Music Monday: “One Tin Soldier” – learning something new
Posted By RichC on October 30, 2023
For most of my life, hearing the 1971 counterculture era song “One Tin Soldier” automatically triggered the band Coven in my musical memory … until last week. It was only then that I realized that the song was recorded (not surprisingly) a couple years earlier by the Canadian folk group The Original Caste (below).
Coven – One Tin Soldier
“One Tin Soldier” is a 1960s counterculture era anti-war song written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. Canadian pop group The Original Caste (consisting of Dixie Lee Innes, Bruce Innes, Graham Bruce, Joseph Cavender and Bliss Mackie) first recorded it in 1969 for both the TA
label and its parent Bell label.
The song, recorded by various artists, charted each year from 1969 to 1974 on various charts in the United States and Canada. However, it did not chart outside North America.
“One Tin Soldier” went to number 6 on the RPM Magazine charts, hit the number 1 position on CHUM AM in Toronto on 27 December 1969,and reached number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in early 1970. It was a bigger hit on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart (Adult Contemporary), reaching number 25 and number 5 on the Canada Adult Contemporary Chart.
A 1971 cover was a hit in the U.S. for Jinx Dawson, lead vocalist of Coven, whose recording was featured in the film Billy Jack. The single went to number 26 on the Billboard pop chart before it was pulled from radio by the film’s producer. On November 20, 1971, Coven performed “One Tin Soldier” on the Dick Clark ABC-TV Saturday-afternoon program American Bandstand. A re-recorded version by Coven made the Billboard chart in 1973, peaking at number 79.
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