"Echo Beach" is a song recorded by the Canadian group Martha and the Muffins

Martha and the Muffins

Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian new wave band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the core members of the band also charted in Canada and...

 in 1979. It was released as a single from their album Metro Music

Metro Music

Metro Music was Martha and the Muffins' first album, released in 1979. It contained the international hit single "Echo Beach", which reached #3 in Canada, #1 in Portugal, #5 in Australia and #10 in the UK charts in March 1980. It also reached #37 in the U.S. on the Club Play Singles chart. ...

in 1980 and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year

Juno Award for Single of the Year

The Juno Award for Single of the Year has been awarded since 1974 for the best single in Canada. It has also been known as Best Single and Best Selling Single.-Best Single :...

. It was certified gold in Canada on October 1, 1980, a month after Metro Music achieved gold status. "Echo Beach" was the band's only significant international hit, although they had several other hits in Canada. It reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 and No. 6 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).

In 2003, Q

Q (magazine)

Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...

magazine listed it among the 1001 best songs ever. In 2005, "Echo Beach" was named the 35th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

 series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version

50 Tracks: The Canadian Version

50 Tracks: The Canadian Version was a Canadian radio series, which aired across Canada on CBC Radio One in 2005. The show, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, was a competition to determine the 50 most essential songs in English language Canadian pop music history...

.

Background

Although Mark Gane was not aware of a real "Echo Beach" when he wrote the song in 1978, several people wrote to him asking if it was about a beach in their local area. However, Echo Beach, as mentioned in the song, does not refer to a real beach but is rather a symbolic notion of somewhere the narrator would rather be, somewhere 'far away in time'. In reality, the song was created while Gane was working checking wallpaper for printing faults. He found the work rather dull and his mind drifted to times he would like to live over again. One such time was an evening spent at Sunnyside Beach on the shoreline of Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

 in Toronto in summer. In 1977, Echo Beach was a reference made to a faded time and place gone in the lyrics of the song "Hiroshima Mon Amour" by the band Ultravox

Ultravox

Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....

.

The map shown on the cover of one version of the single is of the Toronto Islands

Toronto Islands

The Toronto Islands are a chain of small islands in the city of Toronto, Ontario. Comprising the only group of islands in the western part of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands are located just offshore from the city centre, and provide shelter for Toronto Harbour...

, while another is of Chesil Beach

Chesil Beach

Chesil Beach, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its toponym is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning "gravel" or "shingle"....

 in Dorset, England.

Concert venue

In June 2011, concert promoter Live Nation

Live Nation

Live Nation is a live-events company based in Beverly Hills, California, focused on concert promotions. Live Nation formed in 2005 as a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications, which then merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to become Live Nation Entertainment....

 opened a 4,000-person outdoor concert facility in Toronto and named it after the song.

Other versions

The song was covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by British pop star Toyah

Toyah Willcox

Toyah Ann Willcox is an English actress and singer. In a career spanning more than thirty years Toyah has had 13 top 40 singles, released 22 studio albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays and ten feature films, as well as voicing and presenting numerous television shows...

 in 1987, reaching number No. 54 in the UK Singles Chart, as well as being released in Germany. The singer regularly includes the song in her live concert sets.

The Australian singer Robert Forster

Robert Forster (musician)

Robert Forster is an Australian singer-songwriter, best known for his work with songwriting partner Grant McLennan, with whom he co-founded The Go-Betweens.Forster grew up in Brisbane, Australia attending Brisbane Grammar School...

 covered the song on his 1995 album I Had a New York Girlfriend

I Had a New York Girlfriend

I Had a New York Girlfriend is the third album by Robert Forster. It consists of cover versions.-Side one:# "Nature's Way" – 2:25# "Broken Hearted People" – 3:47# "Echo Beach" – 2:53...

. A cover by Gabriella Cilmi

Gabriella Cilmi

Gabriella Lucia Cilmi is an Australian singer-songwriter. In 2008, Cilmi was awarded six ARIA awards including Single of the Year and Best Female Artist....

 is used as the theme tune

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 for the British soap opera Echo Beach.

The French singer La Grande Sophie covered and translated the song on her album La suite.