wildflower

Nettwerk One is happy to congratulate writers Dave Richardson and Doug Edwards on the induction of their song “Wildflower” into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

“Wildflower” has a rich and profound history, with the lyric ““Let her cry for she’s a lady” still standing as an anthem for women around the world. The lyric was written in 1970 by Dave Richardson—then a young policeman in Saanich, BC—as a poem about his girlfriend. Skylark guitarist Doug Edwards composed the music, and “Wildflower” was released in 1973 as the third single from Skylark’s first album for Capitol Records.
Championed by the queen of radio programming, Windsor, Ontario’s Rosalie Tremblay, “Wildflower” spread across the US and Canada and became a huge soul hit before crossing over to the pop charts. It reached #8 on the Billboard Top 200 and went on to sell well over a million copies.

In 1973, “Wildflower” was released as an instrumental by Ray Charles’ former music director, saxophonist Hank Crawford. It was then released in 1974 by both The New Birth and the O’Jays, and has since been covered an astonishing 70 times by artists including Johnny Mathis, the Neville Brothers, Gary Morris, Colour Me Badd, Blake Shelton and Hong Kong superstar Sandy Lam.

(Keep reading for more information.)