Information/Write-up
The Luvin' Kind were a Winnipeg group - from the Norwood/St. Boniface area to be more specific - that featured a couple of brothers, Ed and Jerry LeClair. Their first single, the faux-primitive 'That Jungle Sun', managed to scale a few charts nationally and even got released across the pond in Europe. That primal beat and those goofy jungle calls are mostly forgettable these days, but as John Einarson recalled in the Winnipeg Free Press, the band cut a much more imposing figure in real life.
"Walking into the shop, I instantly stopped dead in my tracks and stared, wide-eyed," he writes, about a place at the corner of Osborne Street and Morley Avenue, where Gar Gillies was hawking his iconic Garnet amps. "There before me stood Eddie and Jerry LeClair from the Luvin' Kind ('That Jungle Sun' was already a local hit), all long hair, groovy Stag Shop shirts, jeans and Beatle boots."
'That Jungle Sun' was first issued by Columbia Canada in November of 1966 and started to attract attention locally just in time for the Christmas shopping season. In fact, the Dec.12 edition of RPM notes that the group "have been having fantastic sales action on their single 'That Jungle Sun'. Ron Waddell at CKDM in Dauphin realized the potential of this disc and made it his 'pick'." By January, the song had climbed to #8 in Dauphin and an equally impressive #11 at CKRC in the 'Peg. In fact, the record sold so well here in Canada that it was issued in Germany beautifully sheathed in a full-colour picture sleeve (shown here).
The guys updated their name to the Luvin' Kynd on their second and final single, a couple of Jay Telfer tracks that came out on the short-lived Stone subsidiary, Now Records, in January 1968...and then were never really heard from again.
-Michael Panontin
Alan Schick
Gerry Leclair
Len Fidkalo
George Crakewich
Eddy Leclair
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