David Wiffen obit

R.I.P. David Wiffen 

He was not on the list.

David Wiffen (11 March 1942 – 5 April 2026) was an English-Canadian folk singer-songwriter. Two of his songs, "Driving Wheel" and "More Often Than Not", have become cover standards.

Wiffen was born in Redhill, Surrey, England. He spent his early childhood with his mother, living on an aunt's farm in Chipstead, while his father, an engineer, contributed to the war effort. Following the war, Wiffen's family relocated to London and, in 1954, to Claygate, Surrey, where Wiffen attended Hinchley Wood School. Wiffen came to Canada at the age of 16.

Wiffen first sang with the Kingston upon Thames-based Black Cat Skiffle group. After his family's relocation to Canada, he became part of the burgeoning folk music scene, initially in Toronto. In 1964, Wiffen hitchhiked to Edmonton and later managed The Depression folk club in Calgary.

In 1965, having moved to Vancouver, Wiffen was invited to perform at The Bunkhouse club on a live ensemble album. It became Wiffen's first solo album, David Wiffen at the Bunkhouse Coffeehouse, Vancouver BC, on the Universal International label, when the other invited musicians failed to show up.

Wiffen was subsequently in several bands, including The Pacers, based in Prince George, British Columbia, where he was the lead vocalist, and The Children, based in Ottawa. Members of The Children included William Hawkins, Bruce Cockburn, Sneezy Waters and Richard Patterson. He subsequently joined 3's a Crowd, whose initial members included Brent Titcomb, Donna Warner, Trevor Veitch and Richard Patterson.[citation needed] Wiffen also cohosted a television variety series on Ottawa station CJOH with Ann Mortifee, which was produced for a period by William Hawkins.

Wiffen subsequently signed to Fantasy Records as a solo artist. In 1971, he released David Wiffen, and had hit singles with "One Step" and "More Often Than Not". The album also contained his most widely covered song, "Driving Wheel". By this time a number of his songs had been recorded by other musicians, including Harry Belafonte, Anne Murray and Tom Rush.

Wiffen's second solo studio album, Coast to Coast Fever (United Artists, 1973), was produced by Bruce Cockburn, and Wiffen's musical career appeared to be quite promising. He continued to perform regularly in the 1970s, though found his success diminishing and a consequent source of frustration and depression, compared to the success of contemporaries Bruce Cockburn and Murray McLauchlan. Alcohol abuse compounded the difficulties he was experiencing in his musical career. He eventually ceased performing, choosing to become a limousine driver and later a publicly funded driver for handicapped persons in Ottawa. Wiffen suffered a serious back injury at that job while moving a wheelchair, which required corrective surgery and impeded any return to performing.

Wiffen's third album, South of Somewhere, was released in 1999, 26 years after Coast to Coast Fever. At that time, Wiffen had been sober for ten years and had spent six years in preparation and development for the album's production. The album contained a mix of reworkings of some of his older material, such as "Driving Wheel", plus some new songs. During this period, he returned briefly to performing, principally as a weekly performer and performance host at Irene's Pub in Ottawa, Ontario, but then stopped performing publicly. As of 2008 and through much of 2009, Wiffen was on EMI's list of "missing royaltors".

In 2015, Songs From the Lost and Found, was released, containing material written and recorded between 1973 and the early 1980s, in the years after the release of Wiffen's Coast to Coast Fever album. The master tapes were thought lost for many years, but surfaced among the effects of former bandmate Richard Patterson, who died in 2011. In 2024, a compilation of these recordings appeared as Timeless Songs.

Wiffen died at the age of 84 on 5 April 2026, at a hospice in Ottawa, Ontario