A Haunted past: Valley lad connected to hit song from the 60s

I've worked with Bob Burgess over the past few years and we've spent more than our share of time chatting, laughing, sharing one-liners and just hanging out.

He's the kind of guy you look forward to seeing when you get to work. You know the type.

Always armed with a joke and a smile. Hard worker. Likes to tip back the odd cold beverage. And laughs at my jokes.

A solid guy with strong Valley ties. He lives in Stittsville, but proudly reflects on the many years he called Perth home.

You'll meet few people as passionate about music as Bob. He's a lyrics junkie who knows his stuff.

He's told me that he played in a band a few years back. But he never shared too many details. In fact, he kept pretty quiet about it.

I just figured the 60s did a number on his mind and his memory was foggy.

But just when you think you know someone ...

It turns out Bob wasn't just in a band - he was in a band that was huge on the Montreal music scene.

This all came to light recently when Bob's former band - The Haunted - had their hit single from 1966 played on CBC's Vinyl Cafe thanks to host Stuart McLean who named their tune 1-2-5 one of the top-10 Canadian rock 'n' roll singles of all time.

How cool is that?

You can read the entire story in this article written by my colleague Nevil Hunt for a number of Valley newspapers connected to Ottawa Region Media Group.

It's a great read.

And below you'll find a video clip of the single from old footage courtesy of CBC. Truth be told, this was the first time I heard the song - and it's good (I'm way, way, way, way younger than Bob).

In the video, Bob is playing guitar and on lead vocals, shown mostly on the right of the screen.

And the very cool part is that it was co-written and performed by a lad from the Valley who I call a friend. (In the photo of the band shown above, Bob is back row centre)