2021 Award Winners

Few songs in the 80s or any other decade represented resilience and empowerment more than “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, sung with great fervor and power by rock superstar Pat Benatar. It quickly turned into an anthem of empowerment, fueled by the “Women’s lib” movement of the time. Oddly enough the much-loved melody started out as more of a folk tune than anything else… and …was written by a man. That man was none other than Toronto-born and raised Singer-Songwriter, Eddie Schwartz.

Famously, the song came to Eddie after he attended a therapy session in Toronto involving pillow-punching. Triggered by this unorthodox therapy session, he immediately assembled a group of musicians to record late into that same night.

Upon its initial release “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” would sell over a million copies in the US alone, and reach the top ten of the Billboard and Canadian charts, achieving gold certification.

Over time, the classic track has seemingly taken on a life of its own. Beginning as a song about self-confidence, it has become many things to many people as it has since morphed into a song about invincibility, rebellion, or just a plain old universal symbol of defiance making it a perfect fit to be covered in karaoke bars or used to inspire crowds of thousands at many baseball, hockey and soccer stadiums around the world.

You can tell the sheer impact of a song when it has been played on the radio, covered countless times by a multitude of artists, appeared in cartoons, in COVID-19 vaccine campaigns, and TV ads, or protected from hurricanes, symbolically “giving the finger” to the storm. Even the figure of speech itself has been granted a whole new extended life in the fabric of everyday living by this song.

It seems like a good bet that Eddie Schwartz’s song will be hitting our culture with its best shot for the next 50 years and more.

We are proud to present the 2021 Cultural Impact Award to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and to Eddie Schwartz.

The 2021 SOCAN Guardian Award is presented to the Guardian Angels of the Canadian Music business whose work resulted in the Canadian Content Regulations. It’s the story of how a group of concerned Canadians, a Brit and an Australian found a way to band together to save Canadian Culture.

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, young Canadian artists dreamed of joining the global musical and cultural revolution, but home-grown music was considered inferior to the foreign records that dominated the charts. For Canadian artists, the doors to Canadian broadcasters and media were locked.

In stepped Stan Klees and Walt Grealis who used the power of their RPM Magazine to champion for Canadian talent, and to warn of the demise of Canadian culture if something didn’t change. By 1967, a growing chorus of industry voices joined them, refusing to believe that Canadian creators were second class. Together, they stood up and called on the federal government to mandate airplay of Canadian music.

Not everyone was happy with this idea, with some questioning if Canada had enough talent, and others wondering if there was even such a thing as Canadian culture to protect. However, Pierre Juneau ignored the noise and sought out to “do the right thing”. In June 1970, the CRTC declared a new regulation that required radio stations to devote 30% of their playlists to Canadian music: the new Canadian Content (CanCon) era was born.

Right away, people in the industry were worried that the regulations would not be implemented fairly. A few of the CanCon leaders held a meeting at the Old Inn on the Park Hotel and formed a new trade association to protect the CanCon regulations. They called themselves CIRPA: The Canadian Independent Record Producers Association. Now named CIMA, the association continues to carry on CIRPA’s mission of ensuring that Canadian music can be heard by Canadians. 

Finally, in 1971, Canadian music was on a much more level playing field. The result was an unprecedented, multi-decade explosion of great Canadian music from all parts of the country.

Fifty years later, the ripple effect of the efforts of our CanCon heroes is everywhere. It is no coincidence that not only was Canadian music saved by CanCon, but we are now spreading Canadian culture all over the globe with the success of our artists, songwriters, producers, and beatmakers.

Terry Brown – Founder of CIRPA
Paul Clinch* – Founder of CIRPA
Frank Davies – Love Productions, Founder of CIRPA
Don DiNovo* – Lighthouse
Bob Ezrin – Founder of CIRPA
Bernie Finkelstein – True North Records, Founder of CIRPA
Tommy Graham – Founder of CIRPA
Walt Grealis – RPM Magazine 
Greg Hambleton – Founder of CIRPA
Kelly Jay* – Crowbar
Pierre Juneau* – Chairman, Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC)
Stan Klees – RPM Magazine, Founder of CIRPA
Betty Layton* – SOCAN/BMI Canada
Allan MacMillan – Founder of CIRPA
Alexander Mair – Early Morning Productions
Ben McPeek* – Founder of CIRPA
John Mills* – SOCAN/CAPAC
Harold Moon* -SOCAN/BMI Canada
Skip Prokop* – Lighthouse
Jack Richardson* – Nimbus 9 Productions, Founder of CIRPA
Mel Shaw – Founding President of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS) 
Art Snider* – Founder of CIRPA
Pierre Elliott Trudeau* – Prime Minister
Ritchie Yorke* – Billboard, The Globe & Mail

*Posthumously honoured