Dan Hill
Encyclopedia
Daniel Grafton "Dan" Hill IV (born 3 June 1954) is a Canadian pop
singer and songwriter
. He had two major hits with his songs, "Sometimes When We Touch
" and "Can't We Try
," a duet with Vonda Shepard
.
, the son of social scientist and public servant Daniel G. Hill
, and brother of the author Lawrence Hill
. He studied guitar in his teens, leaving high school at 17 to work as songwriter for RCA. At one point he was working for the Ontario provincial government, delivering office supplies, while performing at the Riverboat at night. In 1975, he released his first album, Dan Hill, which produced a Canadian hit single, "You Make Me Want to Be".
In 1977 Hill recorded the ballad "Sometimes When We Touch
". He also wrote the lyrics
and was assisted in the music by Barry Mann
for the album from the same year, Longer Fuse
, and it was released as a single. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100
and leading to Hill's appearances on The Merv Griffin Show
and The Mike Douglas Show
. Tina Turner
covered the song in 1978 on her album Rough
.
Another one of his hit songs was "It's a Long Road", which he recorded for the 1982 action movie First Blood
. In 1985, he was one of the many Canadian performers to appear on the benefit single "Tears Are Not Enough
" by Northern Lights. Although he had many hits in his native Canada, further singles did not fare as well in the United States, where, after "Let the Song Last Forever" in late 1978, he went almost a decade without cracking any of Billboard
s singles charts.
In 1987, Hill returned to the Billboard Hot 100 with the Top 40 hit "Can't We Try", a duet with the then-unknown Vonda Shepard
(her last name was incorrectly spelled "Sheppard" on the label). It peaked at #6 on the Hot 100. He also had a near Top 40 hit with "Never Thought (That I Could Love)". Both records reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart
and set the stage for Hill to have three more top 10 U.S. AC hits through 1991's "I Fall All Over Again," though he did not make the Hot 100 again after "Never Thought (That I Could Love)."
A road trip to a Hill concert was the subject of the 1994 Canadian comedy film, South of Wawa
.
In 2007 he toured with the CBC Radio
program The Vinyl Cafe
.
Hill was a lifelong friend of writer Paul Quarrington
, and the two also occasionally performed together as a folk music
duo, billed as Quarrington/Hill. The pair's final collaboration, a song about death called "Are You Ready", was completed just ten days before Quarrington's death in early 2010, and will be featured in a forthcoming television documentary, Paul Quarrington: Life in Music.
, her surname comes from her first marriage to an unrelated Nashville record executive named Daniel Hill.
Hill wrote an article in the 14 February 2008 edition of Maclean's
entitled "Every Parent's Nightmare", about the terror he experienced from friends his son brought home. On 14 March 2008, CBC Television's The National aired an in-depth interview with Hill discussing his son's involvement with Toronto gangs.
In early 2009, Hill published I Am My Father's Son: A Memoir of Love and Forgiveness (ISBN 978-1-55468-190-7) which recounts his childhood.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. He had two major hits with his songs, "Sometimes When We Touch
Sometimes When We Touch
Sometimes When We Touch is a 1977 ballad written by Dan Hill and Barry Mann on the album Longer Fuse, but was also released as a single in 1978. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Musicians included Larrie Londin , Bob Mann , Don Potter , Tom Scyzniak...
" and "Can't We Try
Dan Hill (1987 album)
Dan Hill is the 1987 album by Dan Hill.The duet with Vonda Shepard, Can't We Try, made it to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100..-Track listing:# Conscience# Carmelia# Can't We Try - Dan Hill, Vonda Shepard# Blood in My Veins...
," a duet with Vonda Shepard
Vonda Shepard
Vonda Shepard is an American pop/rock singer. She appeared as a regular in the television show Ally McBeal from seasons 1-5 in which she played a resident performer at the bar where the show's characters drank after work. She plays piano, guitar, and bass.-Biography:Vonda Shepard was born in New...
.
Early life and career
Hill was born in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, the son of social scientist and public servant Daniel G. Hill
Daniel G. Hill
Daniel Grafton Hill III, was a Canadian sociologist, civil servant, human rights specialist, and Black Canadian historian....
, and brother of the author Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill is an award-winning Canadian novelist and memoirist. He is best known for the 2001 memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and the 2007 novel The Book of Negroes....
