Hard To Say Goodbye b/w Hard To Say Goodbye (Instrumental)

Arista Records found Karen Silver through a record that was never meant to travel. Early in 1979 she and producer John Driscoll cut a song called 'Make Me Feel Alright' in Montreal, and Driscoll pressed it on a 12-inch single to build some interest at home. A few copies slipped into the United States and started turning up in discos. When Bob Feiden of Arista phoned Driscoll to ask what he was working on, Driscoll mentioned Silver and told him he could find the record in a local shop. Feiden called back an hour later asking when they could sit down. Driscoll flew to New York with unfinished tapes by Silver and his studio group the Poppers, and Arista signed both.

Silver was born in Toronto and came up through rock theatre. In 1971 she was part of the National Rock Opera, a Toronto company formed by Bill Clement, alongside Avril Chown, Tabby Johnson, Fred Nicolaidis and Paul Ryan, and she took roles in productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. She spent six years in Los Angeles, moved home around 1977 and joined Star City, a band that had grown out of the Toronto club group Funktion. Silver sang and played percussion alongside guitarist Val Mancuso, keyboardist Jim Rigon, bassist Gilles Maheu and drummer Joe Rigon.

Driscoll signed Star City to Skyline, the label he had started as an outlet for his own productions and licensed through Quality Records, where he now ran A&R. He held back any release until he had material he believed in, and in June 1978 took the band into Sounds Interchange in Toronto to cut a disco arrangement of the Spencer Davis Group's 'I'm A Man', with Montreal disco authority Robert Ouimet building the percussion track. The mix was finished at Sigma Sound in New York. TK Records of Florida, home of KC and the Sunshine Band, rush-released the 12-inch in the United States, making Star City the first Canadian act on the label. That September, RPM's disco playlist carried two versions of 'I'm A Man' at once, Macho's at No. 20 and Star City's at No. 23.

By spring 1979 Silver was out front on her own. On April 23 she headlined Metamorphosis, a musical fashion show at Toronto's Harbour Castle, singing six songs and modelling the clothes on an elaborate set with a troupe of dancers. In June Skyline signed her to an exclusive contract, and RPM reported that 'Make Me Feel Alright' was causing a stir on the American West Coast as an import. Star City carried on without her.

The album was recorded in Montreal at Studio Tempo and Studio St-Charles, with Paul Pagé engineering. Silver preferred the city's studios and later said she liked their sound and relaxed atmosphere better than Toronto's. Gino Soccio came in as co-producer with Driscoll. Soccio's own 'Dancer' had just gone to No. 1 on the American disco charts, and RPM credited him with the electronic edge on the title track. He also wrote 'Fake', the one song on the record by a Canadian writer. The other four came from outside writers: Isaac Hayes and David Porter's title track, a 1966 Stax hit for Sam & Dave, Ray Parker Jr.'s 'Hot Stuff', Doreen Chanter's 'Can't Stop Dancing' and J.D. Parker's 'Make Me Feel Alright'.

Arista issued the title track on a 12-inch in August 1979, stretched past seven minutes and backed with 'Hot Stuff'. Brian Chin of Record World heard a loping, synthesizer-based reading of the Sam & Dave song and expected DJs to find its easier tempo simpler to work than Amii Stewart's 'Knock On Wood', the comparison everyone was going to make. Quality, which distributed Stewart's record in Canada, had just taken it to platinum. Chin also told readers to watch for the album in September.

The single reached No. 16 on Billboard's Disco Top 100, No. 12 on Record World's Disco File chart and No. 19 on the Cash Box disco chart. At home it climbed to No. 7 on RPM's dance chart and No. 19 on the Adult Oriented Playlist, and crossed into the RPM 100. Silver admitted early in 1980 that the record had done better in the United States than in Canada and that Toronto was only beginning to come around. At the 1980 Juno Awards she was nominated for Most Promising Female Vocalist, in a year France Joli took the award, and Paul Pagé was nominated for Recording Engineer of the Year for his work on 'Hold On I'm Comin''.

On January 12, 1980 she opened the Sugarhill Gang's first Canadian show at Toronto's Masonic Temple, while 'Rapper's Delight' was selling well past platinum for Quality. A month later she was managed by Starrider, fronting a band called Discovery whose voices she proudly called her Supremes, and planning a European tour for April. She described her music to RPM as dance music and said she did not want to be labelled a disco singer. 'Fake' followed as a single in a special remix and reached No. 12 on Billboard's Montreal disco chart that April. Soccio stayed with her for the 1981 Quality album Set Me Free, and a second Juno nomination for Most Promising Female Vocalist came in 1982. She kept releasing singles after that, including 'Clean Up Woman' on Quality in 1982 and 'I Don't Wanna Fall In Love Again' on Power Records in 1984. Silver later left recording for a career as a professional makeup artist.

-Robert Williston