#1429: Let’s Run Away by The Staccatos
Peak Month: November 1966
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Let’s Run Away”
In 1963 the Staccatos, an Ottawa group was formed. It included lead singer and local disc jockey Dean Hagopian. Other bandmates were Vern Craig on guitar, Brian Rading on bass and Rick Bell on drums and backing vocals. Immediately, they began to get a regular gig as the house band at the Chaudiere Club in Alymer, Quebec. Hagopian left the band in 1964 and Les Emmerson (born in 1944) stepped in as lead vocalist. Rick Bell also took turns as lead vocalist on some of their emerging set when performing in concert. At the time Vern Craig recalls, “it was the British Invasion at the time. Nobody wanted to talk to anybody about a group unless they were from Jolly Old England.”