#64: Madam Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #10
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #13
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Madam Butterfly”
Lyrics: “Madam Butterfly”
Malcolm McLaren was born in Greater London in 1946. While still an art student, McLaren had the first public exhibition of his work in 1967, which was based on an environmental installation staged at the Kingly Street Art Gallery in central London. In October 1971, McLaren took over the back part of the retail premises at 439 King’s Road in Chelsea, West London. The store sold rock and roll records, refurbished 1950s radiograms and dead stock clothing as “In The Back Of Paradise Garage”. McLaren converted the entire ground floor into the store and renamed it Let It Rock. The store was patronised by teddy boys and McLaren’s designs (along with his girlfriend) also appeared in such theatrical and cinematic productions such as The Rocky Horror Show and That’ll Be The Day. In spring 1973 the store was renamed Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die and began selling original 1950s-inspired leather clothing. In August 1973, McLaren and co-designer Vivienne Westwood visited New York to participate in the National Boutique Fair, where they began an association with the New York Dolls, supplying them with stage wear and joining their group on tour in the UK and France.
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#96: Never Ending Story by Limahl
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: June 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Sweden’s Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austria Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on South Africa Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #2
YouTube: “Never Ending Story”
Lyrics: “Never Ending Story”
Christopher Hamill was born in 1958 in the suburbs of Manchester, England. He was an actor touring with the Palace Theatre Repertory Company. This included a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 1981 Hamill appeared in a minor role in the police-crime TV show The Gentle Touch. As well, Hamill was one of the actors in the “Stand and Deliver” music video with Adam and the Ants. He got a job as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. In 1982 he joined the band Kajagoogoo. Chris Hamill adopted his stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.
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#132: Love Resurrection by Alison Moyet
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: July-August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #11
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #82
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #10
YouTube: “Love Resurrection”
Lyrics: “Love Resurrection”
Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet was born in 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England. After leaving school at 16, she worked as a shop assistant and trained as a piano tuner. She was involved in a number of punk rock, pub rock and blues bands in the South East Essex area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Vandals, the Screamin’ Ab Dabs, the Vicars and the Little Roosters. At the age of 21, Moyet’s mainstream pop career began in 1982 with the formation of the synth-pop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke.
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#1: Why? by Bronski Beat
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: May 1985
Peak Position in Guelph #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Australian pop chart – #10
Peak Position on Belgian pop chart – #3
Peak Position on Dutch pop chart – #2
Peak Position on French pop chart – #8
Peak Position on Irish pop chart – #6
Peak Position on Italian pop chart – #5
Peak Position on New Zealand pop chart – #11
Peak Position on South African pop chart – #7
Peak Position on Spanish pop chart – #2
Peak Position on Swiss pop chart – #7
Peak Position on UK pop chart – #6
Peak Position on West German pop chart – #5
YouTube: “Why?”
Lyrics: “Why?”
James “Jimmy” Somerville was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1961. He moved to London in 1980 and attended the London Gay Teenage Group. In 1983 he co-founded Bronski Beat with Steven Forrest, the latter adopted the stage name Steve Bronski. Forrest was born in 1960 in Glasgow. Larry Steinbachek was also born in 1960, in his case in London. He worked as an electrician and was studying to be a musician prior to forming Bronski Beat. The three mates were sharing a flat in Brixton when they decided to form a group. They first performed publicly at an arts festival, September in the Pink. The trio were unhappy with the inoffensive nature of contemporary gay performers and sought to be more outspoken and political.
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#3: Unforgettable Fire by U2
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKIK
Peak Month: January 1985
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Unforgettable Fire”
Lyrics: “Unforgettable Fire”
U2 is a band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in September 1976. Its members include lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player Bono, lead guitar and keyboard player the Edge, synthesizer and guitar player Adam Clayton, and drummer and percussionist Larry Mullen Jr. The band formed when its members were all teenagers. The band had several name changes before they settled on U2 in 1978. By 1980 they had been awarded a contract with Island Records and released their debut album Boy. With the release of their second album in 1981, October, and the lead Top Ten single in Ireland called “Fire”, the band were emerging as a force.
