Canadian Girl Singer Hails from Richmond Hill, Ontario
S A N D Y S E L S I E .
IF YOU WERE TO DO A SEARCH on the world-wide web, not much information can be found on the Internet today regarding, Sandy Selsie.
All that has been primarily known about Sandy Selsie was that she had several country/pop singles in the early-1960s on the Columbia record label. And that she originally was from Canada. And that’s just about it.
But there was a detailed mention about this female Canadian artist on a Yahoo message board, which I recently found on the Spectropop blog site message forum.
A poster there, who goes by the name of “Boris” laid claims he resides in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada. An avid record collector on “girl/girl groups” since the early-nineties, and in researching Canadian recording artists, he stated he once had gone to the Canadian National Archives library and came across a newspaper article on Sandy Selsie, which appeared in the local Richmond Hill, Ottawa newspaper called The Liberal.
Accordingly, the article first appeared in 1963. The article had stated Sandy Selsie hailed from Richmond Hill, Ontario, now a large suburb outside of Toronto.
Back in 1963, according to The Liberal article, Sandy Selsie was a grade 10 student who attended Bayview High School in Richmond Hill, at the age of 15. Her father, Fred Selsie was her talent-manager during that time. Mr. Selsie was instrumental in signing a 5-year contract for Sandy with Columbia Records earlier in 1961. Her first recording for the label was, “A Date With Loneliness” which was released in November of that year.
The article quoted Sandy Selsie as stating how her career came into prominence early-on. “I started out singing in the area shows. And gradually branched over to radio and television. I’ve had guest spots on the Country Hoedown television show as well as appearances on the Tommy Hunter radio show.”
The article also stated her big break happened when the family took a vacation down to Nashville, Tennessee, early in 1961.
“We were down there on our vacation. And we decided I should drop in to Columbia Studios for an audition.” She was signed immediately. “I was really surprised, because it’s unusual for a big recording studio to sign you just like that.”
In closing the article, Sandy Selsie expressed her desires in pursuing a Major in Performing Arts.
On a small note, as it were, Columbia Records initially released Sandy Selsie’s “When Jimmy Comes Home” in November, 1963. The song debuted on the CHUM playlist early-on in November in Sandy Selsie’s own home-town. Just the same, the song would find it’s way over to CKEY 580 AM in Toronto about the same time-frame.
Locally, the Selsie song made it’s way over here on Detroit radio, “When Jimmy Comes Home” debuted first on WJBK Radio 1500 on Friday, November 15, 1963.
Six days later, it debuted at the #30 spot on the WKNR Keener 13 playlist for Thursday, November 21, 1963. On a local level, the song didn’t stay long on the charts here in Detroit. But after having first heard it played on WKNR late in 1963, personally, this Sandy Selsie classic will always be a great Keener song memory from that year.
While certainly there weren’t too many, this long forgotten, obscure song as was recorded by Sandy Selsie, arguably, may well have been the greatest “Jimmy” song that was ever recorded in the Top 40 era.
— M O T O R C I T Y R A D I O F L A S H B A C K S
SANDY SELSIE * When Jimmy Comes Home * COLUMBIA Records (1963)
In 1962 I lived in Watertown, NY and often listened to CKWS (AM) in Kingston, and a DJ named Brian Olney, I think. I recall hearing “A Date With Loneliness” often and I liked it, along with the quality of Sandy’s voice. CKWS pushed it quite a bit, and mentioned that she was from Richmond Hill, but not (that I can remember) that she was 14 or 15. She sounded older. I was about 19, and had a few “dates with loneliness” myself, so it kind of struck a chord. They also played Bobby Curtola and the Beau-Marks quite a bit, but I don’t recall the songs or titles.
saw here live once at a wedding just a tiny girl with a big voice no mic no music background just a powerful beautiful voice
I remember her singing at our Tumpane St school for the Victoris day festivities in 1962
Hi all. I have a closer tie to Sandy as she is my cousin. I remeber hearing her sing a couple times when I was at their home when I was just only about 7 years old. Sandies parents baby sat me a few times and when my father died the family fell apart. I heard that she had moved to Florida to be closer to her parents and have tried all kinds of ways to get hold of her but no luck. I believe she married and her last name is Bernard I think. It would be so nice to hear from her again. She was know as Canadas Brenda Lee. I still have her music and tracking down records from family members to this day. Sandie if you are seeing this please get a hold of me. Im the youngest of your moms sister Josephines kids. Email me at. fordbrekswrldrec@gmail.com.