Candy Rock Fountain - Love Can Make You Happy

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Aquarius	05:03
	2	Kaleidoscope	03:30
	3	Nancy Brown	02:05
	4	Goodbye	02:50
	5	Paintbrush	01:48

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	All I See Is You	03:56
	2	Love (Can Make You Happy)	03:48
	3	I Don't Want To Live	02:38
	4	Flower Generation	02:51
	5	In My Life	02:15
	6	Up Up And Away	03:55

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Information/Write-up

Candy Rock Fountain – Love Can Make You Happy

Among the more unusual artifacts in the Birchmount Records catalogue is Love Can Make You Happy by Candy Rock Fountain, a sunshine-pop flavored instrumental album released in 1969. Like many of Birchmount’s earliest titles, it was not the work of a standing band at all but rather a studio creation assembled by producer, songwriter, and arranger Greg Hambleton.

Birchmount, a budget imprint of Toronto’s Quality Records, had been launched in September 1969 to repurpose old masters and repackage catalog titles. But Hambleton, who had already established himself as one of Yorkville’s most resourceful young producers, saw an opportunity to create fresh material. George Struth, then with Quality, encouraged him to deliver “shadow” albums—records that blended familiar hits with new originals, sold at a budget price point.

For Love Can Make You Happy, Hambleton turned to a trusted group of musicians from Toronto’s psychedelic underground. Paul Clinch (drums, guitar), Stan Theriault (guitar, bass), and Peter Goodale (organ, piano) of The Magic Cycle provided the backbone. Greg himself contributed piano, and his brother Fergus Hambleton added clarinet and songwriting. Together, they created an album that balanced pop chart covers—The Beatles’ “Fool on the Hill,” The Guess Who’s “These Eyes,” and the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius”—with a surprising number of originals.

Tracks like “Kaleidoscope,” “Nancy Brown,” “Goodbye,” and “Paintbrush” reveal Hambleton’s flair for light psychedelic textures, while Fergus’s “All I See You” and Greg’s “Flower Generation” show how seamlessly they could slip their own material alongside radio staples. Instrumental sunshine pop may not have been the hottest commodity in 1969, but the record carries the optimism and polish of Toronto’s studio scene at the time.

Though released under the anonymous “Candy Rock Fountain” moniker, the LP is essentially a snapshot of Hambleton’s circle of musicians stretching their creative muscles between commercial jingles and live club dates. It stands today as one of four known “studio group” projects cut for Birchmount by Hambleton’s team, alongside Suzanne (BM-501), Tuesday’s Children (BM-508), and Sultan Street Nine (BM-509).

While the album slipped quickly into cut-out bins, its rarity and the inclusion of so much original material have made Love Can Make You Happy one of the most sought-after Birchmount releases. It remains a fascinating glimpse at how Canadian producers and players of the late ’60s used even the most modest budget-label opportunities to craft inventive, if overlooked, records.
-Robert Williston

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