Is "Canadian Sunset" a rip off of Jimmy Day's "Blue Wind?

[Dan Kelly]

Here is Jimmy Day's 1955 recording of Blue Wind...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuqCQtksiYE

Sounds kinda spooky!

Sounds like "Canadian Sunset" written by Eddie Heywood and lyrics by Norman Gimbel and released in 1958. Too similar, maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_spFcZkR4

Or with Less orchestration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtIUof5u6qU

"Canadian Sunset" is mostly covered as an instrumental... but here is Andy Williams singing the lyrics... pretty cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_tyHldpiI

"The lyrics address Man's insatiable and untiring desire for sex whenever and wherever (this time on some Canadian ski slope) and Woman's deep seated, unbridled and insatiable desire for... attention! This seems to be the same idea behind most any and virtually all popular songs since the time of Adam and Eve." OK, so the Band "Twenty Trucks" has a whole album about trucks and David Byrne and The Talking Heads has "More Songs About Buildings and Food," but, IMHO, these two are the exceptions that prove the rule.

At any rate, I digress, as they say. "Canadian Sunset" is a beautiful song and Buddy does a beautiful job with it on the OP's link! Smile

Do you think "Canadian Sunset" is a rip-off of Jimmy Day's "Blue Wind?"

[scott murray]

I'd have to say no.

Buddy Emmons also played the song with Danny Gatton:
https://youtu.be/Cgte3xl0cEY

here's some actual film footage
https://youtu.be/W9G5k92Ppw4

[Glenn Suchan]

Is “Canadian Sunset” a rip off of Jimmy Day’s “Blue Wind”? I’d have to say, definitely not. The two are not the same in chord structure, melodies or tempos. The only similarity I can hear is the soothing feel of each tune and the fact that they’re both in the same time signature.

I’d say that “Canadian Sunset” might have more in common with melodic portion of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s piece, “Sadko, Opus 5” which was adapted to popular music in the form of the tune, “Song of India”.

As for Day’s “Blue Wind”, IMO, it has more in common with the popular ‘50’s music genre known as ‘Exotica’ made popular by the likes of Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman than “Canadian Sunset”. So, I’d say neither song writer copied or was influenced by the other.

Keep on pickin’
Glenn

[Dan Kelly]

Hey Glenn, I was not familiar with The "Exotica" genre. I remember hearing the Tiki Tiki sound, if you will, but I did not know there was a whole genre about it. Very interesting, and apparently very popular at that time. Thanks for your post.

I probably should have used the phrase "influenced by..." instead of "ripped-off" in the poll question.

[Glenn Suchan]

You’re welcome, Dan.

Keep on pickin’,
Glenn

[Tommy Auldridge]

Scott: It looks like Buddy was playing a wraparound in the footage you posted. Done at the Cellar Door in D.C. in I think it was 1978 or 79 Thanks, Tommy.....