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Shirley Matthews
Big Town Boy / (You Can) Count On That - 7"
Tamarac - 1963
Michael Panontin
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Shirley Matthews was born in the shadow of Motown, in Harrow, Ontario, a small community just to the south of Windsor. She eventually made her way up to r'n'b-obsessed Toronto, where she found herself gigging nights at the venerable old Club Bluenote while working a day job as a switchboard operator at Bell Canada.
Club Bluenote was basically an institution on the hopping Yonge Street strip in the 1960s. Located upstairs on the northwest corner of Yonge and Walton - oddly one of the only clubs on the west side of the street back then - the hip nightclub was the go-to place for soul music in Toronto. It was also popular with out-of-town acts, like Stevie Wonder and the Supremes, who would often stop by after their shows for late-night jams.
It was there that Matthews first caught the ears of Stan Klees, a local industry fixture who ran the Tamarac and (a little later) Red Leaf labels. Klees brought the talented singer to the attention of producer Bob Crewe, who at the time was raking in oodles of dough producing and co-writing songs with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons, including million-sellers like 'Sherry', 'Big Girls Don't Cry' and 'Walk Like a Man'. Crewe promptly whisked the young Matthews off to New York to record this massive-selling stormer of a single.
Released in Canada on Tamarac and down in the States on Atlantic, 'Big Town Boy' debuted on 1050 CHUM in Toronto on December 2nd - the same day as the Beatles' 'She Loves You' - and by late January '64 the record had climbed all the way to the #4 slot. The single spent an impressive sixteen weeks on that list and by the end of the year had managed to snag Matthews an RPM Award for Top Female Singer.
And it's easy to see why. 'Big Town Boy' is a supremely uplifting floor-filler, where Matthews' heady vocal virtually glides atop the back-up voices and intoxicating beat - a perfect example of early northern soul. Unfortunately, the song had to elbow its way onto black airwaves already crammed with the sweet sounds of groups like the Supremes, the Shirelles, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Orlons to name only a few, and so 'Big Town Boy' only met with regional success south of the border. Still, along with the souled-up backing vocals and sugary strings on the flip's '(You Can) Count on That', this is an excellent double-sider definitely worth hunting down.
Matthews' career was surprisingly short-lived. After a trio of largely unsuccessful follow-ups, including the lovely wall-of-sound-influenced '(He Makes Me) Feel So Pretty' the following year, she left the industry altogether, eventually marrying, changing her name to Shirley Vedder and settling into a life running a chain of racquetball clubs. Sadly, the woman who was responsible for one of the first Canadian soul records passed away virtually unnoticed on January 8th, 2013 in Toronto.
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