Terry Jacks

Terry Jacks was born on March 29, 1944 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His first professional exposure in music was as singer and guitarist for The Chessmen who had a modicum of success in the Vancouver region with two singles on London Records and two singles on Mercury 1964 thru 1966.

During one of The Chessmen’s many appearances on CBC-TV’s Music Hop, Jacks would meet his future wife, Saskatoon native Susan Pesklevits. Susan and Terry started performing together after she heard that his group had broken up. She called Jacks and he agreed to accompany her, after which they began playing several small clubs as a duo. They added a guitar player, Craig McCaw, and a tabla player, Satwant Singh, and became the The Poppy Family. Initially, their repertoire was mostly cover tunes and then added Terry Jacks original compositions to the stage show. In 1969 the band would hit gold with Susan’s “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?”. The single would become a No.1 in Canada and No.2 on Billboard in the USA. Worldwide sales would total over 2 1/2 million copies. The song won four Junos in 1969 for ‘Best Produced Single’ (Terry Jacks), ‘Best Produced MOR Album’, ‘Best Group Performance’ and ‘Outstanding Sales’. Terry then decided to revitalize their image — as solo recording acts.

Susan recorded a solo album (aka ‘I Thought Of You Again’) in 1973, produced by Terry Jacks. Singles released from this album were the Juno- ominated track “I Thought Of You Again” (written by Terry Jacks) as well as “I Want You To Love Me”. In 1973 the couple parted.

Then came the biggest hit of his career: Jacques Brel’s “Seasons In The Sun” in late 1973 that sold 11.5 million copies worldwide and won Jacks another 4 Juno Awards. Jacks continued writing and producing over the years and released albums occasionally. Jacks would produce such diverse Canadian acts as Chilliwack and DOA. He released his last studio album in 1987 and then retired .