Copperpenny
In 1965 Copperpenny was formed by Hollis and Wamil in Kitchener, Ontario as the Penny Farthings. The flip-side of The Paupers 1966 song "If I Call You By Some Name" was "Copperpenny" and group soon adopted it as their new moniker.
1968 saw the release of a minor hit called "Nice Girl" on Columbia but they soon switched to RCA and had a bit more success with "Stop (Wait A Minute)". But it would be their relocation to Sweet Plum Records (a London Records label) that they would strike gold.
1973's "You're Still The One" was the band's first legitimate hit and their follow-up "Sitting On A Poor Man's Throne" was recorded in Detroit with Richard Becker to create a more R & B feel to their material with the assistance of Joyce Vincent Wilson and Thelma Hopkins (of Tony Orlando & Dawn fame).
They would continue to record in Detroit as they toured extensively throughout the US with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger and Uriah Heep. With a return to Canada they would sign on with Capitol Records in 1975 and had their subsequent records produced by Jack Richardson (Guess Who). They made appearances on TV shows such as "Keith Hampshire's Music Machine" and even briefly had their own variety show that launched the career of an unknown magician named Doug Henning.
Their mid-70's singles included a shift to the latest disco fad at the time for "Disco Queen" and "Good Time Sally". By the time of their final release, 'The Fuse Album', most of the original members had left and the band was merely called Rich Wamil & Copperpenny. The band finally split up in the late '70's.
Kenny Hollis went on to a solo career and had success with the single "Goin' Hollywood" he would later become PR manager at Lulu's Roadhouse in Kitchener with occasional Copperpenny reunions in the 1980's. Hollis died from a massive heart attack on July 19, 2002 after being hit by a truck; Hiller spent 1979-1981 in a Toronto-based contemporary gospel music band called Sonlight (feauring Stuart Russell, Chris Woroch, and Brian McFarlane) covering songs by The Imperials, Andrus, Blackwood & Company, BJ Thomas and Hiller's original material. They did the local Toronto church scene, Kitchener-Waterloo as well as summer gigs in Muskoka. Later Hiller was a studio musician and does children's projects under the name Ronno And Friends; the other members all took day jobs. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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