Let's call it this, the kids will love it

Yesterday I received a CD in the mail. It's a reissue of the 1965 debut LP of Terry Black, a North Vancouver native who had two Canadian hits. His 1964 hit "Unless You Care" is very catchy 60's pop, one of my fave Canadian-sung songs. The LP/CD as a whole is not bad. The songs are written and/or produced by Sloan/Barri of surf music fame.

The album was (and is) called "The Black Plague"! I can imagine that that was a great selling point in record stores back then:

Teenager: "I'd like The Black Plague please."
Retailer: "I think you're about 600 years too late for that."

Lots of jokes in the liner notes from DJ's noting that the future of Canadian pop looked "Black, Black, Black,", etc. Evidently, wiser heads prevailed for his next LP, which was named for his hit cover version of the Sam Cooke hit, Only Sixteen.

(Unless You Care is also included on the first CD/cassette of Only in Canada, a fine audio history of early Canadian pop music.)