Andy Kim In Concert
When Andy Kim steps on stage, a kind of musical magic trick happens. The decades that have passed since he scored his biggest international hits with infectious pop classics like "Rock Me Slowly" and "Baby I Love You" somehow seem to fall away, and all that's left is the simmering passion, husky vocal power, and rock-star charisma that first brought him fame. And while that in itself would be plenty of reason to see Kim in concert, there's the institution he established in 2005 with his annual Christmas show in Toronto. At that holiday extravaganza, not only do you get to see the Canadian hitmaker belting out a bunch of his most popular tunes, you're also treated to a cavalcade of top-tier guests, including some of the best Canada has to offer. Everybody from Alex Lifeson of Rush to Broken Social Scene has turned out for the event, often guesting with Kim on his set to help bring it all home.
Andy Kim Background
Montreal-born Andy Kim found fame when he started scoring Top 40 hits like "How'd We Ever Get This Way?" and his cover of The Ronettes' classic "Baby I Love You" in the late '60s. But he also slipped into success through the back door during that same period, when he cowrote the No. 1 hit "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies. Kim continued to score hits under his own name in the early '70s, but the moment that really ensured his immortality arrived in 1974 when he topped the charts with his song "Rock Me Gently," a tune that would come to define '70s pop music. At the end of the '70s the unpredictable Kim adopted the alter ego Baron Longfellow, and in 1980 he scored a hit under that name with "Amour." Before the '90s were out, Kim was pretty much in retirement, but he was coaxed out of it in the '00s by Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson, who collaborated with Kim on the latter's 2004 track "I Forgot to Mention." In 2005 he inaugurated his Christmas show in Toronto, an annual benefit that would find some of the biggest artists in Canada joining in each year for a heady holiday bash.
