Audio Autopsy, 1967:🎵Victor Garber & The Sugar Shoppe: Actor, 75, Had a '60s Folk-Pop Start🎶
He's excelled on the stage, and on screens big and small. But, before all that, he was a '60s solo folk singer, and was in a folk group who broke into the Canadian Top 40!
Concurrent careers in acting and music? Sure. After all, one medium scratches the back of the other! Rarely, though, has history revealed a musician who’s evolved successfully into a decades-long career solely as an actor who’s garnered multiple award considerations.
Meet Mr. Garber:
From the IMDb Mini-Bio of Garber, by Chris Highland:
“Victor Garber has been in some of the most memorable projects of the past four decades. Victor has recently appeared in The Slap (2015), The Flash (2014), Motive (2013) and Web Therapy (2011).
“He is currently staring in Greg Berlanti’s new DC Comics Superhero series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, for Warner Bros/CW. He has shared in two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® nominations for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast, the latest for Milk (2008), and previously as a member of the cast of Titanic (1997), as well as winning with the cast of Argo (2012).
“Garber received three Emmy® nods for his role on Alias (2001), and has also earned Emmy® nominations for Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), and his guest roles on Frasier (1993)…..
…….and Will & Grace (1998):
“He is also an accomplished stage actor, whose extensive credits encompass lead roles in both plays and musicals, and has earned four Tony Award® nominations, for his work in Damn Yankees (1994-1995), Lend Me a Tenor (1989-1990), Little Me (1982) and Deathtrap (1978-1982).”
🎼His Opening Suite: The Sounds of The Sugar Shoppe
In video above, Victor (then 20) and his Sugar Shoppe perform Laura Nyro’s 1968 single, “Save the Country” on The Ed Sullivan Show, July 6, 1969. It was that year, also, that Nyro recorded another version of the song to include on her New York Tendaberry album.
of Listening Sessions, laid out a revealing essay on Nyro’s 1969 masterpiece album:
The 5th Dimension had a #27 U.S. hit with the song in 1970. The following year, they had a hit with a song by the unknown Dorothea Joyce. You can meet her here:
Garber was born March 16, 1949, in London, Ontario, Canada. Wikipedia allows the following: “In 1967, after a period working as a solo folk singer, Garber formed a folk group called The Sugar Shoppe with Peter Mann, Laurie Hood and Lee Harris.
The hope was to break into and occupy the similar folk-rock/sunshine pop/harmony-laden musical lane as The Mamas & Papas, We Five, and Spanky & Our Gang.
“The group enjoyed moderate success, breaking into the Canadian Top 40 with a version of Bobby Gimby’s song, ‘Canada’ in 1967”:
Three other Sugar Shoppe songs made the lower reaches of the Canadian Top 100 in 1967 and ‘68.
The band’s self-titled album (Capitol Records/U.S., 1968), their only LP, produced by Capitol staff producer/arranger Al De Lory (January 31, 1930-February 5, 2012):
Beyond this album, The Sugar Shoppe also had seven singles on Capitol from 1967-’68. In 1969, Epic/CBS Records gave them one last shot, but just in N. America, with their cover of the Nyro song they featured on The Sullivan Show above, “Save the Country,” arranged by Joe Scott, and produced by husband/wife producing team, Lori Burton and Roy Cicala:
The single’s B-side was a cover of the song (from the 1967 rock musical, Hair) Three Dog Night took to #4 in the States in 1969, and #18 in The Sugar Shoppe’s native Canada, “Easy to Be Hard”:
The Sugar Shoppe broke up shortly thereafter, and Garber moved seamlessly into his acting career!
Many thanks to our favorite Canadian rocker,
of Musings of a Broken Record, for the original idea of (and inspiration for) an article on Garber and his “hidden” ‘60s musical past!
Now this I did not know. I only really know him from his work on "Alias," a cult classic TV series that I was smitten with right from episode 1.
Whoa! I had no idea. Very cool.