The Pursuit of Happiness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pursuit of Happiness (TPOH)
Background information
Origin Toronto, ON, Canada Flag of Canada
Genre(s) Indie rock
Years active 1985 – present
Label(s) Chrysalis Records, Mercury Records
Members
Moe Berg
Dave Gilby
Kris Abbott
Brad Barker
Renee Suchy


The Pursuit of Happiness are a Canadian college rock group, who were one of Canada's most successful independent bands in the 1980s.

Led by Edmonton, Alberta singer/songwriter Moe Berg, The Pursuit of Happiness were launched in 1985 when Berg and drummer Dave Gilby moved to Toronto, Ontario. They soon met bassist Johnny Sinclair and formed the band, adding twins Tam Amabile and Tasha Amabile as backing vocalists.

Their debut single, "I'm an Adult Now", quickly became a smash hit across Canada in 1986, sparked by a low-budget video which made it onto the Canadian music video channel MuchMusic. However, the band did not immediately sign to a record label, and released another independent single, "Killed by Love", in 1988. The Amabile twins left the band that year, and were replaced by Kris Abbott and Leslie Stanwyck.

Also in 1988, they signed to Chrysalis Records. Their debut album, Love Junk, was produced by Todd Rundgren and released that year. "I'm an Adult Now" was re-recorded and released as a single again, making it to the charts a second time. It was followed by "She's So Young" and "Hard To Laugh". The album sold over 100,000 copies in Canada, was certified platinum, and is considered one of the classics of Canadian rock.

Stanwyck and Sinclair left, going on to form Universal Honey, after completing the band's follow-up with Rundgren, 1990's One Sided Story. That album, led by the hit singles "New Language" and "Two Girls in One", did not sell as well as Love Junk, but was still a significant hit for the band. Starting with the tour for the album, Brad Barker and Susan Murumets joined the lineup. Rachel Oldfield replaced Murumets in 1992.

The band then went through difficulties with their record label, but signed to Mercury Records for 1993's The Downward Road. Despite some success with the single "Cigarette Dangles" (the video appeared on Beavis and Butt-head), label troubles continued, and the band recorded their next two albums for the now-defunct Canadian label Iron Music. Oldfield left the band in 1995, and was replaced by Jennifer Foster, who in turn left the following year and was replaced by Renee Suchy.

Although the group never officially disbanded, after 1996 they did not record as a unit until 2005, when they recorded two new tracks for a greatest hits compilation. The most recent lineup has played a few concerts over the last few years, culminating in a series of shows over the last week of 2005 which ended with a New Year's Eve concert in London, Ontario. In March of 2006, they were inducted into the Canadian Indies Hall of Fame.

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock UK
1988 "I'm an Adult Now" - #6 - - Love Junk

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.