Renaissance in Rockport, MA, USA

right, and I think it's dubious for a number of reasons, one of which is I don't think it includes Quebec which is 25% of the population more or less, and they had their own tastes, often favoring UK prog at that time. 

I recently stumbled upon an archive of the Canadian charts called RPM, a magazine that ran from 1964-2000.  The charts seems to have been based on some combination of radio play, sales and general popularity, and they also focus on English language audience, so any charts for Quebec would have been very different at that time, and local charts could be quite variable.  It has quite a few surprises, first being that ASFAS looks to have been the most popular Renaissance album overall in English Canada.  The only other ones that seem to have charted were Turn of the Cards and Live at Carnegie Hall, but in terms of time on the chart and peak position ASFAS was the most successful, peaking at #45.  But nothing on the singles chart.

edit - Live at Carnegie Hall was on Canadian album charts for 11 weeks in 1976 and peaked at 44;  that was its only week in the top 50

A Song for All Seasons was on Canadian album charts for 7 weeks in 1978 and peaked at 45;  it spent 3 weeks in the top 50

The only other album to chart in Canada was Turn of the Cards in 1974 for just 3 weeks, just scraping into the 90s.

I read somewhere that one of the reasons they stopped using the orchestra after this album was that the orchestra costs went through the roof around that time.  It always seemed odd to me that they would have had to cut the orchestra for economic reasons after the most successful album of their career but it was because of unionization apparently.

well, you know, I'm of the opinion that a Song for all Seasons is not accorded as much respect as it should be because of it came about relatively late in their career, so I'm pretty demanding, and I think that she managed to hold her own within the dense arrangement.  I'm always a bit disappointed that the brief instrumental break leading up to the final chorus never seems to do that brilliant turn it does on record.  I don't know how to explain it better.  It goes through 3 iterations, and the second is different from the first and third on record.  Every live version I hear misses out on that.  But just a minor flaw.

sounded pretty good to me - it was actually the first song after the break and we were a bit late getting back.  It was great that they listened to fans and played that, Northern Lights and Song for all Seasons.  

 

Yeah, anti rock star. She said she's never smoked and is only a light drinker. Don't think her voice would have held up this long if she hadn't been disciplined.

I believe that about Annie.  I was joking with my friend that I could picture her in a group of friends back in the day passing around a joint, and she would be like "oh no thank you" with a vivacious laugh.  She seems like the anti rock star in many ways, and although that may just be a persona, I bet she has taken good care of herself for a long time, starting with her voice

 

I did see the Mike Douglas videos...on YouTube when a kind soul uploaded it shortly after Dunford's death. Not the best advertisement for the band - much prefer Midnight Special - but it will do. Yeah, have heard that story about how the band was in America when they learnt it was a top 10 hit. Annie mentioned it in an interview to a UK website earlier this year.

You know, I never made that connection too until you just mentioned it.  :P Indeed, fall, october project, makes sense.