2020 Inductee: Patti Jannetta

Full Steam Ahead. That’s the name of the first band Patti Jannetta sang in.

It could also be the byword for a stupefyingly diversified four-decade career that’s seen Patti go from being a teen singing sensation in the touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Las Vegas – where Elvis, Gladys Knight, and Wayne Cochrane worked across the hall – to Juno-nominated dance/pop starlet; recording artist; opening act for a world tour by Manee, Thailand’s “Madonna”; in-demand session and touring singer; MC for eight New Year’s Eve concerts at Nathan Phillips Square; co-author and co-singer with Bo Diddley on a movie soundtrack and oh so much more.

Patti has somehow morphed into a community institution in Mississauga and Toronto where she’s become a sort of Fairy Godmother of the musical, fundraising, and fun side of charitable causes.

A Fairy Godmother who doesn’t wave a wand, but rolls up her sleeves and pitches projects, organizes festivals, writes grants, sources funds, accelerates permits, calls friends in high places, and gets the job done no matter what it takes to get the job done.

The Mississauga Waterfront Festival, The Mississauga Canoe Club, Canadian Music Week, The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Music and the Arts, The Sick Kids Herbie Fund, Toronto’s Vocal Arts Festival, Italfest, Big Music Fest, The Mississauga Music Walk of Fame. They have one thing in common: Patti’s applied her generous spirit, organizational gifts, networking expertise, and wit and charm in front of a microphone and in the corporate office to deliver good things for good causes.

Usually with a great beat and a loving lyric and that great voice: the one with the big smile in it.

Since she sat sipping her Shirley Temple as a 7-year-old at an Imperial Room rehearsal and told her father that he really ought to get a new pair of stockings for that poor singer –– Josephine Baker ––  Patti Jannetta was destined for show business. That’s what happens when dear old Dad is the maitre d’ at the Imperial Room and acts as chauffeur and billet for the likes of Tony Bennett and Vic Damone. Pearl Bailey visits the cottage. When you lunch with Dad, you meet Tina Turner or Cher.

One minute she was singing in a musical at Vincent Massey Secondary School. The next she was in the Canadian production of Jesus Christ Superstar with Victor Garber, then whisked off from the CNE to Las Vegas.

When one of Garber’s friends needed a lead singer in a Motown band. Patti joined up. Three weeks later, the bass player broke his thumb and this new guy named Dave Baker joined the band and changed her life. They formed their own band shortly thereafter, got married, and have called Mississauga home since 1976. When the girls came along, someone had to put a pause on show biz. That’s how Dave’s purchasing career began.  “He knew music was such a part of me I couldn’t give it up,” says Patti.

Steve Thomson was a guitarist in a band called Fat Chance which used to play on the same circuit as Full Steam Ahead. He was so good at promoting and running shows that he became a promoter himself and 40 years later his BackStage Productions still thrives. And so does his friendship and admiration for Patti.

“She was fearless and could do anything,” he says, citing her last-minute appearance in 1984 at the Sopot Music Festival in Poland. The Polish consulate even opened after hours to issue her a special visa. She learned to sing a song in Polish during the overseas flight.