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On October 6, 2004, Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, was in Toronto to play the famed Smile record, which had been scrapped back in the late 1960s and released by Wilson as Brian Wilson Presents Smile in 2004. The venue: Massey Hall. Early in the afternoon, the songwriter taped an interview in the seats on the mezzanine level with Peter Mansbridge for CBC’s The National . Wilson then joined his band onstage for sound check. Rather than run through the songs in the set, Wilson wanted them to learn a new composition he had apparently written in his hotel room earlier that day. Steve Waxman, vice-president of publicity at Warner Music Canada, watched from the seats as the band gathered to hear the song and observe the chords Wilson played on the piano. The musicians returned

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to their designated spots and Wilson then walked from one player to another instructing them on what parts he wanted them to play. Waxman recalls how amazing it was to witness this song come to life in front of his eyes. After three or four takes of the song, the sound check finished, and the band left the stage.

Waxman headed to Wilson’s dressing room to get him to sign some posters and found him sitting at a keyboard still practising the song. Curious, the record executive asked the former Beach Boy if he planned to play the new song that night. Wilson replied that he hadn’t decided yet. And then, much to Waxman’s surprise, he asked, “Do you know how to sing?” Waxman insisted he had a lousy voice, but Wilson replied, “Everybody can sing!” Wilson asked if Waxman thought he could remember the melody of the new song. A musician who played guitar and had worked in the music industry for more than two decades by this time, Waxman figured he could do it. Wilson handed him the handwritten lyrics and started to play the tune on the keys.

“I tried my hardest not to butcher the song,” Waxman recalls. “In the end, Brian smiled and said to me, ‘Well, you could be in the choir!’”

Wilson didn’t play the song that night at Massey Hall, and Waxman hasn’t heard it since — but that dressing room audition with the legendary Beach Boy is a music memory he’ll never forget!

Today, Canadians use the word “snowbird” to refer to retirees migrating south to warmer climes for the winter. Back in 1970, “Snowbird” was the title of one of the world’s most popular songs. First released in 1969 on Anne Murray’s This Way Is My Way, it wasn’t until the following summer that the ballad — written in just 25 minutes by a folk and country songwriter born in Val-d’Or, Quebec, named Gene MacLellan — was discovered, thanks to an American DJ who played the B-side of Murray’s record. This beautiful folk song struck a chord. With its poetic words and singalong melody, it changed forevermore the lives of both Murray and MacLellan. A crossover hit, “Snowbird” reached No. 2 on Canada’s pop charts and No. 1 on both the adult contemporary and country charts. South of the

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border, “Snowbird” reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop singles chart, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart, and even cracked country radio’s Top 10.

The song — only the second composition MacLellan ever wrote — earned the songwriter a Juno Award for Composer of the Year and a BMI Award as the first Canadian composer with a song played more than one million times in the U.S. On the strength of the song’s success, Murray became the first solo female artist in Canadian history to receive an American gold record for sales over one million. From Bing Crosby to Chet Atkins, more than a hundred other artists have covered the song. “Snowbird” even resonated with international audiences. European musicians recorded versions in Czech, German, Swedish, Italian, Flemish, and other languages. In 2003, the song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Here’s how this MacLellan masterpiece arrived in Murray’s hands and became a hit. The Nova Scotia songwriter was guesting on Don Messer’s Jubilee and Bill Langstroth, who Murray later married, was the show’s producer. After hearing MacLellan perform “Snowbird,” Bill called Murray and said, “You have to hear the songs this guy has!” Murray went down to the CBC building in Halifax and listened to a tape of a few of Gene’s songs in the conference room. Afterwards, she asked the songwriter if she could take the tape and have the songs. MacLellan agreed.