Thursday, July 28, 2011

Artist: Harlequin, Album: Love Crimes, Song: Thinking Of You

"I was feeling just a bit frustrated.  Check that watch, smoke another cigarette and waited.  Staring up at the moon."  Harlequin were a rock band from Winnipeg originally that formed in the mid seventies.  They were doing a gig in Toronto when they were discovered by Epic Records.  Epic's reps were in town to check out another Canadian band by the name of Goddo and couldn't get in to see the sold out show.  Harlequin happened to be playing upstairs to an empty room so they caught them live instead.  This led to their signing in 1978 as well as the release of their debut album.  The album was produced by Jack Douglas who had already made a name for himself by producing a slew of early Aerosmith records.  He also worked as the engineer on John Lennon's Imagine album.  The band would release four albums by 1985 before calling it quits.  Their music was and still is, all over Canadian radio.  They had some huge radio hits and toured the world with fellow Canadian artists, Triumph, Saga, April Wine and BTO.  Today, the band is led by original vocalist George Belanger and they continue to tour and release music.  You can follow them at http://www.harlequintheband.com/.  The track, Thinking Of You, was off their second release, Love Crimes.  Among their first three albums, this one achieved platinum status while the other two records went gold.  You can hear the song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAzPX37YuLc).  The album, Love Crimes, is a difficult find today.  Used vinyl copies are trading on Ebay between $10 and $15 while limited edition Cd's are trading between $140 and $175 on Amazon.  There were a couple of retrospective releases from the 80's which also included this song.  One is actually available from Itunes.  The band has also reworked a new version of the song on their latest album entitled, On/Q, which is also available from Itunes as well as the band's website.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!