A group in Montreal called Les Harmonicos recorded this 45 in 1968 to give away as a souvenir at “Canada Family Day.” There is absolutely no information as to who was in the group or wrote the song on the sleeve and labels. The only info is “Production Son Illimité (de Montreal) Inc.” on the label. Reverse side of the sleeve is blank. I read that the group were air cadets, but as I later found out, that is not correct.

The single was not distributed in stores. “Les Oiseaux Mecaniques” / “The Flying Sound” starts off with a funky drum break and catchy riff, then come the jet sound-effects!

A nod to Canada’s bilingualism, each side has the same backing with vocals sung in French on one side and in English on the other. I think the song sounds better in French.

I found out nothing new about this single until guitarist Serge Verreault wrote to me in February, 2015:

First, let me mention that I was a founding member of the group, and contrary to what it says on the page, we never were air cadets. The group was created by five guys that met in school around 1965. Four members lived in Varennes at the time, and one in Longueuil. They were Pierre Savaria, drummer, Jean-Paul Jodoin, guitar, Marcel Colette, bass guitar, Serge Verreault, guitar and Gerard Cormier, lead singer.

When we first started, it was just for the fun of hanging around together, but very quickly, we developed a talent to play all sorts of music and started to get hired for weddings, dance halls, or various other fund raising activities. Before long, we had over 250 songs or instrumentals that we could play.

In 1967, we got hired to play at Expo 67, in front of crowds of over 15,000 people. In 1968, United Aircraft was having a Family Day for all its employees, and being one of them, I was asked to write a song, French and English, and to record it on a 45 RPM to be handed out to all the visitors.

So within a week, I wrote the music, and some lyrics in both languages, rehearsed it with the group and recorded it. At the last minute, the lyrics were changed by someone from the company, who thought my lyrics were not specific enough to the company. So we had to use those new lyrics for the recording, and since our singer could not speak a word of English, and he did not have time to learn them phonetically, I had to sing the English version.

Later, the group had some modifications, due to various reasons, mainly to adjust to work constraints by different members. So the final version of the group added a new bass player (Jean Savaria), a new keyboard player (Jean Racine), and a new singer and leader of the group (me).

Our group recorded an LP of instrumental dance music in late 1969. We had signed for a three record contract, but since the producer never delivered his part, we closed the deal and it was the end of our recording career. And judging from the results of the recording, we all tried to forget we ever got to record it.

Our activities lasted until 1971, when we all decided to put an end to it and went our different ways.

Serge Verreault