1102 - Bee Gees, Jason Mraz, George Benson and Ian Thomas!

We start the episode with a chat about artists that drastically changed their sound over the years – from the Beatles to Cher to Alanis to Herbie Hancock to Bob Dylan to Fleetwood Mac to Beyonce.

Speaking of artists that changed their sound, how about the Bee Gees? They started out as a folky pop band and changed their sound to R&B in the mid ‘70s to out and out disco by 1977. We have an excellent 1989 Brad Giffen interview with Barry Gibb as he talks about the groups desire to keep going in spite of the backlash they faced after Saturday Night Fever. It cast a long shadow on them, but they endured by writing hit songs for other artists.

Then, we have a really fun chat with Jason Mraz from 2012 and 2014. You get a real sense of who he is - an almost old school hippy vibe that’s really endearing.

Plus, some audio from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s with the great George Benson – a jazz giant who had lots of commercial success. He has some great insights as well.

And then we chat with one of Christopher’s favourite people – Ian Thomas – who has had a whole string of hit records that Canadians know and love – and some of those songs were covered by the likes of Santana, Manfred Mann and America. Ian is one of the newest inductees into the Canadian songwriters Hall Of Fame – which is coming up on Fri, Oct 17 at the Meridian Centre in Toronto. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.