Brittan, Bobby

Websites:  No
Origin: Toronto, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

I think I was 17 at the time I wrote these songs and played guitar with Bobby. He and I worked together as shipper/receivers in a fabric warehouse. I realized he could sing and he realized I could play guitar. So we put a band together. These two records actually had about 13 or 14 members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing on the recording which was done at RCA Studio on Mutual Street, Toronto. We asked Paul Hoffert (Lighthouse) to arrange and conduct the songs for the orchestra during the recording. It was pretty exciting at the time. I was just between high school and university. I went off to university after that summer. Bobby continued to sing and gig around southern Ontario for the next year or so, then kind of faded away. I felt badly that I left the band, but I thought I’d get my degree, and then go back to music afterward. I got a job as an accountant in training instead. Lots of water under that bridge ever since.
-Gord Evans, Aug 24, 2024

R&B singer Bobby Brittan was initially discovered by RPM magazine’s Stan Klees. Brittan released one single in the summer of 1966 on the newly formed REM Records. The song “Just For You” and its B-side, “Does Your Daddy Know” were co-written by Brittan and Gord Evans. Both sides were arranged and produced by Paul Hoffert (Lighthouse). “Just For You” reached #98 on RPM’s 100 chart, and #13 on its Canadian Content chart on July 4, 1966. By 1967 he was managed by Don Brewer and formed the Bobby Brittan Group featuring Shannon Conway doing the Southern Ontario R&B/Soul clubs.

Written by Bobby Brittan and Gord Evans
Conducted and arranged by Paul Hoffert
Recorded in RCA Studios on Mutual Street, Toronto, Ontario
Joined by musicians from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra