#18: It’s Raining Men by the Weather Girls
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: March 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Ireland Single chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #8
YouTube: “It’s Raining Men”
Lyrics: “It’s Raining Men”
The Weather Girls are a singing duo formed by Martha Walsh and Izora Armstead in San Francisco in 1976. Walsh was born in San Francisco in 1953, and sang in a school choir in high school. After graduation she joined the gospel group NOW (News Of the World). She also worked as a secretary at a hospital. In 1976, she auditioned to be a backing singer for Sylvester. He was impressed with her vocals and asked if she had another friend who could join her on stage. Walsh invited Izora Rhodes to join her and the pair were named Two Tons o’ Fun, as they were both big girls.
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#7: With Pen In Hand by Billy Vera
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “With Pen In Hand”
Lyrics: “With Pen In Hand”
William Patrick McCord was born in Riverside, California, in 1944. He grew up in New York State. His father was radio announcer Bill McCord. His mother, singer Ann Ryan, was a member of The Ray Charles Singers backing Perry Como on his TV show and his hit records. In 1962, at the age of 18, Bill jr. was a member of the Resolutions. He also recorded fronting Billy Vera and the Contrasts. In 1967, he wrote a song about interracial love titled “Storybook Children”. He also sang a duet with Judy Clay, a black singer. The single made the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart in 1967. He released several more duets with Clay and they appeared several times in concert at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem (New York City). Though the topic of interracial dating had been the subject of previous songs like “Society’s Child” (Janis Ian in 1966), Vera and Clay pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in the age of movies like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
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#21: Closer Together by The Box
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: June 1987
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Closer Together”
Lyrics: “Closer Together”
The Box was formed in 1981 by former Men Without Hats keyboard player Jean-Marc Pisapia. He was born in 1957 in Montreal and learned to play piano at the age of four. He studied architecture at the University of Montreal. After a summer tour with Men Without Hats in 1981, Jean-Marc formed Checkpoint Charlie, inviting guitarist Guy Florent and bass guitarist Jean-Pierre Brie to join him. In 1983, the band added Jean-Marc’s brother, Guy Pisapia, on keyboards. This enabled Jean-Marc to give his attention primarily to lead vocals. At this time the band changed their name to The Box. In 1984 The Box released a self-titled album with a debut single titled “Walk Away”.
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#2: The Day The Rains Came by Raymond Lefevre
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “The Day The Rains Came”
Raymond Lefèvre was born in 1929 in Calais, France. He was accepted at the Paris Conservatory when he was 17 years old. During the early 1950s he played the piano for the Frank Pourcel Orchestra. In 1953 Lefèvre played the piano at the Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. He started his musical career in 1956 on the Barclay label and recorded his debut album that year. In the 1950s he worked on the French television program Musicorama. and Palmarés des Chansons (1965, 1966, 1967) On these TV programs, he accompanied French recording artists Dalida, Claude François, Richard Anthony, and others, with his own orchestra.
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#23: Gold by Spandau Ballet
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles Top 100 ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Gold”
Lyrics: “Gold”
Spandau Ballet were an English new wave band formed in London, England, in 1979. Gary Kemp, on lead guitar, was the principal songwriter for the band. He was born in London in 1959. From the age of eleven, he appeared in several British children’s films. He performed on guitar for the children’s television show You Must Be Joking! in 1975. The following year he formed a band called Roots. The band subsequently changed its name to The Cut, The Makers and then Gentry. At this point, Gary’s brother Martin Kemp was in the band. Kemp was born in 1961 in London. He was also a child actor, in his case from the age of 7. He quit school at age 16 and worked as an apprentice at a print factory. He joined Gentry after learning to play bass guitar in three months.
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#6: Soul Limbo by Booker T & the MGs
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Soul Limbo”
Booker T. & the M.G.’s is a band founded in Memphis in the summer of 1962. That summer 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 20-year-old guitarist Steve Cropper, and two seasoned players, bassist Lewie Steinberg and drummer Al Jackson Jr. were in the Memphis studio to back the former Sun Records recording aritst Billy Lee Riley. During downtime, the four started playing around with a bluesy organ riff. The president of Stax Records, Jim Stewart, was in the control booth. He liked what he heard, and he recorded it. Cropper remembered a twelve-bar blues riff that Jones had come up with weeks earlier on a Hammond M3 organ. Before too long a second track was recorded. Stewart wanted to release the single with the first track, “Behave Yourself”, as the A-side and the second track as the B-side. And so “Green Onions” was released as the B-side. However, Cropper and radio DJs argued that “Green Onions” was the better A-side. Soon, Stax re-released Booker T. & the M.G.’s’ “Green Onions” as the A-side.
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#42: Moonlight Party by the Del Tones
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: May 1959
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Moonlight Party”
Lyrics: N/A
The Del Tones were comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Raymond “Ray” Hutchinson, bass and guitar player Michel “Mike” Robitaille, pianist Joseph “Joey” Frechette and drummer Gilles Tailleur. Born in Montreal, in 1940, as a child, Ray Hutchinson had tuberculosis for twelve years. He got better and at the age of seventeen was writing and performing “Moonlight Party,” that became the Del Tones first hit. Two of the bandmates, guitarist and vocalist Ray Hutchinson, and bass player Mike Robitaille, were polio victims. They met at a school for handicapped children in Montreal.
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#68: The War Song by the Culture Club
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: November 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “The War Song”
Lyrics: “The War Song”
The Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in 1981. Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records. Its original lineup consisted of Boy George, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, Jon Moss, and added Phil Pickett and Helen Terry in 1982. George Alan O’Dowd was born in 1961 in Greater London. His father, Jerry O’Dowd, was physically and and mentally abusive and beat his wife when she was pregnant with George. In 1980, he was a member of the new wave band Bow Wow Wow. He left the band within a year and formed a new band initially named the Sex Gang Children.
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#26: Blue Monday by New Order
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Stations: CFMB | CKOI
Peak Month: April 1983
Peak Position in Montreal CFMB ~ #1 | CKOI ~#2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Dutch Singles Top 100 ~ #3
Peak Position on Austrian Single chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Blue Monday”
Lyrics: “Blue Monday”
Bernard Sumner was born in 1956 in Salford, Lancashire, England. In his youth he learned to play guitar, keyboards, synthesizer and melodica. After graduation from public school, he got work with Stop Frame as a television animator cartoonist. After Sumner and his childhood friend Peter Hook saw the Sex Pistols at a concert in Manchester, they decided to form the post-punk band Joy Division. Born Peter Woodhead in 1956 in Salford, he took his stepfather’s surname, Hook, after his mother remarried. Peter Hook learned to play bass guitar, guitar, melodica, electronic drums and synthesizer. Stephen Paul David Morris was born in 1957 in the market town of Macclesfield, 16 miles south of Manchester. He learned to play the drum from a young age. Over the years he added percussion, keyboards and synthesizer to his resume.
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#11: It’s Getting Better by Mama Cass
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “It’s Getting Better”
Lyrics: “It’s Getting Better”
Ellen Naomi Cohen was born in 1941 and raised in Washington, D.C. She adopted the name “Cass” in high school after the actress Peggy Cass. When Ellen Cohen was 16 she saw Peggy Cass in the film Auntie Mame.Peggy Cass who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1959 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in Auntie Mame. “Cass” Cohen later she took the surname “Elliot,” in memory of a friend who had died. She moved to Manhattan, pursuing an acting career where she toured in a musical production of The Music Man in 1962. She was part of a folk trio called the Big 3 from 1962 to 1964. From there she joined the Mugwumps, and met Denny Doherty. In 1965 she became part of The Mama’s & the Papas.
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