ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 28, 1984
By Steve Newton
Florida rockers .38 Special had a banner year in ’83, but they didn’t achieve it entirely on their own. Both of their hit singles, “Back Where You Belong” and “One Time for Old Times”, came from the pen of Toronto tunesmith Gary O’Connor.
O’Connor–or Gary ‘O, as he’s now called–has also written songs for such people as Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, Kim Carnes, and Rod Stewart, who was actually the singer he had in mind for “Old Times” before .38 Special picked it up.
Gary O’ never had any doubts about following a career in music. His father, a big band leader of the ’40s, was one of the first people in Canada to have his own television program, The Billy O’Connor Show. His brother Rick and sister Lynn played bass and piano respectively, and it wasn’t long before Gary picked up the drums.
And not long after that he dropped them.
Guitars piqued his interest more, and he got his first one for the price of a tuna fish sandwich.
“I traded a kid for it at lunch,” he recalls, “but it only had three strings. I used to pluck them with a silver dollar.”
While still a teenager, Gary joined a local Toronto group called Cat, whose first album was an early project of famed producer Bob Ezrin. But it wasn’t till he linked up with the imitation Beatles band Aerial that his development as a singer and performer really started to unfold.
“It was neat bein’ in a band where they paid you to play Beatles songs, ’cause I had been a total Beatles fanatic. I think that’s where a lot of my songwriting influences came from. I hope I don’t try to sound like the Beatles, but I admired them because their songs had good melodies.”
Aerial toured across Canada and down into Los Angeles, and when the band dissolved he signed with L.A.-based CBS Songs, the publishing division of CBS Records. Since then he’s become known–at least within the record industry–as one of the most versatile and “coverable” of today’s rock songwriters.
He can write for anyone, from the gritty Molly Hatchet–whose version of the O’Connor tune “What’s It Gonna Take” was a standout on their No Guts…No Glory LP from last year–to the more polished Kim Carnes.
“Most of my writing’s like that,” claims Gary. “It could be either male or female. In fact I like to build that into a song when I write it. The tune that Kim Carnes had out, that “Young Love” thing, is also on my record.
“And,” he snickers playfully, “I think I did a better job than she did.”
Gary O’s first solo LP was recently released on RCA Records. Titled Strange Behavior, the album features original songs written over the past four years, and has Gary handling lead vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboards, as well as the arranging and production chores. With strong rocking tunes like “Call of the Wild”, “Just Another Pretty Boy”, and the first single, “Get It While You Can”, Strange Behavior has already received strong airplay across the country.
But even with his solo career in full flight, writing for other people is still a priority for Gary. He is currently at work for Pat Benatar, and Ian Lloyd–former lead singer for Stories (remember “Brother Louie”?)–has just released another version of “What’s It Gonna Take” in England. It’s the lead-off single for his new album with a band called Fast Forward.
Gary O’ really does enjoy writing songs, and hearing his creations come to life in other artists, but putting pen to paper has resulted in the spreading of some rather bizarre rumours.
“Things just seem to snowball,” he explains. “All of a sudden you’re really hot as a writer, and then somehow something gets out on the street. Somebody made a crack once that they thought one of my songs should be recorded by Julio Iglesias, and yesterday I read in the paper that I’m working with Julio Iglesias. It’s crazy!”
To hear the full audio of my 1984 interview with Gary O’ subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 400 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.
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