Genres Pop rock Active until 1975 | Years active 1969 – 1979 Genre Pop rock | |
Members Gary Weeks
Dave Beckett Origin Charlottetown, Canada (1966) Record labels Axe Records, Polydor Records, Quality Records Nominations Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year, Juno Award for Single of the Year, Juno Award for Group of the Year Similar Edward Bear, Keith Hampshire, The Stampeders, Major Hoople's Boarding, Ken Tobias | ||
Gary and Dave were a Canadian pop duo composed of Gary Weeks (born May 22, 1950 in Charlottetown, PEI) and David Lloyd George "Dave" Beckett (born July 5, 1949 in Newmarket, Ontario). They are best known for their 1973 song "Could You Ever Love Me Again".
Weeks and Beckett had been friends since grade school in the early 1960s. They played in numerous bands until 1966, when the pair auditioned for a United Appeal concert and came in fourth out of five hundred acts. They began to play the festival circuit, and became a top attraction at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan.
Gary & Dave's first recordings were made in 1969; in 1970 they had a single on Quality 1977 - "Tender Woman" b/w "I'm A Rider." In 1972, they signed with Greg Hambleton's Axe Records label, and made two singles that didn't see much action. Then in 1973, they released their own composition, "Could You Ever Love Me Again." It entered the RPM 100 on July 14, 1973 at #98. It picked up a bullet at #44 on September 8, lost it at #31 on September 22, gained it back on October 20 at #10. It was #2 with a bullet for two weeks in a row, and then hit #1 without the bullet on November 17.
Gary and Dave toured with The Stampeders in 1973 to promote "Could You Ever Love Me Again," and their first album, and the single was released in twenty-two countries. It did particularly well in Australia. The single became their only entry on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts, and was a Top 20 hit in the Detroit/Windsor market thanks to airplay support from CKLW.
Continuing to record with Hambleton in 1974, the pair had further hits with "I Fell In Love With You Sometime" and a cover of Carole King's "It Might As Well Rain Until September." They had six further singles through 1976, the last one on Polydor, and made two albums for Axe plus a Greatest Hits compilation. It was 1976 when Gary and Dave left the music business altogether to pursue careers in aviation.
Both men had a long-standing love of flying, and both became pilots for Airtransit STOL Canada during a time in their career when they walked away from it the first time. After their official disbanding, both Gary and Dave went to work as pilots for Air Canada. Gary Weeks later became a pastor, and left Canada for Ireland, where he worked as a missionary.