A Different Drummer

"Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around," growled Canadian Gadfly Gordon Sinclair, 73, a Toronto TV and radio personality who broadcast those sentiments over Canadian radio last June in an editorial entitled "Americans." The response was so enthusiastic from U.S. listeners who were tuned in that Sinclair made a record of the editorial, with the strains of the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the background. Another Canadian, a news director named Byron MacGregor, 25, was so stirred by Sinclair's encomium that he too made a recording of it, with America, the Beautiful as background music. Sales of the records zoomed in five weeks to a total of 2.9 million copies, placing "Americans" in a class with the fastest-selling hits of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In addition, just before he died, Country Singer Tex Ritter recorded the editorial as well, with America behind him, and that version has sold 250,000 copies. For all three records, the royalties --which go to the American Red Cross --have come to more than $150,000 thus far. The enormous response doubtless reflects the deep desire in the U.S. --amid the troubles of Watergate, inflation and shortages --for reassurance and a few kind words on the nation's behalf.

A sampler of Sinclair's text, which provides the lyrics, so to speak, of the rendition: "I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to help other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?" Americans are "the most generous and probably least appreciated people on all the earth." As for Watergate: "You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at ... They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of them."

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