Connie Francis has passed away at the age of 87.

Here from the archives is an extraordinary interview with Connie and broadcaster Brian Thomas from 1985. (Recorded at CHUM-FM in Toronto)

Connie talks about her big break (on American Bandstand) and the incredible personal battles she dealt with in her life. A true survivor.

It’s a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Live Aid!

Live Aid was grand in scope and ambition. It was largely the brainchild of an unlikely hero, Bob Geldof, the Irish singer who fronted The Boomtown Rats, and who had helped assemble the all-star cast of Band Aid. Watched by 1.5 billion people, Live Aid eventually raised $127 US million for famine relief in Africa.

But beyond that, Live Aid was also a cultural touchstone that showed the power of pop music and the determination of millions of people to make a difference in the world.

Hours before the event took place, Christopher Ward had a chat with organizer Bob Geldof, who, in his intense way, told of the importance of Live Aid. He disputes the cultural significance in favour of the pragmatic view of delivering much needed aid to African famine relief. It’s an extraordinary interview with a man who is firing on all cylinders, almost to the breaking point.

And of course, we also talk about the music, including:

• Although Geldof didn’t want them in the lineup, Freddie Mercury and the band provided the most memorable 22 minutes of the day, perhaps the best ever performance in music history.
• U2 – We have the full story of why they played only two songs that day… and how it became a major moment on their road to superstardom.
• David Bowie’s set was also memorable. But he almost didn’t play that day. And it was all because of a CBC report on the famine. We have the full story.
• Duran Duran. Simon LeBon made a considerable gaffe during one of their songs. He considers it the most embarrassing moment of his career.
• Led Zeppelin - why Jimmy Page blamed Phil Collins for Zeppelin’s less than perfect performance.

There were also a number of artists who chose not to perform that day, including Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Prince, Culture Club and Huey Lewis. At least two of those acts regretted that decision.

And we talk about the importance of Live Aid as a cultural milestone.

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

In light of the passing of Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, we feature some extraordinary audio of Brian from the mid '60s. Wilson is exuberant as he talks about listening to the radio and dissecting his favourite songs. He also explains why he decided to retire from touring with the Beach Boys in the mid '60s.

We will also hear highlights from Christopher's late '80s interview with Carl Wilson, who pulls no punches when he speaks of Eugene Landy, Brian's guru who held an inordinate amount of control and power over Brian's life and career.

In a 1995 interview, Mike Love talks about Brian's prowess in the studio, particularly his creation of the "pocket symphony", "Good Vibrations".

We also discuss Brian's struggle with mental health and his comeback years later.

A few days ago, Tom finally got to speak with Canadian guitar legend Rik Emmett of Triumph. Rik was a bucket list guest for Tom, who could hardly contain himself!

There’s a very special reason why Rik was talking to us.

On Monday, May 5, 2025 Coalition for Music Education will celebrate Music Monday with a cross-country sing-along to raise awareness for music education. The annual event celebrates the unifying power of music as thousands of Canadians join in singing and performing the Music Monday anthem at their schools and other community events. Hold On the uplifting, inspirational song by classic Canadian hard rock power trio, Triumph has been chosen as the 2025 Music Monday anthem.

Rik tells us about the creation of “Hold On” 46 years ago and how it marked a change in his artistic growth as well as the fortunes of the band.

He also discusses the importance of music education, a cause that is deeply personal to him.

You can see Rik perform in person at a special “Intimate Evening with Rik Emmett” – Friday, March 21 at Black Bellows in Collingwood Ontario. It’s an interactive evening of performances and storytelling, hosted by Brent Jensen of the “No Sleep Til Sudbury” podcast.

Rik’s excellent memoir, “Lay It On The Line”, is now available.

This special bonus episode of Famous Lost Words is brought to you by Storyphora. Storyphora is a media company that offers communications solutions, recently expanding to include digital content like promotional video clips, video podcast production, social media design, and much more. Go to Storyphora dot com for details.

This episode of Famous Lost Words is dedicated to legendary Canadian broadcaster John Donabie, who passed away a few days ago. John’s interviews have been prominently featured on Famous Lost Words and he also joined us on a couple of occasions to share his incredible stories. And great broadcaster and a wonderful man, John Donabie will be missed.

For this, the last episode of season 10, we have quite a collection of artists. First up is a rather feisty 1988 interview with Canadian legend Gordon Lightfoot. We already have lots of Lightfoot content in the archives, which we put together for our tribute to him upon his passing in 2023 – one of our most listened to episodes. But we came across this 1988 interview just a few days ago – and it’s a good one. Gord is looking back on his career as he approaches his 50th birthday. But Lightfoot is pretty spirited in this chat with Gord James.

Next up is a fascinating chat with Todd Rundgren. We’re date stamping these clips at about 1979 as Todd talks about his solo music, his work with the band Utopia and his fascination with new technology, including the early days of music videos. This guy’s mind never stops.

