Scoundrelz

Websites:  https://citizenfreak.com/artists/100384-nobody
Origin: Ottawa, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

In the mid-1960s, Ottawa’s teen music scene was bursting with energy, and few bands captured that restless spark better than The Scoundrelz—a sharp, ambitious combo that evolved from high-school sock hops to a national chart hit. Their lone Red Leaf single, a brash, reimagined cover of Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel backed with the original Poor John, remains one of the capital’s most infectious garage-beat moments.

The story began at Woodroffe High School, where classmates Mike Provost (vocals), Marc Corbin (lead guitar), Buddy Stanton (rhythm guitar, later keys), Rick Lemieux (bass), Bob Duffy (saxophone) and Kenny Chapman (drums) first played together in 1962 as The Tartans. Their plaid stage outfits matched their youthful enthusiasm, and their debut gig—St. Basil’s Church Hall—paid them five dollars apiece. Initially they stuck to Ventures and Del Shannon covers, but the arrival of the Beatles changed everything. With Duffy’s sax suddenly out of fashion, they slimmed down to a lean rock-and-roll outfit and began packing church basements and high-school dances across Ottawa.

Their growing reputation drew the attention of Ottawa Journal columnist and local promoter Sandy Gardiner, who also managed The Staccatos and The Townsmen. Gardiner pushed them to professionalize: tighter sets, sharper suits, and a new name. When they discovered another U.S. act already called The Scoundrels, they simply added a “Z”—in true mid-sixties style—and The Scoundrelz were born.

Gardiner soon arranged a deal with Toronto’s Red Leaf Records, one of Canada’s most adventurous independent labels. In 1966 the band travelled to RCA Studios in Montreal to record Heartbreak Hotel—a bold choice, given that Presley’s version was a decade old. Rather than attempt imitation, the Scoundrelz turned it inside out: jangling guitars, crisp harmonies, and a buoyant beat more in line with the Monkees than the King. The flip side, Poor John, written by Stanton, showed genuine songwriting potential and a melodic sensibility that could have carried them further had time allowed.

Released in October 1966, the single earned strong promotion: a full-page ad in RPM Magazine and mentions in Gardiner’s Ottawa Journal column. It quickly climbed the RPM Top 100, peaking at #60 on December 19 — and, locally, it went to #1 on Ottawa radio, where teenagers blasted it from transistor radios and packed dances to hear it live. One church-basement show drew nearly a thousand fans into a hall built for three hundred. For a moment, The Scoundrelz were Ottawa’s brightest hope, with whispers of a Capitol Records deal in the air.

By early 1967, the band returned to Montreal with producer Ted Gerrow to cut a follow-up, To a Lovely Lady / Follow Me. But just as the sessions wrapped, Stanton accepted an offer to join The Townsmen, filling the keyboard slot left by Gary Comeau. Without him, the Scoundrelz unravelled almost overnight. Capitol lost interest, and the remaining members briefly regrouped under a new name—Nobody—to release the completed single on Red Leaf that spring. It was a graceful exit for a band that had come remarkably close to national breakout before youthful circumstance and the shifting tides of 1967 swept them aside.

Though their career was brief, The Scoundrelz remain a cherished memory in Ottawa rock history: a group that blended polish with raw teenage excitement, and whose shimmering rework of Heartbreak Hotel stands among the most inventive Canadian beat singles of the era.
-Robert Williston

Michael Provost: vocals
Mark Corbin: lead guitar
Buddy Stanton: rhythm guitar, keyboards
Rick Lemieux: bass
Bob DuffyL saxophone
Kenny Chapman: drums