April Wine

Led through various incarnations by lynchpin frontman Myles Goodwyn, April Wine — currently rocking hard into its fifth decade —is one of Canada's great rock 'n' roll institutions, commanding a vast grassroots fanbase of loyal April Winos by mastering that fundamental formula: hook-filled hard rock backed by a gold-plated reputation for bringing it big time in the live arena. We open up with the band's first chart-topper — a funk-rocked 1972 cover of Hot Chocolate's "You Could Have Been a Lady" — then get stuck into the hits, including debut outing "Fast Train," the mid-'70s ballad "I Wouldn't Want to Lose Your Love," and the fully loaded "Roller" (1978).

There's more of April Wine's extra-hard late-'70s output, in Next Steps.

One of the keys to April Wine's success has been the band's hard-fought quest to evolve . . . and one of the smartest adjustments to their lineup came in 1977 with addition of fifth member, and third guitarist, Brian Greenway. His extra heft boosted the momentum behind seventh studio album, the international breakthrough First Glance (1978), which opened with the supercharged "Hot On the Wheels of Love." On the back of that album, the band became the opening act of choice for Rush, Journey and Styx. Subsequent outing Harder . . . Faster found the band edging into prog with a cover of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man."

Classic live cuts and 21st-century tracks can be found among our April Wine Deep Cuts.

The story behind 1977's Live At the El Mocambo began with a smoke screen . . . for the Rolling Stones, who were in Toronto at the time, and wanted to record Love You Live without attracting too much attention — so they billed themselves as the Cockroaches, with April Wine headlining, and to return the favour, the Stones kept the tape running, leaving us with energized versions of "Don't Push Me Around" and "Teenage Love." Filling out the big picture here, we've included superior fist-pumper "Givin' It, Takin' It" from 1993's comeback album, Attitude, and the easy-rollin' "Talk to Me" from 2001's Back to the Mansion.

The enduring hard-rock leviathan that is April Wine came into being in Halifax, 1969, when assorted members of the Henman clan (brothers David and Ritchie, cousin Jim) hooked up with frontman and all-'round songwriting powerhouse Myles Goodwyn. They moved to Montreal under the delusion that a record deal awaited them, but took their chances anyway, and things worked out well after a great early gig at the Laugh-In Club. The rest is nothing less than Canadian rock 'n' roll legend, rooted in a solid fan base and a revolving-door lineup brought on by various changes in direction — The Whole World's Goin' Crazy (1976) was the first Canadian album to go platinum, and the subsequent tour grossed a million bucks (at the time, a huge landmark). Our April Wine Essentials captures four decades of glory, from 1971's self-titled debut album to 2006's analogue throwback, Roughly Speaking.