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A Passing Fancy
I'm Losing Tonight / A Passing Fancy - 7"
Columbia - 1967
Michael Panontin
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High school mates Jay and Ian Telfer, Phil Seon, Brian Price and Greg Hershoff formed a group called the Dimensions on the northern fringes of Toronto in the summer of 1965. They had the good fortune of having as their manager fellow Downsview Collegiate Institute alumnus (and future True North Records founder) Bernie Finklestein. And it wasn't long before the well-connected Finkelstein had scored the group a prime gig as the house band at the Cafe El Patio in the city's popular Yorkville neighbourhood.
In January the following year, Finkelstein left to manage the Paupers, and the five changed their name to A Passing Fancy. The group picked up more gigs in and around Toronto at places like Scarborough's Gogue Inn, Club 888 on Yonge Street and Boris's in Yorkville. That same year, they hooked up with the management team of Walter Honsberger and Dan Bartollini, who saw the band's obvious talent right from the start.
"When Walter Honsberger and Dan Bartollini first became aware of A Passing Fancy, they realized that here was a group that had all the potential of a top recording unit," wrote RPM magazine. "In less than six months the group had become so popular that they had acquired one of the largest fan clubs in the country. They had become so tight and well adjusted to one another that they felt ready and confident for the recording studios."
A Passing Fancy - by now singer/guitarist Jay Telfer, lead guitarist Seon, organist Price, along with bassist Rick Mann and drummer Steve Wilson - caught the attention of Columbia Records' producer Rick Martin, who brought them into RCA Victor Studios to tape some tracks for a projected early '67 single release. The guys, some of whom were still in their teens, had never even seen the inside of a studio let alone one that RPM was touting as "one of the finest recording studios in the nation". Nevertheless, in less than three hours they had recorded three tracks, which Martin and the studio engineers thought had "a sound that was comparable to anything on the charts".
'I'm Losing Tonight' was released at the tail end of January 1967 to high hopes on the home front. RPM chose it as one of its top picks for the week in its Jan. 28th edition, while Columbia took out a full-page ad in the same issue to promote it. Both sides were written by Telfer, who perhaps more than anyone in Toronto at the time bore the hallmarks of Bo Diddley and his trademark syncopated beat. That's the first thing you notice on 'I'm Losing Tonight', along with Seon's searing guitar solos. In hindsight, it seems more the sort of song that you would find on a Pebbles or Nuggets compilation than on an AM pop chart. Still, the record managed an impressive #22 showing locally on CHUM as well as a respectable #52 on RPM's national chart.
A Passing Fancy released another four singles on Columbia that year. They also found their way onto some pretty coveted bills, including a slot at Expo '67, along with an appearance on the first in-colour airing of CBC-TV's popular Let's Go program the following year. A self-titled full-length LP was issued in 1968 - it included all four singles, both a- and b-sides - but by then A Passing Fancy had unfortunately already imploded.
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