KEN TOBIAS (1945 - 2024)

Ken began singing at the age four and made his first stage appearance modelling children's clothing for Zeller’s department store in his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick. And while modelling he also made his first singing debut. Ken attended St. Vincent's Boys School, St. Peter's Boys School and St. Pius the X School during his elementary years, and later Simonds Regional High School where he graduated in 1965, skilled in mechanical drafting.

Ken's teenage years were formative ones, filled with a variety of social, creative and charitable activities. He was a patrol leader in the Sea Scouts (his father Fred was the troop leader) and spent several years as a Red Cross Water Safety instructor, teaching children and the disabled how to swim and enjoy the water safely. During his high school years, Ken performed in high school variety shows, both as a solo singer and more often with his folk group The Ramblers. The Ramblers (Ken Tobias, Tony Tobias, Bob Bonnell, Mike Waye) became popular throughout the Maritimes and two years in a row won the Dartmouth Hootenanny Contest. Ken's first songwriting, "Little Drops of Water" was recorded live with The Ramblers on the Dartmouth Hootenanny record.

In 1965 Ken moved to Halifax, and worked for a short time as a draftsman for an engineering company while singing in local clubs at night. Within six months of being in Halifax he was signed on as a cast member of the popular national CBC Television show Singalong Jubilee. During his time in Halifax, Ken also appeared on other CBC Television shows like Music Hop and joined local popular band The Badd Cedes, which later changed its name to Chapter V and later to Elizabeth. The band was formed by wiz guitarist and producer Brian Ahern. Under Chapter V, the band recorded the single “Dolly’s Magic” and “The Sun Is Green” which featured Ken Tobias on lead vocal. The single was released on MGM Verve/Folkways label. The Badd Cedes were comprised of Brian Ahern (Guitar, Vocals), Ken Tobias (Drums, Vocals), Jamie Piers (Vocals), John Redmond (Bass), Michael Ahern (Guitar). Later Saint John master drummer Norman Calp joined the group when they moved to Toronto and started recording.

In 1966, Ken was chosen to represent Nova Scotia at the Dominion Day (later Canada Day) celebrations in Ottawa broadcast on CBC Television to the nation from Parliament Hill. On that show, millions of Canadians saw and heard Ken sing"This Is The Maritimes", an original song co-written with his brother Tony. He was backed by a sixty-five piece orchestra.

Ken reached national prominence as a familiar cast performer on Singalong Jubilee. Ken's duets with fellow rookie and later recording superstar, Anne Murray were magical. Ken, like fellow cast member and songwriter Gene MacLellan ("Snowbird", "Put Your Hand In The Hand"), was given the opportunity to sing his own songs on the show and like Gene, Ken would go on to pen a top ten Billboard chart hit. Ken moved back and forth between Halifax and Montreal for three years while living in Montreal. He often performed at the legendary Cafe Andre as the Book of Tobias with his music compatriots Charlie Clarke and Mike Waye and toured Quebec as a member of the vocal group The Crystal Staircase.

It was in Montreal where he was introduced to Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers who signed him to recording contract and took him to Hollywood, California and produced his first record "You're Not Even Going To The Fair". The Beach Boys were just some of the guests that would drop by the sessions. This song earned Ken his first BMI songwriting award for outstanding airplay in Canada.

While living in North Hollywood, Ken met legendary songwriter Sharon Sheeley, writer of the hit "Poor Little Fool" for Ricky Nelson for which she became the first female songwriter to compose a No. 1 hit without a male co-writer. Sharon became a close friend and mentor to Ken and introduced him to the The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, and many other music stars. In 1972 Ken appeared in concert with The Everly Brothers one year before they broke up. But soon Ken had his turn and became a celebrated songwriter when the Canadian group The Bells' recorded his song "Stay Awhile" and it became and international hit, selling over four million copies and reaching #7 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

In 1972 Ken recorded his first album, Tobias/Dream #2, for MGM/Verve at MGM Studios in Los Angeles with producer Michael Lloyd. The title track quickly became a Canadian classic. "Dream #2" was followed by the top ten hit, "I Just Want To Make Music". Some of the star studio musicians who contributed to the recording of Ken's first album included drummer Hal Blaine (Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys), Joe Osborne (Glen Campbell, Mamas & the Papas) on bass, Larry Knechtel (Bread) keyboards, and Larry Carlton (Jazz Crusaders) on guitar. In the recording industry this sought after band of super session musicians were members of the famous collective known as The Wrecking Crew.

In 1973, Ken recorded his second album, The Magic's In The Music, at George Martin’s Air Studios in London, England. Produced by Triumvirate Productions - Jon Miller, Rod Edwards, Roger Hand - this recording included songs Ken had written on a recent stay at Neil Young's ranch in California. The album featured King Crimson drummer Mike Giles and bassist Bruce Lynch (Cat Stevens). This recording produced the Canadian hit "Fly Me High".

A year later Ken was recording for Toronto based, Attic Records, and his first Attic release, Every Bit Of Love produced by John Capek, harvested four hit singles and added to Ken's collection of songwriting awards.

In the summer of 1976 Universal Studios featured Ken's song "Good To Be Alive In The Country" in the hit TV series The Bionic Woman, starring Ken's friend Lindsay Wagner, who sings the song in the episode Road To Nashville.

In that same year Ken produced Siren Spell, his fourth album, which was followed the next year by Street Ballet. In 1978 Ken expanded his music work to Rome where he collaborated in the writing of the soundtrack of the cult spaghetti Western Sella D'Argento (A Silver Saddle) directed by Lucio Fulci.

