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Go, British Columbia Bobby Gimby (OC) Permission to use this music has been granted by the copyright owner for educational and archival use only. Canadian Copyright Law must be respected by users of this site. Use of this material is restricted to those activities permitted by law. Users may not make multiple copies, distribute or sell this material without permission from the copyright holder. |
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Bobby Gimby, affectionately known as the Pied Piper of Canada, was born in Cabri, Sask. in 1918. At an early age, he moved to Vancouver and lived for a time in Chilliwack. At the age of 15, he played trumpet and toured with Mart Kenny and His Western Gentlemen. A veteran trumpeter and songwriter, he wrote the phenominally successful Ca-Na-Da which was recorded by Toronto musicians and young children. To date there are over 250 recordings of this song. 500,000 recordings and 75,000 copies of sheet music have been sold. Gimby was a member of excellent standing of the The Happy Gang on CBC Radio, was musical director for the Juliette show on CBC TV and also appeared on CFTO TV. In the 1940s he led his own orchestra and had his own show, the Bobby Gimby Show on CBC Radio in 1949. He also composed other patriotic ballads like Malaysia Forever, Let's Get Together America Forever, We Love America, the Toronto Song and the Manitoba centennial anthem. Gimby died in North Bay, Ont. in 1998. The British Columbia '71 Committee for B.C.'s Centennial put out a tender for a song about British Columbia to celebrate the centenary of the province. Unreceptive to what had been composed to date, Bobby Gimby was approached to write a song for the 1971 celebrations. There was much controversy over the writing of this song. Many felt that the words did not represent B.C's centennial as the word 'centennial' was not once mentioned. Mrs. Norma Heyd of Tofino expressed outrage at the Committee paying Gimby over $10,000 to write this song. Others wrote to the Committee complaining the song would make an excellent soap commercial, the song should have been written by a native British Columbian, that Serge Plotnikoff's song was better, and the chorus consisted of nothing but La la la la. All negative comments aside, the song was successful. It was recorded featuring the British Columbia Kids, students from North Vancouver's Sherwood Park School, and the Centennial '71 band.
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