Fanny's Secret Canadian Album

Fanny shall always have their place in rock 'n roll history as the first all-female band to release an album on a major label when Reprise unveiled their eponymous debut album in December 1970.

But it would be Canadian rock n' roll fans who would get the first opportunity to hear Fanny on vinyl, cassettes and 8-track tapes. However, the Canadian edition of Fanny was significantly different from what American fans would put on their turntables and tape decks.

For reasons which have never been explained, Reprise somehow pressed the wrong master tapes. As Fanny's lead guitarist June Millington wrote in her 2015 memoir Land of a Thousand Bridges: An Island Girl in a Rock 'n Roll World:

Just when Wild Honey became Fanny is lost in the mists, but we'd already recorded for many hours, days and months and in fact an initial album was "mistakenly" released in Canada. It had the results of demos with Donna Pence and Wendy (Haas-Mull) with much early experimentation in the endless try-out period, plus our first versions of songs recorded with Nicky (Barclay). Did we know about that release? Maybe not; so much of the business was taken care of by the "the office" (Blue Peacock), and we didn't pay attention unless specifically asked to.

This is why I characterize this release as Fanny's Secret Canadian Album. Whether or not the members of Fanny were aware that a different version of their debut album was released north of the border, as someone who was born and raised in Canada, I would like to think that perhaps someone in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan or Medicine Hat, Alberta still has an original copy of this "mistake." So in honor of Canada Day (which takes place on July 1st) here is my take on Fanny's Secret Canadian Album. 

The Canadian version of Fanny opens with two tracks which don't see the light of day in the United States until their 1971 sophomore effort Charity Ball - "Charity Ball" and "Place in The Country". The U.S. version of "Charity Ball" would become the first of Fanny's two songs which reached the Billboard Top 40 chart. While the U.S. version of "Charity Ball" features an intense vocal from Nickey Barclay and a riveting guitar solo from June Millington, the Canadian version has a more jingle-jangle tone to it. While pleasant enough when compared with the American version it comes off as a work in progress.

The Canadian version of "Place in The Country" has a slower, bluesy tempo. While I prefer the faster, harder driving version which was released on Charity Ball (to say nothing of the band's live rendition on the West German TV show Beat Club), this first version of "Place in The Country" has a great deal going for it.

There are five songs on Fanny's Secret Canadian Album which would not see the light of day in the U.S. until the release of the Rhino compilation album Fanny - First Time in a Long Time: The Reprise Recordings in 2002 - "Changes", "One Step at a Time", "Nowhere to Run", "Lady's Choice" and "New Day". "Changes" and "One Step at a Time" are the third and fourth songs on the Canadian edition of Fanny. 

Penned by June Millington, "Changes" is a pensive rocker augmented by a strong keyboard part. Given the excerpt from June's book one wonders if Donna Pence or Wendy Haas-Mull were behind the keyboards for this recording. 

"One Step at a Time" was written by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson along with Josephine Armstead and was originally recorded by Maxine Brown in 1965. Fanny's version of "One Step at a Time" should have been their breakout hit. "One Step a Time" begins with the closest thing to a drum solo Alice de Buhr ever did with Fanny followed by a tasty bass from Jean Millington. The Millington sisters follow the dual vocals done on the Maxine Brown record but do so with much more power and authority punctuated by June Millington guitar solo during the bridge. Fanny should have been pushed to the moon and I think "One Step at a Time" could have been the song which launched them there.

It isn't until the fifth song of the Canadian version of Fanny that you get a song which appeared on the U.S. release - Nickey Barclay's "Conversation With a Cop". This is followed by a cover of the Holland-Dozier-Holland "Nowhere to Run" made famous by Martha & The Vandellas. I suspect that "Nowhere to Run" was played many a time by the Millington sisters and de Buhr during their days as The Svelts and later as Wild Honey. Aside from a different vocal take from Jean Millington, the Canadian version of "Seven Roads" is nearly identical to the U.S. version. Barclay's "Take a Message to the Captain" and the Millington sisters' "Come and Hold Me" is the same as on the American release.

Fanny's Secret Canadian Album concludes with "Lady's Choice" and "New Day" both of which were composed by the Millington sisters. "Lady's Choice" could be viewed as an early feminist anthem with lyrics like, "Don't try to rule me/Don't try to fool me/Do what you want me to do/But it's still my choice". In view of last week's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the more things change the more they stay the same.  

"New Day" is a more free flowing, introspective piece accentuated by a brief harmonica solo. Who played that harmonica solo? Was it a Fanny member? Could it be possibly have been producer Richard Perry? It would prove to be the only time a harmonica was ever played on a Fanny record and Canadian fans were afforded that treat.

I have included a link at the top of this article so Fanny fans can appreciate the Secret Canadian Album in its entirety. Fanny will always find their place in the country, whatever that country might be.