Andy Kim's Christmas charity fundraiser will play at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, B.C.Supplied
Andy Kim was 16 years old when he took a bus from his Montreal home to New York and launched himself into one of the most successful pop music songwriting careers of the 60s and 70s.
The world has Mr. Kim to thank for the expertly crafted Sugar, Sugar and Rock Me Gently, among other perennial pop hits so joyously innocent they feel like they belong to not just another time, but another world.
Sugar, Sugar, which he will play Saturday night as part of his first Christmas concert in Metro Vancouver, was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. in 1968, followed by his cover of Baby, I Love You, a No. 1 hit in Canada and a hit in the U.S. and the U.K. A few years later, Rock Me, Gently reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974 and sold three million copies.
His audacious move, to walk up to a receptionist at New York’s famous Brill Building and wait for hours to speak to legendary producer and songwriter Jeff Barry, was the sort of thing only a naive kid with a guitar would do.
Raised by working class Lebanese immigrants, the third of four boys, Androwis Youakim, as he was then known, would listen to his brother’s transistor radio and dream of pop stardom.
“As a kid, I knew I was living my one and only life without a sequel,” said Mr. Kim in an interview with The Globe.
Mr. Barry was impressed by the couple of verses he heard but he had to be at a recording studio, so he told the young songwriter to come back. Knowing he had only one shot, Mr. Kim asked if he could go along to the studio.
Mr. Barry must have felt sorry for the kid, because not only did he let him join him in the studio, but he also gave him half his sandwich. He eventually signed him to his Steed Records label and in 1968, the two would co-write and release Kim’s first hit How’d We Ever Get This Way, followed by his mega hit Sugar, Sugar.
Mr. Kim, who just turned 79 and divides his time between Los Angeles and Toronto, looks back at his career in awe, because none of it was calculated. It’s always felt, he said, like he was just winging it, which is why he was taken aback when, in October, 1974, John Lennon presented him the gold record for Rock Me, Gently in a Capitol Records’ board room.
For 21 years, his Christmas show has played to packed rooms at Toronto’s Massey Hall, and for the first time, Mr. Kim brings his concert series, the Andy Kim Christmas, to River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, a charity fundraiser that includes Tom Cochrane, 54-40 and the Washboard Union. Men Without Hats, Lee Aaron, Hot Hot Heat’s Steve Bays, JoJo Mason, Fionn and Dan Hill will also be there.
Mr. Kim made another bold move in his youth that proved fortuitous: He knew enough to ask for publishing rights to the songs that would define his career, even though he had no idea how popular they’d become.
“When I’m writing my first album I asked about publishing. They said, ‘Well, no, that’s going to take a while.’ But you know, Jeff said, ‘I’ll ask for you.’”
At first it didn’t look hopeful, and then Mr. Barry said, ‘but why don’t you call my attorney? Maybe he can talk to them.’”
So, Mr. Kim got the rights, which was key, because in the music world the publishing catalogue is long-term revenue.
He was humble, and prone to thanking everyone, but he was also relentless. After he wrote Rock Me, Gently, he knew it could be a hit, but in war-heavy 1970s Vietnam era, nobody wanted a pop song. When he approached RCA, who’d distributed Sugar, Sugar, they told him to cut out “the racket” in the middle and go back to the studio. He was devastated.
“That was the best part of the record,” said Mr. Kim, who left that meeting in tears. Instead of doing as he was told, he called his mother and said he was coming home to Canada where he’d form his own record company and produce and release Rock Me, Gently himself.
He did just that and independently made his way back onto the Billboard chart. All those radio stations who’d refused to play him suddenly had him on rotation again.
These days he doesn’t have to worry about hits, or his image, or pleasing executives.
He’s “on the back porch” of his career, he says, motivated by something outside industry whims.
Nobody gets paid for his Christmas concerts, said Mr. Kim. Everybody donates their time and talent to the cause, which, for the Richmond show is Variety – the Children’s Charity of BC.
“It’s what I did after the hit records,” he explains, referring to early days playing Sugar, Sugar for kids at orphanages.
“I guess if you grew up on the corner of Saint-Denis and De Castelnau at that time, you kind of know. No one has any money. You’re wearing hand-me-downs that are too small for you because you’re taller than everybody and your feet are crammed into shoes that are too small.
“I don’t understand my life,” he added, “but I’m living it to the fullest.”