#23: Memories Are Made Of This by the Drifters
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #8
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Memories Are Made Of This”
Lyrics: “Memories Are Made Of This”
Clyde McPhatter was born in the historic African-American district of Hayti in Durham, North Carolina, on November 15, 1932. Starting at the age of five, he sang in his father’s Baptist church gospel choir along with his three brothers and three sisters. When he was 10, Clyde was the soprano-voiced soloist for the choir. When his family moved to Harlem after he graduated, Clyde formed a gospel group, the Mount Lebanon Singers. In 1950, after winning the coveted Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater contest, McPhatter returned to his job as a grocery store manager. He was discovered singing the choir in the Holiness Baptist Church of New York City by Billy Ward of Billy Ward and his Dominoes and was recruited into the group.
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#20: Too Little Time by Brenda Lee
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #123
YouTube: “Too Little Time”
Lyrics: “Too Little Time”
Brenda Mae Tarpley was born in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her parents were poor. During her childhood, young Brenda shared a sagging iron bed with her brother and sister in a series of three-room houses. They had no running water. Here parents went from job to job. After the stock market crash in 1929, Brenda’s mother would recall “you could hardly buy a job.” The region was devastated by an infestation of the boll weevil. Brenda started singing solos each Sunday at the Baptist church where her family attended. In her 2002 autobiography, she wrote “I grew up so poor, and it saddens me to see the poverty that is still there. A lot of my family have never done any better. Some of them are just exactly where they were when I was a kid. And in a way, there is still something inside of me that is a part of that, the part that doesn’t expect much. Little things make them happy, and that’s the same with me.”
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#6: Silhouettes by Steve Gibson and the Red Caps
City: Smiths Falls, ON
Radio Station: CJET
Peak Month: November 1957
Peak Position in Smiths Falls ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #63
YouTube: “Silhouettes”
Lyrics: “Silhouettes”
On his website, Marv Goldberg writes “In the music world of the late 30s and early 40s, there were many pioneer black vocal groups, all of whom owed a common debt to the Mills Brothers and Ink Spots. However, other influences were also apparent in their styles. Swing and big band jazz had a tremendous impact in the 30s, and myriad small combo jazz and jive groups resulted, often with members drawn from the larger orchestras. In parallel with this trend were the vocal groups that evolved from these combos in the 30s. In them, all members played (and vocally imitated) instruments besides singing – a combination that all but disappeared from R&B by the middle 50s. It was in this atmosphere that the group later known as the 5 Red Caps was born. While there were vocal groups in all cities with large black populations, in the 1930s many of them flocked to the Los Angeles area because, in addition to niteclubs, theaters, and radio, there were also opportunities to work in films and cartoon soundtracks. Three of these groups had a hand in the formation of the Red Caps: the original Basin Street Boys, the 4 Blackbirds, and the 5 Jones Boys. In 1938, they would coalesce into the 4 Toppers, the predecessor to the Red Caps.”
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#21: From A Distance by P.F. Sloan
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “From A Distance”
Lyrics: “From A Distance”
Philip Gary Schlein was born in New York City in 1945. His mom was born in Romania and his dad in the USA. The family moved to West Hollywood when Philip was twelve years old. His father was a pharmacist and had the family name changed legally since Philip’s dad was repeatedly denied a liquor license for his store. The new surname, Sloan, gave Philip’s dad no hassles and the family business thrived. In 1958 Philip was given a guitar as a present. Prior to being drafted into the US Army, Elvis Presley gave Philip Sloan a quick guitar lesson at a music store in Hollywood. By the age of 14 Philip Sloan’s nickname was “Flip,” a variant of Philip. So he became P (Philip) F (Flip) Sloan. At 16, “Flip” Sloan got a position as a songwriter with Screen Gems in Los Angeles. In addition to songwriting, Sloan teamed up with Steve Barri. The pair recorded several records hoping for a hit single. They failed at getting any notice when releasing singles under the names The Lifeguards, Themes Inc., The Rally-Packs and The Wildcats. And they barely registered on the charts in 1964 as Philip and Stephan with “When You’re Near You’re So Far Away”, or as The Street Cleaners with “That’s Cool, That’s Trash”.
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#8: When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around by the Police
City: Sherbrooke, PQ
Radio Station: CKTS
Peak Month: May 1981
Peak Position in Sherbrooke ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube: “When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
Lyrics: “When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born in Wallsend on Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, England, in 1951. His mother was a hairdresser and his father was a milkman and engineer. When he was ten-years-old, young Sumner got introduced to Spanish guitar, when a family friend left it at the Sumner residence. After high school he was variously a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer. He went to college and from 1974-76 was a public school teacher. Sumner performed jazz in the evening, weekends and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. He gained his nickname, “Sting,” due to his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought Sumner looked like a bee which prompted the name “Sting.” According to Sting, in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, “they thought I looked like a wasp, and they’d joke. They called me Sting. They thought it was hilarious…That became my name.”