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#11: Save A Prayer by Duran Duran
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Save A Prayer”
Lyrics: “Save A Prayer”
Duran Duran is a band from Birmingham, England, which formed in 1978. Stephen Duffy was born in Birmingham in 1960. In 1978 he was attending the School of Foundation Studies & Experimental Workshop at Birmingham Polytechnic. It was there he met John Taylor and his friend Nick Rhodes. Nigel John Taylor was born in 1960 in the West Midland city of Solihull. As a child, Taylor attended Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic school and the Abbey High School, in Redditch. He wore glasses due to severe myopia, and enjoyed James Bond movies. Taylor was interested in the hobby of wargaming with hand-painted model soldiers. In his early teen years, he discovered music, choosing Roxy Music as his favourite band, and before long was collecting records and teaching himself to play the piano. His first band was called Shock Treatment.
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#22: Crying Over You by Platinum Blonde
Peak Month: September 1985
Peak Position #1
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Crying Over You”
Lyrics: “Crying Over You”
Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. Steffler grew up in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, where his parents owned a 12-acre trailer park and campground called Jell-E-Bean Park. He started playing drums in 1972 and also became handy — learning everything from carpentry to plumbing — from his dad and uncle. At the same time he was playing drums in local bands, one being called Sledge. After high school, he worked at the shipyards in Collingwood and then in 1978 he moved to Toronto and started playing in bands. Sergio Galli had been in a band called Mace in 1979. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards.
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#58: Tears Are Not Enough by Northern Lights
Peak Month: April-May 1985
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Tears Are Not Enough”
Lyrics: “Tears Are Not Enough”
Northern Lights is the name given to the ensemble of Canadian pop music performers who recorded a charity single in 1985 to raise funds in response to the famine in Ethiopia. The single, “Tears Are Not Enough”, featured solo vocals by Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Dan Hill, Neil Young, Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, Bruce Cockburn, lead singer with Rush – Geddy Lee, and lead singer with Loverboy – Mike Reno. In addition, the following recording artists appeared singing on the recording in duos or trios: Mike Reno and Liberty Silver; Carroll Baker with Ronnie Hawkins and Murray McLauchlan; Francophone singers Véronique Béliveau, Robert Charlebois and Claude Dubois; Alfie Zappacosta and Lisa Dal Bello; Carol Pope and Paul Hyde, Salome Bey with Platinum Blonde lead singer Mark Holmes and the Parachute Clubs’ Lorraine Segato.
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#81: Into The Groove by Madonna
Peak Month: July 1985
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Into The Groove”
Lyrics: “Into The Groove”
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1958. Raised in the Pontiac, Michigan, Madonna’s mother died of cancer in 1963. While she was attending a Catholic middle school Madonna, as reported in Madonna: An Intimate Biography, would perform cartwheels and handstands in the hallways between classes, dangle by her knees from the monkey bars during recess, and pull up her skirt during class—all so that the boys could see her underwear. Madonna later told Vanity Fair that she saw herself in her youth as a “lonely girl who was searching for something. I wasn’t rebellious in a certain way. I cared about being good at something. I didn’t shave my underarms and I didn’t wear make-up like normal girls do.” After high school, she got a dance scholarship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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#87: Black Cars by Gino Vannelli
Peak Month: June 1985
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube.com: “Black Cars”
Lyrics: “Black Cars”
Gino Vannelli was born in Montreal in 1952. During his childhood he was exposed to jazz music and cabaret. His father was a cabaret singer and his mother had a good ear for music. Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Ed Thigpen were among the drummers that inspired young Gino. At the age of eleven, Gino was one of a group of elementary school-age drummers trying to audition for a Montreal band named The Cobras. He arrived home from school later than usual to announce he had been picked to be the new drummer for the band after impressing them with his rendition of “Wipeout”. In 1964, five years prior to the Jackson 5’s debut hit “I Want You Back” on Motown, Gino Vannelli happened to join a band in Montreal called the Jacksonville Five. And that Montreal band happened to tailor itself to Motown-sound-alike tunes when The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Mary Wells were all topping the charts. By 1966, Gino Vannelli became the lead singer of the Jacksonville Five when he replaced the current lead singer who couldn’t hit the high notes on Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”. He was fourteen.