. He studied guitar in his teens, leaving high school at 17 to work as songwriter for RCA. At one point he was working for the Ontario provincial government, delivering office supplies, while performing at the Riverboat at night. In 1975, he released his first album, Dan Hill, which produced a Canadian hit single, "You Make Me Want to Be".
In 1977 Hill recorded the ballad "Sometimes When We Touch
Sometimes When We Touch
Sometimes When We Touch is a 1977 ballad written by Dan Hill and Barry Mann on the album Longer Fuse, but was also released as a single in 1978. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Musicians included Larrie Londin , Bob Mann , Don Potter , Tom Scyzniak...
". He also wrote the lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
and was assisted in the music by Barry Mann
Barry Mann
Barry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.-Career:...
for the album from the same year, Longer Fuse
Longer Fuse
Longer Fuse is a 1977 album by Canadian pop singer Dan Hill.-Track listing:All songs written by Dan Hill unless otherwise stated.#"Sometimes When We Touch" #"14 Today" #"In the Name of Love"...
, and it was released as a single. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and leading to Hill's appearances on The Merv Griffin Show
The Merv Griffin Show
The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, September 20, 1965 to September 26, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 at 11:30 PM ET weeknights on CBS and again in...
and The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
. Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
covered the song in 1978 on her album Rough
Rough (album)
Rough is Tina Turner's third solo album, released in September 1978 on the EMI label in the UK, Ariola Records in West Germany and United Artists in the United States.-Overview:...
.
Another one of his hit songs was "It's a Long Road", which he recorded for the 1982 action movie First Blood
First Blood
First Blood is a 1982 action thriller film directed by Ted Kotcheff. The film stars Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a troubled and misunderstood Vietnam War veteran, with Sheriff Will Teasle as his nemesis and Colonel Samuel Trautman as his former commander and only ally...
. In 1985, he was one of the many Canadian performers to appear on the benefit single "Tears Are Not Enough
Tears Are Not Enough
"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia...
" by Northern Lights. Although he had many hits in his native Canada, further singles did not fare as well in the United States, where, after "Let the Song Last Forever" in late 1978, he went almost a decade without cracking any of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s singles charts.
In 1987, Hill returned to the Billboard Hot 100 with the Top 40 hit "Can't We Try", a duet with the then-unknown Vonda Shepard
Vonda Shepard
Vonda Shepard is an American pop/rock singer. She appeared as a regular in the television show Ally McBeal from seasons 1-5 in which she played a resident performer at the bar where the show's characters drank after work. She plays piano, guitar, and bass.-Biography:Vonda Shepard was born in New...
(her last name was incorrectly spelled "Sheppard" on the label). It peaked at #6 on the Hot 100. He also had a near Top 40 hit with "Never Thought (That I Could Love)". Both records reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
and set the stage for Hill to have three more top 10 U.S. AC hits through 1991's "I Fall All Over Again," though he did not make the Hot 100 again after "Never Thought (That I Could Love)."
A road trip to a Hill concert was the subject of the 1994 Canadian comedy film, South of Wawa
South of Wawa
South of Wawa is a Canadian comedy film, which was released in 1991. It was written by Lori Lansens, and directed by Robert Boyd.The film stars Rebecca Jenkins as Lizette, a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage who organizes a road trip with her coworker Cheryl Ann to see Dan Hill in concert.The...
.
In 2007 he toured with the CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
program The Vinyl Cafe
The Vinyl Cafe
The Vinyl Cafe is an hour-long radio variety show hosted by Stuart McLean and broadcast on CBC radio, BBC Radio 7 and on several U.S. public radio stations. It airs on Sunday at noon on Radio One and Saturday at 9 a.m...
.
Hill was a lifelong friend of writer Paul Quarrington
Paul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...
, and the two also occasionally performed together as a folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
duo, billed as Quarrington/Hill. The pair's final collaboration, a song about death called "Are You Ready", was completed just ten days before Quarrington's death in early 2010, and will be featured in a forthcoming television documentary, Paul Quarrington: Life in Music.
Personal life
His wife is lawyer Beverly Chapin-Hill, with whom he wrote the songs "Can't We Try" and "(Can This Be) Real Love". Although some sources have incorrectly stated that he was married to American country singer Faith HillFaith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
, her surname comes from her first marriage to an unrelated Nashville record executive named Daniel Hill.
