A Passing Fancy was a Canadian band from Toronto, Ontario, active from the mid-1960s fronted by the singer-songwriter and guitarist Jay Telfer and Brian Price.
After playing dates at many high schools across Ontario, the Dimensions became the house band at Cafe El Patio in the Yorkville Village through Finkelstein's connections.
During the summer of 1967, A Passing Fancy played at Expo '67 in Montreal where they jammed with local band, Les Tetes Blanches.
A Passing Fancy carried on by replacing Price with Fergus Hambleton on organ and vocals and Brian Smith who contributed a third folky guitar but the chemistry of the band was never the same.
After shooting at the CBC, playing the first Let's Go TV show in colour and performing that same night at the Granite club, Telfer was told by the Wal-Dan management that he would no longer be in the group.
The Wal-Dan management decided to reform the band around Hambleton and in July 1968 brought in new members, Ron Forster (guitar), Dan Troutman (bass) and Wally Cameron (drums) and Glenn Brown (lead vocals).
The self-titled album, which featured all of the Columbia singles, (including an alternate mix of "I'm Losing Tonight" with no lead guitar) was released in November 1968.
In the spring of 1969, he recorded an unreleased album for Bernie Finkelstein with contributions from Kensington Market members Keith McKie, John Mills Cockell and Alex Darou; Malcolm Tomlinson and Louis McKelvey from Milkwood; Murray McLauchlan and Kevin Staples, who later found fame with Rough Trade.
[2] On that album, Jay brought back Murray McLauchlan, Malcolm Tomlinson, Fred Mollin, Rick Mann, Fergus Hambleton and Kevin Staples.
In 1975, Jay Telfer moved to LA to marry and quickly divorce Bonnie Bedelia and later became a script writer for Cannon Films, which included 1977's Kid Vengeance [it], starring Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef and Leif Garrett.
Rick Mann changed his name back to Richard Fruchtman and played bass with Whiskey Howl, a seminal Canadian blues band, from 1970 to 1972.