From the [color=darkblue][url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229042650/http://heart-music-publishing.ca:80/html/archives.htm]now-offline Heart Music Publishing Group website[/url][/color]: [i]Short in stature, Bonnie had a huge voice, a dynamic personality, and could literally light up a room. Bonnie James was discovered in Vancouver and the label courted her. Faded Levi Jeans was recorded in Calgary and was originally going to be the flip side to Hotel Eldorado, but pre-release previews suggested the label should release this as an 'A' side. To follow Hotel Eldorado as her second release. (That in turn required recording two more 'B' sides).[/i] [i]The label contacted Levi's in Canada with an ingenious scheme and requested their involvement in a co-sponsorship, by manufacturing bags that replicated their blue jean back pocket - in which the record could be shipped out to country radio stations across Canada. They eagerly did; the record became a huge airplay success.[/i] [img width=718]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1716403496870x521575258556987700/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] Heart Records releasing album, singles Fledgling Calgary label on the move By Brian Brennan (Herald staff writer) Heart Records boss Ron Mahonin says his company plans to release four singles and an album within the next two months. One of the singles Faded Levi Jeans by Vancouver-based singer Bonnie James stands a good chance of becoming a major country hit for the fledgling Calgary label. Those in the music industry who have heard the record agree that 28-year-old James, who performed at the Stampeder Hotel and at the Ranchman's for CFAC's Opry North a couple of months ago, is the freshest new talent to emerge from the Canadian country music scene since Carroll Baker made her electrifying appearance on the Juno Awards in 1976. Successful single Heart Records, owned and operated by singer-songwriter Mahonin and his wife Valerie, has been put- ting out singles for the past year and a half. The label made its debut in February, 1978 with the release of Mahonin's prize-winning number, the optimistically-titled A Hit Song. Eight other singles were released after that, many of which have become "turntable" hits, i.e. played extensively on Canadian radio stations although they haven't sold as well as releases by, say, The Knack or Donna Summer. A Hit Song, which won a $250 consolation prize in the American Song Festival of 1976 and was subsequently recorded by the American rock group Player, has been Heart's most successful single to date. More than 180 of Canada's 250 pop music stations included the song on their playlists and sales of the record have been particularly strong in western Canada, according to Mahonin. More than 10,000 copies have been sold, all told. Other Heart releases to do well by Canadian standards have been I Want You Back by soon-to-be-dis- banded Calgary horn group Time Machine. Mahonin's own Close To Your Love and That Lady Of Mine by local country singer Rick Morgenstern. Release in two weeks James' Faded Levi Jeans is expected to be off the presses and in the record stores in about two weeks. A second James single, Hotel Eldorado co-written with Vancouver guitarist Ed Molyski, is also scheduled for release in the near future, along with Mahonin's Goodnight LA (also being released in a country version by Keith Hitchner on the Highwood label), Gypsy by the Vancouver-based Weather band, a remake of the old Animals tune, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, by Vancouver's The Vacationers and an album, Simple Kind Of Lovin', by Lethbridge real estate salesman and songwriter Brian Bickerton. Waited three years The Bickerton album, partially recorded at Calgary's Sound-West studio before it closed this summer, is the first LP to be released on the Heart label. Mahonin says the album will serve mainly as a promotional vehicle for Bickerton's songwriting. A former member of the Calgary rock band Lick 'n Stick, his performing talent is now regarded as being secondary to his ability as a songwriter. There is no denying the performing talent of Bonnie James, however. She sounds like a cross between Rachel Sweet, Tanya Tucker and a young Brenda Lee. Before signing with the Heart label, she waited for more than three years to see action on a demo record cut in Vancouver with Denise McCann's producer, Guy Sobel. Mahonin signed her to a publishing contract after hearing the demo and brought her to Calgary to produce her two singles at Sound-West in July. Musical support on Faded Levi Jeans was supplied by members of Keith Hitchner's band, including guitarist David Hamilton and fiddler Paul Anastasio, while guitarist Ed Molyski provided the chunky, Duane Eddy-styled lead lines for Hotel Eldorado. Other musicians for that session included keyboards player Ted Alexander and horn player Hugh Macmillan of Time Machine. Mahonin's bittersweet ballad, Goodnight LA, was recorded in Los Angeles along with his previous singles, and remixed recently in Vancouver. Weather's Gypsy, a semi-disco tune that gives some prominence to a Santa Esmeralda- styled Spanish guitar riff, and the Vacationers' new version of the Animals hit, were recorded at Ocean Sound in Vancouver.