Hill wrote an article in the 14 February 2008 edition of Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
entitled "Every Parent's Nightmare", about the terror he experienced from friends his son brought home. On 14 March 2008, CBC Television's The National aired an in-depth interview with Hill discussing his son's involvement with Toronto gangs.
In early 2009, Hill published I Am My Father's Son: A Memoir of Love and Forgiveness (ISBN 978-1-55468-190-7) which recounts his childhood.
Albums
- 1975 - Dan Hill
- 1976 - Hold On
- 1977 - Longer FuseLonger FuseLonger Fuse is a 1977 album by Canadian pop singer Dan Hill.-Track listing:All songs written by Dan Hill unless otherwise stated.#"Sometimes When We Touch" #"14 Today" #"In the Name of Love"...
- 1978 - Frozen in the Night
- 1980 - If Dreams Had Wings
- 1981 - Partial Surrender
- 1983 - Love in the Shadows
- 1987 - Dan HillDan Hill (1987 album)Dan Hill is the 1987 album by Dan Hill.The duet with Vonda Shepard, Can't We Try, made it to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100..-Track listing:# Conscience# Carmelia# Can't We Try - Dan Hill, Vonda Shepard# Blood in My Veins...
- 1989 - Real Love
- 1991 - Dance of Love
- 1994 - Let Me Show You (Greatest Hits and More)
- 1996 - I'm Doing Fine
- 1999 - Love of My Life (The Best of Dan Hill)
- 2010 - Intimate
Singles
| Year | Song | CAN Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
CAN AC |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
U.S. AC Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | "You Make Me Want to Be" | 24 | 16 | - | - | - | Dan Hill (1975) |
| "Growin' Up" | 41 | 30 | 67 | - | - | ||
| 1976 | "You Say You're Free" | 61 | 13 | - | - | - | |
| "Hold On" | 46 | - | - | - | - | Hold On | |
| 1977 | "Phonecall" | 53 | 17 | - | - | - | |
| "Sometimes When We Touch" | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 13 | Longer Fuse | |
| 1978 | "All I See Is Your Face" | 35 | 36 | 41 | 8 | - | Frozen in the Night |
| "Let the Song Last Forever" | 14 | 19 | 91 | 50 | - | ||
| "On the Dark Side of Atlanta" | 44 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1979 | "(Why Did You Have to Go and) Pick on Me" | 57 | 35 | - | - | - | |
| 1980 | "I Still Reach for You" | 83 | 9 | - | - | - | If Dreams Had Wings |
| 1981 | "Don't Give Up on Love" | - | - | - | - | - | Partial Surrender |
| 1982 | "I'm Just a Man" | - | 20 | - | - | - | |
| 1983 | "Love in the Shadows" | 45 | 24 | - | - | - | Love in the Shadows |
| 1984 | "Helpless" | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | "You Pulled Me Through" | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1987 | "Can't We Try" (w/Vonda Shepard Vonda Shepard Vonda Shepard is an American pop/rock singer. She appeared as a regular in the television show Ally McBeal from seasons 1-5 in which she played a resident performer at the bar where the show's characters drank after work. She plays piano, guitar, and bass.-Biography:Vonda Shepard was born in New... ) |
14 | 2 | 6 | 2 | - | Dan Hill (1987) |
| "Never Thought (That I Could Love)" | 22 | 1 | 43 | 2 | - | ||
| 1988 | "Carmelia" | ? | ? | - | 8 | - | |
| 1989 | "Unborn Heart" | ? | ? | - | 3 | - | Real Love |
| "Wishful Thinking" (w/Celine Dion Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record... ) |
? | ? | - | - | - | ||
| 1991 | "I Fall All Over Again" | ? | ? | - | 7 | - | Dance of Love |
| 1992 | "Hold Me Now" (w/Rique Franks) | ? | ? | - | 30 | - | |
| 1993 | "Sometimes When We Touch" (w/Rique Franks) | 46 | - | - | - | - | Sometimes When We Touch |
| 1994 | "In Your Eyes" (w/Rique Franks) | ? | ? | - | 38 | - | Let Me Show You - Greatest Hits and More |
| 1999 | "Hold on to the Night" | - | - | - | - | - |
External links
- Official Website, accessed 26 October 2006
- http://www.canadianbands.com/Dan%20Hill.html, CanadianBands.com entry
- The Canadian Encyclopedia: Dan Hill