Then we have an early ‘80s chat with Pat Benatar as she chats with broadcaster Ingrid Schumacher about life on the road and the price of fame. Plus, we have a special bonus cut as Pat ponders her long-term influence on other aspiring musicians.

And we finish up with some Cool Song Facts, and we run the gamut here – with information spanning centuries, from Beethoven to Paul Simon to Earth Wind & Fire.

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

This week, a real cross section of artists, which speaks to the depth and diversity of our interview archive.

First up is Pink Floyd. We have a short but interesting chat with David Gilmour from 1984 and he promotes his solo work, but also wrestles with the past and future of Pink Floyd. Then we have an awesome 1979 chat with legendary Canadian producer Bob Ezrin as he talks about Pink Floyd’s The Wall – and as many fans know, Bob was instrumental in the creation of that album – and he has lots to say about it – from the development of the theme, to Roger Waters’ LACK of musical imagination (at least at the outset) to the planning of the ambitious tour that was to follow. Fascinating stuff from a guy who’s NOT afraid to share his opinions.

Then we have a chat with Chad Kroeger and the guys from Nickelback from 2014. This was around the time that the whole backlash against them was just starting to heat up. They address it head on – and do a very good job too!

Then we travel back to 2004 with Gwen Stefani, upon the release of her first solo album. Gwen is a bundle of energy who cannot be contained – and you can hear the passion, emotion and even insecurity that drives her.

We also have a short but fun segment with the Black Eyed Peas from 2005 – a boy did THEY ever own the charts in that decade.

We also remember the classic ‘60s Girl Groups, with cool facts from the amazing book “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” Our favourite story is about the vocal group that you’ve likely heard thousands of times over the years, but never knew by name.

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

2024 marked the 40th anniversary of MuchMusic – which, for our non-Canadian listeners, was essentially Canada’s version of MTV. And while MTV had a profound impact on the music industry, MuchMusic arguably had a massive impact on Canadian culture.

So, we’re going to spend a bit of time talking about MuchMusic – and since Christopher is the original Much veejay, it’s kind of a no brainer.

In fact, most of Tom’s “in-depth” research for this episode came from Christopher’s excellent book, “Is This Live: Inside The Wild Early Years of MuchMusic, The Nation’s Music Station”. So in other words, Christopher did ALL of the heavy lifting for this episode!

To help us tell the Much story is one of our favourite people – and a MuchMusic veejay from the early years – Laurie Brown! Laurie explains about the freedom accorded to her and the other veejays in creating compelling content (while staying within the confines of a miniscule budget) and the camaraderie of the Much family.

Other highlights:

- Laurie talks about interviewing music legends like David Bowie

- Christopher tells a story about an unknown big-haired band that made their first Canadian TV appearance on his show City Limits. That band was Bon Jovi.

- Audio from Duran Duran, who couldn’t believe their luck as they flew to exotic locations to film the videos for the Rio album.

- We’ll talk to one British band that looked back on some of the early videos… and cringed!

- Laurie and Christopher discuss dealing with the absolute mayhem of the legendary and chaotic “Intimate & Interactive” interviews.

- Peter Gabriel and David Bowie, who themselves released game-changing videos, discuss the promise of music videos as an art form.

- Former MUCH veejay Bill Welychka talks about the responsibility and pressure of interviewing major artists – especially to the fans of those artists.

- Christopher & Laurie explain why they had to stop playing the most popular video on the station.

- We discuss how MUCH provided the connective tissue between Canadians, their culture, and the musicians that benefitted from exposure on MuchMusic.

All in all, it’s a MUCH-needed deep dive into the early days of The Nation’s Music Station!

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

Today, we’re celebrating what would have been the 90th birthday of Elvis Presley. There’s been a lot written and said about The King over the years, but in this episode, we’re going to let Elvis do a lot of the talking. We have some amazing audio from the early years. Most of these clips are from the mid to late ‘50s – and they capture a lot of the excitement – and the freshness of Elvis

Plus we have clips from the people who were there…

- his label mate Carl Perkins talks about touring with Elvis and Johnny Cash before any of them were well known.

- Dick Clark describes how Elvis was seen as a sort of villain compared to the likes of Pat Boone

- Ed Sullivan explains why Elvis could only be shown from the waist up on his third visit to his show.

- His collaborators in the late ‘60s explain the stories behind his comeback hits.

All of these clips are from around the time that these events happened – so they capture history as history was being made. Plus, we’ll hear from some of the people who worked with Elvis over the years who will tell the stories behind some of his biggest songs.

Also, Tom asks Christopher to explain how a trip to Graceland in 1987 with a bunch of Elvis fans led to the creation of “Black Velvet”, which of course was a massive worldwide hit for his musical partner and friend Alannah Myles.

And best of all, we hear from the two people who knew Elvis best – his daughter Lisa Marie (in a 2005 chat) and his widow Priscilla (from 2006).

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.