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#88: You Spin Me Round by Dead Or Alive
Peak Month: August 1985
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube.com: “You Spin Me Round”
Lyrics: “You Spin Me Round”
Born in 1959 in Merseyside, UK, Peter Jozzeppi Burns dropped out of school when he was 14-years-old. He was raped by a man who took him for a drive, who he was acquainted with. Burns later recalled that he was not upset by the experience, although he knew that people would expect him to be. Burns got a job at Probe Record store in Liverpool. In 1977, he joined the Mystery Girls. In 1979 he formed Nightmares in Wax. But a change in musical direction, and lineup led to naming the band Dead or Alive in 1980.
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#169: Everything In My Heart by Corey Hart
Peak Month: December 1985
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Everything In My Heart”
Lyrics: “Everything In My Heart”
Corey Hart was born in 1962 in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for his international Top Ten hits “Sunglasses at Night” (#7 Billboard Hot 100) and “Never Surrender” (#3 Billboard Hot 100). Hart is known as one of Canada’s most successful singer-songwriters. He’s sold over 16 million records worldwide. On the Billboard Hot 100 Hart scored 9 consecutive Top 40 Hits. Back in Canada he succeeded in charting 30 top 40 singles (including 11 Top 10 singles during his career). Hart is a Grammy Nominated, ASCAP & multiple Juno and ADISQ award winner. He has also written and produced several songs for fellow Quebec recording star Celine Dion.
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#227: Cry by Godley and Crème
Peak Month: June 1985
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Cry”
Lyrics: “Cry”
Godley & Creme were a rock duo comprised of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. Kevin Michael Godley was born in 1945 in a suburb of Manchester, England. Raised in a Jewish family, he formed a group named Group 17, along with four other members of the Jewish Lads Brigade. Godley studied Art and Design at Stoke On Trent College of Art from 1966-68. In the late ’60s, Kevin Godley met Lol Creme at a wedding. Laurence Neil “Lol” Creme was born in 1947 in the same suburb of Prestwich as Kevin Godley. Creme was also raised in a Jewish family. The pair co-founded a band in 1970 named Hotlegs, who had a #2 hit in the UK titled “Neanderthal Man”. The band split in 1970 and morphed into 10cc.
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#338: Invisible by Alison Moyet
Peak Month: April 1985
13 weeks on CFMI’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “Invisible”
Lyrics: “Invisible”
Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet was born in 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England. After leaving school at 16, she worked as a shop assistant and trained as a piano tuner. She was involved in a number of punk rock, pub rock and blues bands in the South East Essex area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Vandals, the Screamin’ Ab Dabs, the Vicars and the Little Roosters. At the age of 21, Moyet’s mainstream pop career began in 1982 with the formation of the synth-pop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke.
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#389: Do They Know It’s Christmas? by Band Aid
Peak Month: January 1985
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Do They Know It’s Christmas”
Lyrics: “Do They Know It’s Christmas”
Band Aid was the name of a mostly British supergroup formed to record a song in response to news reports of the famine in Ethiopia. The famine had been ongoing since 1983, and recording artists were motivated by what they were seeing on TV broadcasts in the fall of 1984 as the situation worsened. Band Aid was comprised of members of British bands Bananarama, the Boomtown Rats, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Status Quo, Spandau Ballet, Style Council, and Ultravox. American R&B band Kool & The Gang – who happened to be in London during a visit to their record label in the UK – also agreed to take part in the project. As well, Phil Collins from Genesis, Sting from the Police, and George Michael from Wham! were featured vocalists.
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#432: Tokyo Rose by Idle Eyes
Peak Month: May 1985
14 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tokyo Rose”
Lyrics: “Tokyo Rose”
Tad Campbell was born in Vancouver (BC). After high school he found himself in Australia moonlighting for a band called the Daydream Islanders between shifts while working for a luxury liner that cruised around parts of the continent. In 1980 he replied to an ad looking for a guitarist, and ended up with the band playing for months at a resort in the Whitsunday Islands. A chambermaid at a hotel Campbell knew, Donna McConville, became the bands’ lead singer. Though they had other Australian musicians in the line-up, when Campbell and McConville decided to move to Vancouver, the other bandmates chose not to follow. Back in Vancouver the pair got a new lineup and called themselves Idle Eyes. But the lineup kept changing. Tad Campbell recalls that “their first tour was cancelled when the drummer backed out the day they were supposed to leave.” Part of the problem was that Idle Eyes was made up almost entirely of bandmates from New Zealand and Australia who had visa issues. Eventually, Donna McConville returned to Australia and became a backing singer for John Farnham.
