#121: Lovin’ Sound by Ian & Sylvia

City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: June 1967
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #11
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #57
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Lovin’ Sound”
Lyrics: “Lovin’ Sound”

Ian Tyson was born in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1933. He learned to ride horses on his father’s farm, and eventually became a rodeo rider in his late teens and early twenties. He took up the guitar while in hospital recovering from a broken ankle sustained in a rodeo accident. Fellow Canadian country musician Wilf Carter was an influence. After graduation, Tyson moved to Toronto where he began a job as a commercial artist. There he performed in local clubs and in 1959 began to sing on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early 1959, Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time at the Village Corner as Ian & Sylvia. The pair became a full-time musical act in 1961 and married in 1964. Sylvia Fricker was born in 1940 in Chatham, Ontario. At a young age Fricker decided to become a singer. Although her parents tried to discourage her from pursuing a career as an entertainer, she left Chatham in 1959 to perform in Toronto.

In 1962, “You Were On My Mind” was the first song Fricker wrote, and among her most successful. Ian & Sylvia recorded the song in 1964 for their album Northern Journey. In 1964, the pairs recording was a minor hit in Kington (ON), Regina (SK) and Toronto. The song was successfully covered in 1965 by the We Five, and in 1966 by Crispian St. Peters.

In 1963, Ian & Sylvia released a single titled “Four Strong Winds”. The song climbed to #3 in Saskatoon (SK), #4 in Winnipeg, and Kingston (ON), #7 in Ottawa, #8 in Toronto, #10 in Montreal, and #17 in Columbia (SC). Neil Young successfully covered the song in 1978. It has also been recorded by Joan Baez, Harry Bellafonte, Blue Rodeo, The Browns, Johnny Cash, Chad and Jeremy, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Judy Collins, John Denver, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull, Waylon Jennings, The Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez the Seekers, and Glen Yarborough.

In 1964, the B-side to “You Were On My Mind” was Ia Tyson’s “Someday Soon” which charted in Honolulu, Hawaii. The song was successfully covered in 1968 by Judy Collins. In 1965, Ian & Sylvia’s cover of the Gordon Lightfoot song “Early Morning Rain” topped the RPM Adult Contemporary chart in Canada. In 1966, “The French Girl” was not a commercially successful single release.

Between 1962 and 1967, the duo released six studio albums with Vanguard Records. In 1967, they switched labels when they signed a contract with MGM Records. They released the album Lovin’ Sound early in the year. The title track, “Lovin’ Sound”, was their first notable hit since “Early Morning Rain”.

Ian Tyson wrote “Lovin’ Sound”. The song comments on those living without love, who are just waking up and walking around. The solution is to respond to the world with love. In turn, the world will mend and teach you “all the music to the lovin’ sound.” The young may chase rainbows, while the old recall earlier times. The singer urges that if love comes your way “hold it close, don’t let it fade…”

“Lovin’ Sound” peaked at #1 in Lansing (MI) and Burlington (VT), #7 in Sacramento (CA), #10 in Susanville (CA), #11 in Calgary, #14 in Owen Sound (ON), and #15 in Toronto.

From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Sylvia and Ian Tyson fronted the country rock band Great Speckled Bird. With that band they released three studio albums between 1970 and 1973. The band appeared on The Johnny Cash Show in 1970. Eleven years after Sylvia and Ian Tyson were married, they got a divorce in 1975.

After their marriage ended in 1975, Ian Tyson returned to Southern Alberta to farm and train horses, and continued with his musical career. His autobiography The Long Trail: My Life in the West was published in 2010.

From 1970 to 1975, Tyson hosted a national television program, The Ian Tyson Show, on CTV, known as Nashville North in its first season. Sylvia Tyson and the Great Speckled Bird appeared often in the series. In 1980, Tyson decided to concentrate on country and cowboy music, resulting in the well-received 1983 album Old Corrals and Sagebrush, released on Columbia Records. In 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. His next albums were cowboy music: I Outgrew the Wagon (1989), And Stood There Amazed (1991), and Eighteen Inches of Rain (1994).

Between 1973 and 2015, Ian Tyson released fifteen studio albums. His final album in 2015 was Carnero Vaquero. He also released 36 singles between 1973 and 2006. Between 1987 and 1994, “Cowboy Pride”, “Fifty Years Ago”, “Springtime in Alberta”, “Lights of Laramie”, and “Alcohol in the Bloodstream”, variously cracked the Top Ten on the RPM Canadian Country Singles chart.

Ian Tyson was inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame, with Sylvia, in 2006. He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989. Sylvia Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

The song “Four Strong Winds”, written by Ian Tyson, was named as the greatest Canadian song of all time by the CBC-Radio program 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version in 2005.

Ian Tyson wrote a book of young adult fiction about his song “La Primera”, called La Primera: The Story of Wild Mustangs. Ian Tyson’s autobiography, The Long Trail: My Life in the West, was published in 2010. A book by John Einarson, Four Strong Winds: Ian & Sylvia, was published in 2012 with both Ian and Sylvia Tyson listed as contributors.

An announcement in July 2019 stated that Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson would be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, individually, not as a duo. The CBC article stated that “the duo’s 1964’s hit, ‘Four Strong Winds’, has been deemed one of the most influential songs in Canadian history”. The report also referenced the song “You Were on My Mind”, written by Sylvia Tyson, as well as her first four albums Woman’s World (1975), Cool Wind from the North (1976), Satin on Stone (1978) and Sugar for Sugar, Salt for Salt (1979).

After their marriage ended, Sylvia Tyson also pursued a solo career. Between 1975 and 2023 she released eleven studio albums. She also released fourteen singles between 1972 and 1993. One of these was her own solo recording of “You Were On My Mind”, which became a Top 40 Canadian country music hit in 1989. In 1985, Sylvia Tyson was one of the recording artists to appear on the single “Tears Are Not Enough” which proceeds were earmarked for famine relief.

In 1994, she was made a member of the Order of Canada. Sylvia Tyson has been nominated for a Juno Award seven times. In 1993, Sylvia Tyson co-founded a women’s vocal folk-country group called Quartette. The group released a self-titled album in 1993. In 2013, they released their seventh studio album as well as a ‘best of’ album titled 20 Years of Quartette.

Sylvia Tyson has been a board member with the JUNO Awards. In 1994, she wrote the foreword to Unfinished Conversation: The Life and Music of Stan Rogers. She co-edited the 1995 anthology And Then I Wrote: The Songwriter Speaks.  In 2011, she wrote her first novel, Joyner’s Dream.

Ian Tyson died at the age of 89 in 2022. In 2023, Sylvia Tyson released her eleventh and final studio album At the End of the Day, ahead of her 83rd birthday.

February 21, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
David Friend, “Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson to be inducted separately into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame,” CBC, July 17, 2019.
Lynn Saxburg, “A Quartette Christmas with Sylvia Tyson and friends,” Ottawa Citizen, December 16, 2016.
David Friend, “Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson to be inducted separately into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame,” CBC, July 17, 2019.
“Ian & Sylvia,” Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 1992.
John Einarson, with Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson, Four Strong Winds, (McClelland & Stewart, 2011).
“Ian Tyson, Revered Canadian Folksinger, Dies at 89,” New York Times, December 29, 2022.
Darin Clark, “Canadian music legend, Ian Tyson passes away at age 89,” Lacombe Online, December 29, 2022.
Tom Russell and Sylvia Tyson, editors, And Then I Wrote: The Songwriter Speaks, (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1995).

CKXL 1140-AM Calgary (AB) | June 19, 1967