#79: Saving Myself by Eria Fachin

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1988
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #50
YouTube: “Saving Myself”
Lyrics: “Saving Myself”

Eria Fachin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1960. Around the age of 15, she began doing performance art, musical theatre, jingles for commercials, and appearing in nightclubs and TV variety shows. She released a few singles in her teens, but these got little notice. In 1988, Eria Fachin released her debut album, My Name Is Eria Fachin, on Critique Records. She toured across Canada to support the album as an opening act for Candi and the Backbeat. The debut single from her album was titled “Saving Myself”.

“Saving Myself” was written by David Lodge. In 1967, be became a member of a Kitchener, Ontario, band named the Shan-da-leers. Later that year, the band renamed itself Major Hoople’s Boarding House. From 1968 into the mid-70s the band was a regional sensation in south-central Ontario, while based in their hometown of Kitchener. They invited concert goers to discover “the Hoople-delic rock sound of Major Hoople’s Boarding House.” The band’s biggest hit came in 1975 with a song David Lodge penned titled “I’m Running After You“. Lodge co-wrote the 1983 hit by German recording artist Peter Schilling, “Major Tom”, as well as another track,“Lifetime Guarantee” from Schillings’ album Error in the System. David Lodge died quite suddenly at the age of 39 of cancer in November 1986. “Saving Myself” was one of the last songs he penned.

In the song, “Saving Myself”, the singer asked a guy who dumped her for another girl:
What did you think I would do?
Sit all alone by the telephone?
Wait for the day that you might come home
Savin’ myself for you?
Now did you really believe,
I never looked at another guy….

The song reveals that after the breakup, she finds she’s getting a lot of interest from other guys. Now that she’s found someone new, she’s going to make sure her new love is going to stay.

“Saving Myself” peaked at #6 in Houston, #7 in Hamilton, #11 in San Francisco, #12 in Sacramento (CA), and #15 in Los Angeles.

Followup singles from her debut album, “Your Love Just Came Too Late” and a cover of the Supremes “I Hear A Symphony”, got some radio play. Her Supremes cover charted on Canada’s RPM Magazine’s dance chart to #5.

In 1990 she appeared on the one-off single “Can’t Repress the Cause”, a plea for greater inclusion of hip hop music in the Canadian music scene, Dance Appeal. In 1991, Eria Fachin had a modest hit single with “Hug You Hold You”.

She was working on a second album when Fachin was diagnosed with cancer. She died of the disease at the age of 36 in 1996. Her daughter, Emma Bartolomucci, founded the non-profit Dance Fachin. Through dance, the company’s mission is to tell stories that highlight the environment.

May 17, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“The Fachin Legacy,” dancefachin.com.
“David Heartland Lodge,” Findagrave.com.

CKOC 1150-AM Hamilton (ON) Top Ten | July 6, 1988