| LUCILLE
STARR (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Lucille (Raymonde Marie) Starr (b Savoie, later m
Cunningham). Popular singer, country singer, b St Boniface, Man, 13
May 1938. Starr was raised in Port Coquitlam and Maillardville, BC,
and in her teens sang with the French ensemble Les Hirondelles. She
began her career as Lucille Starr in Vancouver in 1954, and two
years later with the singer-songwriter-guitarist-fiddler Bob Regan
(b Bob Frederickson in Rolla, near Dawson Creek, BC, 13 Mar 1931, d
Los Angeles 5 Mar 1990) formed a country duo, the Canadian
Sweethearts. She also sang and recorded with country singer Keray
Regan, his brother. Starr and Bob Regan married and moved to Los
Angeles. As the Canadian Sweethearts, they enjoyed popularity across
North America.
A versatile singer in many pop-music as well as
country styles, Starr also recorded alone for A & M; her biggest hit
was 'The French Song' ('Quand le soleil dit bonjour aux montagnes'),
written by US songwriters Harry Pease and Larry Vincent. Sung in
French and English, and characterized by Starr's distinctive
vibrato, it was popular during 1964-5 in Canada, the US, Europe,
Australia, Asia, and South Africa. The song and an LP of the same
name (A & M LP-107) were reported (Country Music News, Jan 1988) to
have sold 1 and 5 million copies respectively, making Starr the
first Canadian female singer to earn a gold record. Starr's other
hits during the 1960s included 'Yours,' 'Crazy Arms,' and 'Jolie
Jacqueline,' for A & M, and 'Bonjour Tristesse' for Epic. Starr also
was heard in this period on the popular US TV comedy 'The Beverly
Hillbillies,' yodelling for the character Cousin Pearl.
Starr continued to perform with Regan until 1977.
She then pursued a solo career. Of Starr's later singles, 'Power in
Your Love' (1981) and 'The First Time I've Ever Been in Love' (1988)
were popular in Canada. She toured during the 1980s with a troupe
from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, appeared with both Hank Snow and
Wilf Carter, performed widely on her own in Canada, and was co-host
1989-90 for 'Canadian Country Express,' syndicated from CHRO-TV,
Pembroke, Ont. She also performed several times as a headliner in
Holland, where she made her first appearance in 1965.
Starr's other albums include Say You Love Me (A &
M SP-4100, reissued as The Canadian Sweethearts, A & M SP-4106, and
in 1975 as Lucille Starr with Bob Regan, 2-SP-9015), The Sun Shines
Again (Starr Concert SCRA-79, issued in 1981, released after her
recovery from vocal cord polyps), Back to You (Cardinal RSP-159,
issued in 1988), Sweet Memories (Disky DCD-5149, issued in 1991),
and the bilingual Chansons d'Amour/Songs of Love (Intersound 1991).
The anthology Side by Side: Pop and Country/Lonely Street (Collector's
Choice), collecting her recordings for Epic, appeared in 2004. Starr
also co-wrote songs with Bob Regan or others, eg on The Sun Shines
Again; Sylvia Tyson recorded "Pépère's Mill." In 1987 Starr became
the first woman inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association
Hall of Honour, and in 1989 was made a member of the Canadian
Country Music Hall of Fame. She was also the first woman to earn
Europe's Gold Tulip Award; in 2005 she was an honorary inductee into
Canada's Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame. A street in Port Coquitlam,
BC, is named for her.
Starr's influences as a singer were Hank Snow and
Peggy Lee. She is notable for being one of a handful of Canadian
popular musicians to record in both English and French. Starr's son,
Bob Frederickson, played guitar with a later version of the group
Buffalo Springfield.
Author Margaret Daly, Betty
Nygaard King |
