The Paupers, “If I Told My Baby“, Red Leaf Records, 1965.
The Paupers, “For What I Am“, 1965.
The Paupers, “Simple Deed“, Verve, 1967.
The Paupers, “Magic People“, Verve, 1967.
Nicholas Jennings, “Lighthouse Co-founder Skip Prokop Made Rock History,” Globe and Mail,Toronto, September 8, 2017.
Adam Mitchell, “The Great Song Master Class,” artofsuccessfulsongwriting.com, May 5, 2012.
“Obituary overview: Charles “Chuck” Beal,” Arbor Memorial, August 16, 2024.

Hit Parade (Top 50) CHUM 1050-AM Toronto (ON) | January 16, 1967