Jason

Jason was a five-piece rock harmony showband from Oakville, Ontario, led by Steve Smith and fronted by his wife Morag, the couple who went on to create Smith & Smith and, in Steve's case, Red Green.

Steve and Morag started out in the Unpredictables, one of the many Ontario folk-rock groups of the Mamas and the Papas era. Steve had studied engineering at the University of Waterloo and was teaching elementary school in Oakville. In time the couple dropped both the folk sound and the rest of the group and brought in guitarist Randy Read, followed by his younger brother Ron on bass. As Wooden Nickel they searched for a direction, with Steve moving from guitar to organ, until their drummer retired and Ronn Harper took over. A harder-driving drummer, new management and a new name followed, and the band became Jason. By the end of May 1970 they had gone full-time. Steve, Morag and Randy quit their jobs, while Ron and Ronn were in their final years at school.

Steve led the band on guitar and organ, writing, arranging and singing. Morag sang lead, danced, played percussion and filled in on most of the instruments when needed. Randy Read played guitar, saxophone and clarinet and also wrote and arranged, Ron Read played bass and trumpet, and Ronn "Harp" Harper played drums. All five sang.

The show was a revue of costumed acts, all played by the same five people. Brother Solomon's Hallelujah Chorus did gospel numbers and excerpts from Jesus Christ Superstar in colourful gowns. The Charleston Eastside Barbershop Quintet & Flapper Kickline worked through Al Jolson era songs with dixieland and vaudeville routines, and the Modbeats revived the early sixties English sound in look-alike costumes. Little Lanky Leroy's Soul Crusade brought Motown and rhythm and blues with a brass section and choreography, the Surfin' Safaris arrived in bathing suits with surfboards for the Beach Boys material, and Uncle Al's Amateur Hour mixed chart hits, comedy sketches, country and western, show tunes and commercials. Slob's Grease Gang, five greasers named Slob, Fats, the Broad, Big Steve and Rocky, played 1950s rock and roll and brought out a special guest billed as the King of Rock 'N Roll.

The band travelled with its own full-time sound technician and worked both sides of the border. When RPM covered Jason's opening at the Four Seasons' Studio on May 8, 1972, it reported a following across Ontario and the northern United States and standing ovations nearly everywhere the group played. That spring the band cut a session with Dennis Murphy of Sundog Productions at Thunder Sound in Toronto, working on a song Steve had written that they hoped to release as a summer single. After the Studio came dates at Hamilton's Ivor Wynne Stadium, Courtice and Diamond Jim's in Hamilton, and on June 19 the band set out on a three-month American tour. In March 1973 Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, brought Jason back for a free noon show in its main cafeteria under the banner "Jason Is Back!!!"

Jason's single arrived in December 1974 on Celebration, the Canadian label of Quality Records. 'Let's Put the Fun Back in Rock and Roll' was produced by Bob Feldman, a Brill Building writer who had co-written 'My Boyfriend's Back' and 'I Want Candy' and recorded as one of the Strangeloves. Feldman wrote the song with Joseph Nicoletti, a New York club singer, and arranged the flip side, a nearly five-minute 'Johnny B. Goode'. The record entered RPM's national Top 100 and reached No. 80 in February 1975. Freddy Cannon and the Belmonts cut their own version in 1981.

Steve later traced the end of the band to an American promoter who told him that the Beatles, Four Seasons and Beach Boys numbers were done better by the people who made them famous. He took it as a lesson that a career needed material of its own. Accounts differ on when the Smiths left Jason, with dates given from 1974 to 1978. As the comedy duo Smith & Smith they opened for Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Al Martino and Helen Reddy, and an appearance on CHCH Hamilton's New Faces led to their own Smith & Smith sketch series in 1979. Red Green first appeared there, and every episode included a musical number performed in costume.

-Robert Williston