The rebirth of Andy Kim

Former '60s pop idol back on the charts with new album

The name Andy Kim may evoke just a faint flicker of recognition. If a radio station played a set of music of such songs as "Rock Me Gently", "Baby I Love You", "How'd We Ever Get This Way" and "Sugar Sugar," however, chances are you'd be humming along.
They all have an Andy Kim songwriting credit, and have helped him become one of Canadian music's best-selling pop artists ever (record sales of over 30 million). Those tunes were smash hits for both Andy and artists like The Archies and Wilson Pickett, back in the late '60s and early '70s, and they guaranteed Kim a place in the pop history books.
Refreshingly, the Montreal native isn't sitting on his laurels (and royalty cheques). Very few artists from that era are having hits now with new material, but, after a very long absence, Andy Kim is back.
Tandem chatted with Kim recently in his current Rosedale abode. A refreshing interview subject, he displayed not an iota of arrogance over his current comeback. He had long been written off by a recording industry obsessed with youth, but he has defied the odds by returning with a new hit single, "I Forgot To Mention."
This melodic pop song, co-written with and produced by the Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson, is introducing Andy Kim to a new generation of listeners. Who knows, some of them may even have been conceived by parents listening to one of his songs!
"At a concert in New Zealand recently, the promoter told me about being at a high school dance and being too nervous about asking a girl he fancied to dance. Then 'Rock Me Gently' came on and he got up the nerve."
His current 'comeback' thrills Andy. "I had no concept there would be such an overwhelming response. You hope that people will hear your music. That is all an artist can hope for, to create the art and hopefully have an exhibition of it that people will come and see. If they respond to it, then wonderful. If you don't, well at least you have created something and it is there. I am just very flattered and honoured that this is going on now."
Kim is now in his early '50s, but his trademark long black hair and sideburns remain intact, and he possesses a healthy glow. He insists, convincingly, that the youthful enthusiasm of the Montreal teen that wrote those early hits remains.
"I am still that 16-year-old kid inside, hoping that someone would hear my music. It is even more exciting now. At 16 I was excited about hearing my songs, but I was too young to grasp the dynamics of what was going on. Recently, when I heard 'I Forgot To Mention' on the radio, I ran and called my brother Joe in Montreal, holding the phone up to the speakers. Halfway through I started crying! I am not cool about this."
Kim could easily have become jaded and bitter about his extended period in the pop wilderness. By the mid '70s, the music business had no time for a former teenage pop idol. Andy recalls that "I have been through enough twists and turns in the U.S. where people have heard the music, and loved it, then they hear it is Andy Kim and then they are not interested. That is just the way it is. I have never seen the music industry as having the responsibility to babysit my dreams."
He even changed his name to Baron Longfellow in 1980 (sounds like an adult film star's name, doesn't it?), but found it hard to duplicate his initial success. The seeds for his commercial renaissance were sown by the Kumbaya festival, over a decade ago. Show creator Molly Johnson called Kim in Los Angeles (his longtime base) and persuaded him to participate in the AIDS fundraising star-studded spectacular.
The Barenaked Ladies were recruited to back Andy up on "Rock Me Gently," and he immediately hit it off with Ed. "Being around Ed really inspired me. Sometimes you meet someone and sparks happen. You feel a kinship. We continued to correspond and then thought it would be fun to get together and write a song. It was without any expectations or parametres."
"I Forgot To Mention" is also the title of Kim's new five-song EP. The other material is equally strong, and more is on the way. Andy is assembling a band to go out on tour early next year, while his appearance in the Bluebird North series soon will give local fans a chance to catch this impressive rejuvenated talent.
I Forgot To Mention is out on Iceworks. Andy Kim plays Bluebird North at The Rivoli on November 30.

Publication Date: 2004-11-28
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4665