Sugar Shoppe, The – Nostalgia Central

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The Sugar Shoppe was formed in Toronto (Canada) by lead singer, songwriter and pianist Peter Mann.

Born in New York City, Mann grew up in Miami, Florida, before working as an arranger and relocating to Canada in 1965. There, he met singer and actor Victor Garber, and female vocalists Laurie Hood and Lee Harris.

Modelling themselves on The Mamas & the Papas, the group began working in the studio on a project to mark the Canadian Centennial in 1967. Their first single was an arrangement of Bobby Gimby’s song Canada. Released on the Yorkville label, it reached #40 on the Canadian singles chart.

The follow-up, a Peter Mann composition called The Attitude, was less successful, reaching #77, but the group won a recording deal with Capitol Records in Los Angeles and recorded a self-titled debut album in 1968. Tracks included versions of Donovan‘s Skip-a-Long Sam, Bobbie Gentry‘s Papa, Won’t You Let Me Go to Town, Mike Leander’s theme song for the movie Privilege, and a re-recorded version of The Attitude.

After moving to Epic Records, The Sugar Shoppe released a version of Laura Nyro‘s Save the Country in 1969 and performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Mann and Harris left the group in 1970, and Garber and Hood formed The Shoppe with Sandy Crawley. However, by 1973, they had disbanded.

Laurie Hood and Lee Harris worked as session singers and were both part of a group named Shooter, Myles and Lenny in the 1970s. Harris developed multiple sclerosis, which eventually led to her death in the 1990s.

Victor Garber became a leading film, stage and television actor – he played Jesus in the film version of Godspell (1973) and starred in the short-lived sitcom I Had Three Wives (1985) – while Peter Mann remained active in recording in Canada and later worked in television. He passed away at home in Toronto on 7 December 2021 at the age of 80.

Peter Mann
Vocals, piano
Victor Garber
Vocals
Laurie Hood
Vocals
Lee Harris
Vocals