Who is Tom Northcott?

It popped into my email in box the other day. A nice note from the folks at Rhino Records (now a division of Warner Music Group.) The subject line said.

Who is Tom Northcott? 

My first thought was: "I know that. Tom Northcott is (or was) a singer from B.C., Vancouver I think. His music was on the radio when I was a kid."

Northcott had a number of hits in the early '70s, mostly with songs written by other writers including I Think it's going to Rain Today (Randy Newman) and Girl From the North Country (Bob Dylan). I remember buying one of his records many years ago and it's buried in my collection, The Best of Tom Northcott (see the youtube video below).



A day or two later I saw the question again on twitter from Rhino "Who is Tom Northcott?"

And I tweeted "@Rhino_Records It kind of takes the wind out of this marketing plan when a person knows who Tom Northcott is."

Then they tweeted to me. "Spread the word."

So I guess that's what I'm doing except, Rhino is marketing Northcott as a one-hit wonder who was ignored by mainstream audiences in the U.S.A. In fact he had a mainstream, albeit brief career in his native Canada with a respectable string of hit songs. He was even nominated for a Juno as you can see if you click this bio link or read his Wikipedia entry.

I enjoyed Tom Northcott's music back in the 70s and since I own some of his original vinyl, I doubt I'll invest $25 in a reissue. His bio says he became a lawyer. I hope he's a rich one, but if not I hope he gets a big fat royalty cheque from this fancy Warner reissue.