Susan Jacks, R.I.P.

Singer Susan Jacks, best known for her time in the Canadian late '60s, early '70s pop group The Poppy Family, passed away yesterday after a lengthy battle with kidney disease. She was 73.

Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan as Susan Pesklevits, she began performing music as a teenager while living in the Vancouver area and would appear on the CBC TV show Music Hop, Canada's answer to American Bandstand. 

Pesklevits would meet guitarist Terry Jacks and would soon form a band called Powerline which was later renamed The Poppy Family. The two would marry and became forever known as Susan Jacks although their union would last a little over five years.

Their musical collaboration would have greater endurance. The Poppy Family's debut single "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" which featured Susan Jacks on lead vocal would top the Canadian charts in the fall of 1969 and hit number two on both the U.S. Billboard and Cashbox charts in the spring of 1970. The only other Poppy Family song to gain traction was "Where Evil Grows" in 1971.

The Poppy Family would break up the following year and both Jacks went on solo careers with Terry Jacks scoring a number one hit in 1974 with his adaptation of Jacques Brel's "Seasons in the Sun". Susan Jacks would record several solo albums through the 1970's and early 1980's before she moved to Nashville with her new husband former CFL linebacker Ted Dushinski. In Nashville, Jacks became a country music songwriter. 

I leave you with Jacks singing "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" during a 1970 TV special hosted by Bobby Darin called The Darin Invasion. R.I.P.