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#9: You Gotta Have Love by Robbie Lane & the Disciples
City: Saint John, NB
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in Saint John ~ #9
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “You Gotta Have Love”
Lyrics: N/A
The Disciples were formed when Robbie Lane held auditions with members of various local bands in greater Toronto during the early sixties. By the summer of 1963 the lineup was Lane, Domenic Troiano on guitar, drummer Sonny Milne, Marty Fisher on piano, bassist Gene Trach, Bert Herriston on sax and flute, and William Cudmore on harmonica, sax and keyboards. After toiling away in the club scene their big break was when Ronnie Hawkins hired them in December of ’63 as a back up plan, since he knew his Hawks were intending to leave the nest.
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#5: Sunny by Boney M
City: Sept-Iles, PQ
Radio Station: CKCN
Peak Month: June 1977
Peak Position in Sept-Iles ~ #8
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on the Austrian pop chart – #1
Peak Position on the Belgian pop chart – #1
Peak Position on the Dutch pop chart = #1
Peak Position on the French pop chart – #1
Peak Position on the West German pop chart – #1
Peak Position on the Swiss pop chart – #2
Peak Position on the British pop chart – #3
Peak Position on the Irish pop chart – #4
Peak Position on the Norwegian pop chart – #4
Peak Position on the Finnish pop chart – #6
Franz Reuther was born in 1941 in Kirn, Germany, in the Rheinland-Pfalz region bordering France. After graduating from school, he began to work as a cook. But in 1967 he released a single credited to Frank Farian. In 1974 he wrote a song titled “Baby Do You Wanna Bump”. In 1975 the single was released under the pseudonym Boney M. He got Marcia Barrett and Liz Mitchell to sing vocals for the debut Boney M. album. Barrett was born in Saint Catherine Parish in Jamaica in 1948. She moved to England in 1963 with her parents. In the late 60s, Barrett moved to West Germany and sang with Czechoslovakian singer Karel Gott who was known as “the Golden Voice of Prague.” Gott had three Top Ten albums in Germany between 1968 and 1971. Barrett also toured with the band of German singer Rex Gildo. After signing with a West German record label in 1971, Marcia Barrett toured with her German-language covers of “Son Of A Preacher Man” and “Oh Happy Day”.
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#22: Rock And Bird by Cowboy Junkies
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: October 1990
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Rock And Bird”
Lyrics: “Rock And Bird”
The Cowboy Junkies were formed in 1985 by Alan Anton on bass guitar, Michael Timmins on guitarist, Peter Timmins on drums and Margo Timmins on vocals. The three Timminses are siblings. Alan Anton worked with Michael Timmins during their first couple of bands prior to the formation of the Cowboy Junkies, including the Hunger Project. This was followed by an improvisational band named Germinal. In 1985, a fourth sibling, John Timmins, was also member of the band. But he but left the group before the recording of their debut studio album in 1986. The band line-up has never changed since: Margo, Michael, and Peter Timmins, and Alan Anton. All were born in Montreal. Michael and Alan in 1959, Margo in 1961, and Peter Timmins in 1965. When Margo was lobbied to join the Cowboy Junkies, she recalls, “I was contemplating going on to graduate school, staying in school. That was safe. I never wanted to be a musician or be onstage.”
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#6: If You Don’t Want My Love by Jack London & The Sparrows
City: Saint John, NB
Radio Station: CHSJ
Peak Month: January 1965
Peak Position in Saint John ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “If You Don’t Want My Love”
Lyrics: N/A
The original Jack London and the Sparrows line-up was formed in Oshawa, Ontario, in early 1964. It was founded by British émigré Dave Marden, who took the stage name Jack London. He was born in 1944, in London, England. Another bandmate was guitarist Dennis Edmonton, who was born Dennis McCrohan, in 1943, in Oshawa. A third original member was keyboard player Dave Hare, who later played with Everyday People. Jack London and the Sparrows began as a beat group and played heavily on Dave Marden’s English background. Their early repertoire reflected the influence of the “British invasion” and London even went as far as coaxing the others to “fake” English accents, in order to convince the audience that they had just arrived from England. Early on, Dennis’ brother Jerry Edmonton, born Jerry McCrohan, in 1946, in Oshawa, joined the band on drums. The group began to build up a local following, playing at various venues, such as the local Jubilee Auditorium (which was owned by the Edmonton brothers’ father).
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#1: Rockabilly Party by Hugo and Luigi
City: Saint-Jerome, PQ
Radio Station: CKJL
Peak Month: July 1957
Peak Position in Saint-Jerome ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Rockabilly Party”
Lyrics: N/A
Hugo Peretti was born in New York City in 1916 in an Italian-American family. Peretti began his music career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Borscht Belt in update New York. He graduated to playing with orchestras, then partnered with his cousin Luigi Creatore. Luigi Creatore was born in New York City in 1921, also to an Italian-American family. His father, Giuseppe Creatore, was an orchestra bandleader. Luigi was drafted into the United States military in WWII. Once the pair teamed up, they cowrote “Wimoweh” (along with four other cowriters) which was a #4 hit for The Weavers in 1952. They also cowrote Sarah Vaughan’s #14 hit in 1955 “Experience Unnecessary”. They also produced a number of hits for Jimmie Rodgers including “Honeycomb”, “Oh-Oh, I’m Falling In Love Again”, “Secretly”, “Bombombey”, “Are You Really Mine” and other hits for .
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