Born: Toronto, Ontario

After taking piano lessons for 12 years and teaching himself to play guitar, Toronto singer/songwriter Craig Ruhnke joined band Groovin' Company. During this time he was supplementing his income teaching guitar and trying to make ends meet in the late '60's.

As an aspiring songwriter Ruhnke was signed by WEA A & R Director John Pozer to a publishing deal with their subsidiary Don Valley Music.

He was soon able to get his material recorded by others such as "I'll Always Love You" recorded by Pinky (led by Lighthouse's Pinky Dauvin). In 1974 WEA helped him realize his dream of releasing his own material and issued a single "My World".

He was able to secure a more permanent record deal with United Artists later that year who released the hit "Summer Girl" which feature backing instrumentation by country artist Mike Graham. The song charted in Europe, North America and Japan and ended up selling 35,000 copies.

Ruhnke released dozens of singles throughout the '70's and '80's before switching to A & M Records where he had his biggest hit "You're A Heartbreaker". Eventually he launched his own Pinnacle Records which made it possible for Ruhnke to continue releasing material on A & M.

His other credits include writing the song "Two Hearts" for The Raes. He has produced a half dozen albums for Canadian Zephyr and has done radio jingles for the likes of Burger King, Grand & Toy and the Bank Of Nova Scotia.

with notes from Jack Durieux and Richard Brule.


Singles
1974 You And Me (WEA)
1974 Summer Girl/Turn The Lights Down Low (United Artists) UAXW-453W
1974 Sweet Feelin'/Baby, We Can Make It (United Artists) UAXW-567X
1975 I Need My Woman (United Artists)
1975 Summer Love (United Artists)
1975 Surfin' All Summer Long (United Artists)
1975 It's Good To Know/Lonely Man (United Artists) UAXW-749
1976 Why Don't You Come Up And See Me Sometime/Make Me Feel The Music (United Artists) UAXW-857Y
1976 Music Man/Block Parents (RCA)
1978 Wear My Love
1978 It's Time To Fall In Love
1979 The First Time
1979 I Need You To Be There
1980 You're A Heartbreaker/You And I (A & M) AM-498
1980 Heartache/It Will Take Time (A & M) AM-509
(A & M)
1981 I Can't Live Without Your Love (A & M)
1981 Reach Out (Irving - Almo)
1982 Baby Blue (Seffel)
1984 Give Me The Nightime/Give Me The Nightime (A & M) AM-666
1985 Lovin' Eyes (Pinnacle)
1985 A Love Song/A Love Song [Instrumental] (Pinnacle) PR-1008
198? Stringtime Part 1 [4 song EP] (Capitol - US) EAP1-890

Albums
1975 Sweet Feelings (United Artists)
1976 Hot Spell (United Artists) UALA-641G
1981 Reach Out (Irving - Almo) IA-3
1982 Just Like The Old Times (Seffel) SEF-1006
1984 Keep The Flame (A & M) SP-9102
1984 Urban Breeze Love [Japan] 1985 True Love [Japan?] 1992 The Best Of Craig Ruhnke (Pinnacle)

Video


Compilation Tracks
1974 "Summer Girl" on 'Dynamite' (K-Tel) TC-219
1976 "Sweet Feelin'" on 'Canada's Finest' (K-Tel) TC-232