Two successful singles taken from Street Ballet had increased the demand for a compilation of Ken Tobias hits. The Ken Tobias Collection So Far...So Good, was the result.

In 1983 Ken released "Here You Are Today", his tribute to his home town of Saint John, New Brunswick for Canada's first city's bicentennial. The recording included an instrumental piano version performed by renowned Jazz Musician Joe Sealy. In that same year his Tourism New Brunswick commercial won the prestigious international CLIO Award for production.

As primarily an exhibition of his work as a songwriter, in 1984 Ken recorded ten of his most recently penned songs under the album title Gallery, produced by Keith Whiting, a co-production with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. A second album that year was a venture into music for children via his album Ken Tobias - Friends - a kids album of pop songs. CBS Records added the album to their new children's label, Kiddin''Round Records. Two of the songs from the album were turned into music videos for the national hit television series Vid Kids.

Ken Tobias continued through the eighties to be a prolific and all-around creative artist. In recent years his talents expanded to painting, with several hundred of his pieces sold and hanging in private homes throughout Canada, United States and Scotland. His music also broadened into the realm of film and television. He composed and produced the music for several films and television programs including the 1987 award winning documentary Shahira: Nomads of the Sahara, by Emmy Award winning Director Shelley Saywell and the 1988 award winning film Toronto: Struggle For Neighbourhood. Also in 1988 Ken was one of the first Canadian songwriters to be awarded the Crystal Award by the performing rights society PROCAN (now SOCAN) in celebration of one hundred thousand performances of his song "Every Bit of Love".

In 1989, Ken was commissioned by Toronto dance company Ballet Jorgen to create music for a feature segment of their new ballet. The result was a fantastical work entitled "Dreams Of A Subtle World".

In 1991, Ken contributed to the score for the two-hour Shelley Saywell directed documentary The Greenpeace Years, aired in Canada on CBC and distributed worldwide.

The Fall of '92 saw Ken in production at Toronto's Reaction Studios recording six new songs. The songs were released to Canadian radio in the Spring of '93 by The Pangaea Music House and later in 2015 released to the public as an EP entitled Secrets. His new songs once again clearly confirmed Ken's strength as a songwriter and his incredible vocal talent. 1993 and '94 included television and live performances.

In 1994 Ken was awarded the SOCAN Classics Award for one hundred thousand performances of his hit "Every Bit of Love" and followed in 1995 with the same prestigious award for two more of his songwriting hits, "Stay Awhile", and "I Just Want To Make Music".

In 1998 the book On A Cold Road written by Canadian band The Rheostatics’ guitarist and music journalist, David Bidini, was released with several pages dedicated to the music adventures of one of Canada’s music pioneers, Ken Tobias. Ken's music experiences were the subject of many of the print and television reviews of the book. 

In 2002 Ken performed at the East Coast Music Award's Songwriter's Circle in Saint John, New Brunswick. This was the first performance in his hometown in years. In that same year, Ken also produced and arranged the self-titled debut CD for Toronto singer-songwriter, Kim Jarrett. In 2004, Ken hosted a song circle for the Saint John Festival By The Sea and followed in the same year a performance with Terry Kelly for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind which included the Celtic group The Cottars.

In 2003 Ken moved back to his hometown of Saint John. There he found time to share his knowledge and experience with emerging songwriters. He began co-writing with some of the best new emerging singer-songwriters including east coast sensation Jessica Rhaye.

A new independent recording project was realized in 2007 when Ken recorded his new album From A Distance in his home town of Saint John. It was his first in fifteen years.

As the digital and Internet revolution changed the business model for music, Ken stayed on top of the trends. His music continues to be distributed worldwide including in China. Ken’s music can be found on all of the leading streaming services and platforms. 

LEGACY SUMMARY

Everyday throughout North America and Asia the songs of Ken Tobias are heard on Classic Radio. Ken’s songs still resonate and bring joy to listeners because they are easily remembered. Songs like “Dream #2”, “I Just Want To Make Music”, “Every Bit of Love”; “Give A Little Love”, “Fly Me High”, “New York City” and “Stay Awhile” are staples at radio. The Bells' recording of his song "Stay Awhile" became an international hit, selling over four million copies and reaching #7 in 1971 on the Billboard charts. His credits include: 9 award winning songs, 10 charted songs, 5 songs documented by SOCAN for over 100,000 radio airplays in Canada and 1 song with over 4-million worldwide sales by various artists in several languages. In 2013 Ken was the recipient of the First Director’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Music New Brunswick and in 2016 he was inducted into the Casino Nova Scotia Music Hall of Fame. Throughout the 1970s Ken recorded and released several albums on labels such as MGM/Verve, Polygram and Attic Records. In the ‘80s Ken went independent and continued to record, perform and produce. Ken’s talents go well beyond his achievements in music. He is also an accomplished visual artist with hundreds of his paintings now hanging in homes and galleries in Canada and the United States.

Whether it is his songwriting, his dynamic stage and television performances or the production work in his own recording studio, Ken's music always achieved creative success. His entire career and all of his achievements were based on his pursuit of excellence in his music. Ken Tobias continued to make music in his own tradition and audiences continue to applaud.

Ken Tobias lived in Saint John, New Brunswick and continued to write and produce music while dedicating more and more time to his love of painting. Ken died on October 2, 2024 of brain cancer.