April Wine - The Gold and Platinum Years

The Gold and Platinum Years

The band hit hard with their fourth release, Stand Back. Riding on the success of the singles "Tonight Is A Wonderful Time To Fall In Love" and "I Wouldn't Want To Lose Your Love", the album went double platinum in Canada. The song "Oowatanite" became a concert favourite and stands as one of the most popular songs the band has ever recorded. Following the supporting tour for Stand Back the band had yet another change in their line-up. This time, longtime member Jim Clench departed and was replaced by Steve Lang. Clench would stay active in music, even doing stints in the legendary rock bands Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Loverboy.

The next release by the band would be titled The Whole World's Goin' Crazy. The album would be the first April Wine release to hit platinum status based on advanced sales orders alone. The album contained the popular title track as well as a successful smash single, the ballad "Like A Lover, Like A Song". Following the supporting tour for Crazy the band returned to the studio to record their sixth album, Forever for Now. The album would be another platinum seller and contained the band's biggest single to date, "You Won't Dance With Me".

In mid-1977, April Wine was booked to play a charity concert at the famed El Mocambo Club in Toronto, Ontario. Co-headliner on the bill was a band called "The Cockroaches," who turned out to be The Rolling Stones. The pseudonym was a poorly kept secret and huge crowds turned out for the event. April Wine's performance was captured and released as the album Live at the El Mocambo. The band got its first chance at touring the U.S. following the El Mocambo gig, first opening for The Rolling Stones, then for various popular headliners, including Styx and fellow Canadian band Rush.

Another line-up change occurred in 1977, though rather than someone leaving, the band added a fifth member. Brian Greenway was brought in as a third guitarist. Not only could Brian contribute on guitar, he was also an accomplished singer and harmonica player. His addition gave April Wine a powerful three guitar attack that would become synonymous with their hard rock sound. Also, with Brian on board to cover guitar duties, it allowed Myles Goodwyn to switch to keyboards for the band's long list of popular ballads. Incidentally, Brian Greenway's former band, The Dudes, also contained April Wine alumni David and Ritchie Henman.

1979 saw continued Canadian success, and the beginning of international success. The band's seventh album, First Glance, had an immediate impact and the first two singles were both successful on Canadian radio. It was the third single, a raucous rocker called "Roller", that brought the band mass appeal across North America. "Roller" started its momentum in Michigan and soon was a popular hit across the U.S., finding its way into the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for eleven weeks. First Glance also found an audience in the U.S., staying on the Billboard album chart for many weeks, making it April Wine's first gold record outside of Canada. Constant touring helped propel the band to greater success, as American audiences from coast-to-coast embraced the hard rock of this "new" band from Canada.

Following on the popularity of First Glance, a very confident April Wine unleashed its hardest rocking album on Canadian and American audiences. The album was titled Harder ... Faster and lived up to its name with classic tracks like "Say Hello" and "I Like to Rock". Both were popular hits on both sides of the border and Harder ... Faster proved to be yet another multi-platinum release for the band. It would stay on the Billboard top album chart for 40 weeks. The supporting tour for the album began as an opening slot for Nazareth on their national tour across the United States. Most promoters across the U.S. were blown away by the pairing of the two veteran bands and most felt that April Wine could easily have carried the tour as headliners. In their first decade, April Wine had gone from national success in Canada to international stardom. While their peak was yet to come, their subsequent fall was to loom soon after.