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#692: We Run by Strange Advance
Peak Month: April 1985
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFMI chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “We Run”
Lyrics: “We Run”
From 1974 to 1977 Drew Arnott and Darryl Kromm played in a Vancouver band called Slan. The band was named after a science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer A. E. van Vogt. The band split up and the pair parted ways. But they reunited in the late ’70’s and in 1979 were playing gigs around Vancouver in a band named Remote Control. The bass player for Remote Control was Paul Iverson. The three met up in 1980 and formed a band named Metropolis. But they changed their name to Strange Advance when they learned another band in Germany had the name Metropolis.
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#558: At The Feet Of The Moon by The Parachute Club
Peak Month: January-February 1985
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “At The Feet Of The Moon”
Lyrics: “At The Feet Of The Moon”
Lorraine Christine Segato was born in 1956 in Hamilton (ON). She was the lead vocalist in the Toronto band Mama Quilla II, which formed in 1977. The seven-piece all-female band performed at Toronto’s first Bi-National Lesbian Conference in 1979, sponsored by the Lesbian Organization of Toronto (LOOT). The songwriter for Mama Quilla II was Susan Sturman. Billy Bryans also occasionally performed for the band on percussion. Interested in forming their own band to showcase songs that they were writing, Lorraine Segato and Billy Bryans formed a band named V. This soon morphed into the Parachute Club in 1982 when they invited Mama Quilla II member Laurie Conger to join them.
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#907: Situation Critical by Platinum Blonde
Peak Month: November 1985
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Situation Critical”
Lyrics: “Situation Critical”
Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards. But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You,” a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.
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#1239: Power Of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Peak Month: January 1985
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Power Of Love”
Lyrics: “Power Of Love”
William Johnson was born in 1960 in Liverpool, UK. Growing up, his nickname was Billy. In 1965 he wrote his first song on a glockenspiel. At the age of 13 he got the nickname Joyful Johnson and dyed his hair. He attended school with less frequency due to being bullied in response to his androgynous appearance. He was influenced by David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol and bought a guitar through the sale of cigarettes. At the age of 14 he took the name Holly Johnson in tribute to the actress Holly Woodlawn, a Puerto Rican transgendered actress and friend of Andy Warhol. In 1976 Holly Johnson became part of the Demi Monde in Liverpool’s hedonistic counter-culture. In 1977, Johnson became part of the punk/new wave band Big In Japan. After that band split in 1979, Johnson continued to pursue a musical career. In 1980 he was invited to join Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
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#904: Christmas Time by Bryan Adams
Peak Month: December 1985-January 1986
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Christmas Time”
Lyrics: “Christmas Time”
Born in Kingston, Ontario, in November 1959, Bryan Adams parents immigrated from the UK in the 1950s. His dad, Captain Conrad J. Adams, was a diplomat in the Canadian foreign service. While growing up his family was posted to Portugal, Austria and Israel. By the age of 15 Adams was playing with the band Sweeney Todd as a frontman. By the time he turned 17, Bryan Adams had landed work as a background vocalist for the CBC. His first salary came from working for Robbie King, a keyboard musician with Motown. During his senior years in high school he began playing music with his guitarist, Keith Scott.
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#1210: A Criminal Mind by Gowan
Peak Month: May 1985
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “A Criminal Mind”
Lyrics: “A Criminal Mind”
Lawrence Gowan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1956. His family moved to Scarborough, Canada, a suburb of Toronto, when he was a child. He recalls that his “marks in high-school were of a caliber that left me no option but to pursue the occupation of Rockstar.” He practiced piano and was trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He formed a trio called Rhindgold in 1976. As the lead vocalist and keyboardist, Lawrence Gowan also demonstrated acrobatics on the stage and dancing on top of his baby grand piano. Rhinegold was a progressive rock act in the mold of Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes.
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