#8: Girls Night Out by Toronto

City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: August 1983
Peak Position in Regina ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Girls Night Out”
Lyrics: “Girls Night Out”

Toronto was formed in 1979 when singer Holly Woods met guitar player Brian Allen in 1977. Annie “Holly” Woods was born in Durham, North Carolina, in 1953. She moved to San Francisco and fronting local bands Sass, and then Gambler. She moved to Toronto and initially performed in as Annie Woods and Shivers. Brian Allen was with a band called Rose. Woods and Allen formed the band they first called Sass in 1979. But a bar manager changed the band’s name to Toronto minutes before they went on stage at a concert in 1979. The name stuck. They added Sheron Alton (Brian Allen’s girlfriend) on guitar and backing vocals, Scott Kreyer on keyboards and backing vocals, Nick Costello on bass guitar, and Jimmy Fox on drums. Kreyer, Costello and Fox were each native New Yorkers. Toronto released a debut album, Lookin’ For Trouble, in 1980. The album sold over 100,000 copies. The lead single, “Even The Score”, was a minor hit across Canada which stalled at #104 beneath the Billboard Hot 100. A second album, Head On, spawned three single releases that were not commercially successful. Head On also exceeded sales of 100,000 copies.

In 1981, Toronto was nominated for a Juno Award for Most Promising Group of the Year, but lost out to the Powder Blues Band.

In 1982, the band released the single “Your Daddy Don’t Know”. It peaked at #5 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada, #2 on CHUM in Toronto, and #77 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was featured in a Labatt Blue beer commercial in 1983. The song also netted Toronto two Juno Award nominations in 1983 for Best Selling Single of the Year, which it lost out to the Payolas “Eyes of a Stranger”. While Toronto’s nomination for Composer of the Year also lost out again to songwriters Geoff Iwamoto and Michael Roth who wrote the Payolas Juno Award winning hit. The band’s third studio album, Get It on Credit, also topped sales of 100,000 discs. The CD release of the album featured “What About Love” which was a song successfully covered a few years later by Heart.

A second track from Get It On Credit, “Start Tellin’ the Truth”, reached #15 on the RPM singles chart and #4 in Toronto.

By 1983, when Toronto released their fourth studio album Girls Night Out, the band consisted of Holly Woods on lead vocals, Sheron Alton on guitar and backing vocals, Brian Allen on guitar and backing vocals, Scott Kreyer on keyboards, Mike Gingrich on bass guitar, and Barry Connors on drums.

The lead single was the title track “Girls Night Out”, written by Brian Allen.

“Girls Night Out” declares it’s a quarter after five (o’clock). The narrator of the song is returning home on a Friday night from the nine t0 five work week. She declares when the streetlights turn on “it’s time to come alive.” The ‘girls’ have a plan on the ‘girls night out,’ so she warns “lock up your sons.” With hutzpah she yells “step aside boys, don’t fool around with dynamite.” These ‘girls’ are taking charge. They might “party all weekend,” “tear up the town” and “hang around.” The song sizzles as these ‘girls’ are on the make, so “lock up your sons.”

“Girls Night Out” reached #1 in Regina (SK), #10 in Halifax (NS), and #15 in Ottawa.

Two more singles from the album, “All I Need” and “Ready to Make Up” were Top 30 hits in Canada in the winter of 1983. There were a series of lineup changes in 1984.

A sixth and final studio album, Assault & Flattery, was released in 1984. The lead single “New Romance” peaked at #20 in CHUM-AM in Toronto and cracked the Top 30 on the national RPM chart.

After a string of Top 40 hits and nearly 700,000 albums sold, Toronto disbanded in 1985. The band was forced to break up when Solid Gold Records filed for bankruptcy protection. In 1986, Woods and Kreyer regrouped and recorded a new album – released as a Holly Woods solo album – was finally released in 2007 titled Live It Up.

February 18, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Brian Allen, Scott Kreyer, Jim Vallance and Holly Woods, “Toronto,” Canadian Bands.com, April 11, 2022.

CJME  1300-AM Regina (SK) | August 26, 1983