Look Before You Leap b/w Love You Baby

Clive Clerk was a Trinidad-born singer, actor, dancer and visual artist whose professional career began in Toronto during the early 1960s. Born in Trinidad on October 17, 1945, he moved to Canada as a young boy and grew up in Toronto. By the age of seventeen, he was already pursuing a professional career as a vocalist, with Cash Box describing him as a Toronto singer in April 1963.

Clerk’s earliest known recordings were issued in Canada by Arc Records in 1963. His first documented single, ‘Look Before You Leap’ b/w ‘Love You Baby,’ was released as Arc A-1031. Both sides were arranged by Burt Keyes and identified on the labels as a T. Michael Contoni production. The record was produced in Canada by Arc Sound Limited.

He followed it with ‘Lookin’ for a Girl’ b/w ‘Suzanne’ on Arc A-1033. This release was credited to Clive Clerk Productions and again manufactured in Canada by Arc Sound Limited. ‘Lookin’ for a Girl’ received Toronto radio exposure and entered the CHUM chart during the summer of 1963, reaching No. 34 in July.

Clerk’s growing profile extended beyond Canada. In April 1963, Scepter Records president Florence Greenberg announced that the seventeen-year-old singer had been signed to a four-year recording contract. The agreement marked his transition from Toronto’s developing record industry into the larger American entertainment market.

After leaving Toronto, Clerk moved to New York and redirected his career toward acting and dance. During the 1960s, he appeared in the films Send Me No Flowers, Dear Brigitte and Billie, as well as numerous American television productions. His most substantial television role was David Martin on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives.

Clerk achieved his greatest theatrical recognition in 1975 when he originated the role of Larry in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Larry served as assistant to the director and choreographer Zach. Clerk also understudied Zach and later performed the role as a replacement. In 1976, he shared a special Theatre World Award recognizing the ensemble performance of the original company.

Following his stage career, Clerk adopted the professional name Clive Wilson and established himself as an abstract painter and interior designer. His later work in the visual arts represented another stage in a career that repeatedly crossed between music, film, television, theatre and design.

Clive Clerk’s Canadian recording career was brief but significant. His two Arc singles preserve the beginnings of a remarkably varied creative life that began in Trinidad, developed in Toronto and continued through New York, Broadway and Los Angeles. From teenage pop singer to screen actor, Broadway performer and visual artist, Clerk built a career distinguished by continual reinvention across several artistic disciplines.

Clive Clerk died in Los Angeles on June 22, 2005, at the age of fifty-nine.

-Robert Williston