How The Raccoons Landed Rita Coolidge, Rupert Holmes and Other Music Legends
As part of our ongoing conversation with The Raccoons creator Kevin Gillis, we asked him about one of the most beloved parts of the series: its music. From recruiting legendary artists like Rita Coolidge, Rupert Holmes, and Leo Sayer to recording "Run With Us" and revealing his favourite songs from the series, Kevin shares stories that fans have never heard before. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!
What was the process like for choosing the music artists for The Raccoons?
Kevin: I was always into music. I was a touring singer songwriter, and I actually co-wrote with Gary Dunford a number of the songs for the first two specials, Christmas Raccoons and Raccoons on Ice.
And I wanted to be able to have some well known names at the time.
I reached out to Rita Coolidge and, by coincidence, I had met her manager because I opened for Kris Kristofferson on a few dates and he was married at one point to Rita.
So I sent a note off. Those days you could either phone or you could write a letter.
Two weeks later, I get a phone call from Bert Block. Bert was Kris’ manager and he was also Rita’s manager, among other performers. And Bert Block said to me, “Are you the same Kevin Gillis that opened for Kris down here eight years ago?”
I said, “Yes, sir, that’s me.”
He said “Good, good, you’ve got her. Rita’s gonna do the shows.”
So that was easy.
And then I reached out to Rupert Holmes and he was the guy who did the Piña Colada song. And he was wonderful. Just amazing. Great voice. He played the voice of Dan the Ranger. He did a great job.
And Rita played the voice of Melissa Raccoon on the first two specials. Very cool. You could tell almost with the accent there.
And then I reached out to Leo Sayer, who I had a lot of respect for his singing. He was just fantastic. He had come off of a couple of major number one hits and he was very interested. And we actually recorded him doing Dan the Ranger and several songs. Including a duet with Rita. That was very cool!
The show worked with some absolutely incredible artists. Was there ever a time when you were listening to the songs and you thought, “This is a hit, I know this is a hit.”?
Kevin: Every time. Every single time. Haha! But, I was wrong… every single time.
I think when my writing partner on the series, Jon Stroll, when we were writing the songs, we had the artists that we wanted to have sing, you know, in mind.
And I think when we ended up originally cutting Run With Us, we worked… actually, Stephen Lunt sang the song, but he was also one of our co-writers on, I think, four or five songs that we did together in the first season.
And I kind of felt Run With Us… I liked it a lot when we wrote, but when we went into the studio and I had just gotten this synthesizer, it was called a T8. A Prophet T8.
And there’s another story there I could tell you about, how I traded my profit T8 to Joe Walsh from the Eagles in return for one of his guitars, but that’s another story.
So, I got the T8 and I was able to, by hook or by crook, I was able to figure this really interesting sound in the bass line of it.
And Jon said, “oh, love that sound”, and we had to actually play it because the T8 did not have the arpeggiated ability to do that automatically.
But to answer your question, I did think Run With Us at some point.
You know, Stephen originally sang it - beautifully. And of course, Lisa Lougheed, when she ended up singing it, she did a great job, too.
Was there a specific artist who you worked with, who you were like, “Wow, I can’t believe I got this person to work on our song!”?
Kevin: Ah. If I answer that question, what about the ones I don’t mention? [laughing] I can’t believe I got any of them, honestly.
I mean, every single one of them has been incredible to work with. There’s a little story I’ll tell you:
Curtis King Jr. was a background singer for us, and he ended up doing two duets with Lisa and then one song.
And interestingly enough, we stayed in touch, and he’s out touring right now with Bruce Springsteen, but he was also a singer, I think, with Duran Duran at the time.
So he was… I mean he was just an incredible find. Every time he sang, you know, he would sing and his wife was in the background group, too.
I would get shivers down my back.
I was sure it was the temperature in the room, but no, he was a great singer.
Was there any particular artist that when they got into the recording booth, they completely changed the song from how you imagined it? Made it their own?
Kevin: Yes, but we had to fire them. [laughing] No, seriously.
You know, anytime you’re working with an artist of that caliber, they are such a major part of the song. You just go with how they interpret it.
We’ve had a number of covers of Run With Us and the interpretations have been pretty interesting. I mean, there’s a Russian Version, French version, an Arabic version. One of my favourites, actually, is the Irish band that did it where they had a cat actually playing the guitar.
And it wasn’t AI!
I mean, how they taught that cat to play, it was incredible.
It was a chord structure.
If you could step back into the recording studio, what would be one song you would want to relive the recording of?
Kevin: I could say all of them, but I always had a great time in the recording studio.
If we were picking up artists, you know, doing different things, we would go to New York sometimes with a certain guitar player that we wanted to have on. And then we’d get on a flight the next morning and we’d go to Nashville, and Toronto, too.
Being in a studio is like a different world. We would go in around 8 o’clock at night and come out at 4 in the morning.
When we were recording in Ottawa that became a bit of a challenge because I would record all night and then, you know, working with the Ottawa musicians and the National Arts Center Orchestra for the scoring and then have to go to work at the animation studio with about 4 hours of sleep.
So, If you want to be in television, be prepared to do anything that the producers ask.
And remember to say thank you.
Politeness is always well respected.
Out of all the songs that you’ve done for The Raccoons, what do you think is your favourite of them all? If you had to pick.
Kevin: Oh, boy. I think Lake Freeze with Rita Coolidge. Rita Coolidge did an incredible job on it.
Gary Dunford and I wrote that, and most of the lyrics in the song actually happened at the moment when we were up by a lake up in the northern Ottawa Valley where he lived.
And he had a big sheepdog, and the sheepdog’s name was Schaeffer, and that’s how the dog Schaeffer ended up in The Raccoons.
There was something about how the lyrics came together that I think really stayed with me. It’s a ballad, and part of what 604 Records is doing for the second album, and I’m not allowed to say who it is, but there’s a very famous Canadian artist who has covered this song, and she has blown it out of the water.
It’s unbelievable.
But you’ll have to wait.
That would be my favourite.
Actually, now that I think of it, I do have another favourite. It’s a song called Shake the Sun and Gary Dunford and I wrote that one as well and we have a children’s choir singing in it as well.
Rupert Holmes sang it and he was the guy that I mentioned earlier, the Piña Colada guy. But Shake the Sun was also recorded by a very mysterious artist that I can’t tell you who it is, but it’ll be released late summer and you’ll find out who it is.
You've completely done your work on The Raccoons these last 4 decades back in the 1980s, Kevin Gillis! I'm very proud of you!