#6: Graceland by Paul Simon
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: January 1987
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #4
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. His dad was a bandleader who went by the name Lou Sims. When he was eleven years old he met Art Garfunkel and were both part of a sixth grade drama production of Alice In Wonderland. By 1954 Paul and Art were singing at school dances. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the name “Tom & Jerry”, a name that was given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.
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#15: Lady Of The 80s by Loverboy
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: June 1981
Peak Position in Regina ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Lady Of The 80s”
Lyrics: “Lady Of The 80s”
Loverboy is a band formed in 1979. It has been stated by Mike Reno that their name was chosen due to a dream by Paul Dean. He had come up with the name after spending the previous night with some of the bandmates, including Reno and their girlfriends, before going to the movies. The girlfriends were browsing through fashion magazines, where the guys in the band saw a Cover Girl advertisement. Cover Girl became Cover Boy, and then became Loverboy in Dean’s dream later that night. After being told by Dean about the dream the next morning, Reno agreed to try it out and it stuck.
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#60: Russians by Sting
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: March 1986
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #8
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #11
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #11
Peak Position in UK Singles chart ~ #12
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #13
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Russians”
Lyrics: “Russians”
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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#23: Pretty Flamingo by Manfred Mann
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: August 1966
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Rhodesian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Pretty Flamingo”
Lyrics: “Pretty Flamingo”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. (Mike Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1940, and had studied jazz growing up). They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. They added Paul Jones and Tom McGuiness to the band, the latter who was with Eric Clapton’s band The Roosters.
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#10: Radar Love by Golden Earring
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August-September 1974
Peak Position Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Radar Love”
Lyrics: “Radar Love”
Golden Earring is a Dutch band formed in 1961 in The Hague. Founder George Kooymans was born in The Hague in 1948. Together with Rinus Gerritsen, they originally formed a duo called The Tornados. But changed their name to The Golden Earrings when they learnt of The Tornados, the UK instrumental group who had just had a hit with “Telstar”. The name The Golden Earrings was taken from an instrumental called “Golden Earrings” performed by the British group the Hunters, for whom they served as opening and closing act. Gerritsen was also born in The Hague, in 1946, and learned to play bass guitar. The duo added more musicians to expand to a pop-rock band. The Golden Earrings had a Top Ten Dutch pop hit with their debut single “Please Go”, recorded in 1965. In 1966, “That Day” reached #2 on the Dutch pop singles chart. These singles had some echoes of The Beatles sound in the mid-60s.
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#26: Tenderness by General Public
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: January-February 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “Tenderness”
Lyrics: “Tenderness”
General Public was a new wave band formed in 1983 in Birmingham, UK. It was co-founded by Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger. Wakeling was born in Birmingham in 1956. He learned how to play guitar and formed a second-wave ska band in Birmingham in 1978 called The Beat. They successfully covered Smokey Robinson & The Miracles 1970 hit “Tears of A Clown” which reached #6 on the UK singles chart in 1979. In 1980, “Hands Off…She’s Mine” topped the pop chart in Ireland. This was followed by “Mirror In the Bathroom” which was a Top Ten hit in both Ireland and the UK. In 1983, The Beat covered Andy Williams 1963 hit “Can’t Get Used To Losing You”. It became a Top Ten hit in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
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#10: Baby Can I Hold You by Tracy Chapman
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: January 1989
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Baby Can I Hold You”
Lyrics: “Baby Can I Hold You”
Tracy Chapman was born in 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother gave her a ukulele to play at the age of three. Her parents were divorced when she was four. Chapman began playing guitar and writing songs at age eight. She says that she may have been first inspired to play the guitar by the television show Hee Haw. Growing up she experienced frequent bullying and racially motivated assaults. She attended Tufts University. Chapman recorded demos of songs at the Tufts University radio station, WMFO, for copyright purposes while she was a student at Tufts, in exchange for the station’s right to play her songs. In 1987, she signed a contract with Elektra Records.
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#8: I Don’t Need No Doctor by Humble Pie
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
Lyrics: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
Humble Pie was a band formed in Moreton, Essex, England, in 1969. The co-founders of the band were Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott. Frampton was born in 1950 in Beckenham, Kent. By the age of 12, Frampton played in a band called the Little Ravens. Both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at BromleyTechnical School, where Frampton’s father was Bowie’s art teacher. The Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie’s band, George and the Dragons. Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs. At the age of 14, Peter was playing with a band called the Trubeats followed by a band called the Preachers, who later became Moon’s Train, produced and managed by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. Frampton became a successful child singer, and in 1966 he became a member of the Herd. He was the lead guitarist and singer, scoring several British pop hits. Frampton was named “The Face of 1968” by teen magazine Rave.
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#2: Linda Lu by Ray Sharpe
City: Saint Jerome, PQ
Radio Station: CKJL
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position Saint Jerome ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #27
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
YouTube: “Linda Lu”
Lyrics: “Linda Lu”
Ray Sharpe was born in 1938 in Fort Worth (TX). He learned guitar, influenced by Chuck Berry recordings. In 1956, he formed his own trio named Ray Sharpe and the Blues Whalers, with piano player Raydell Reese and drummer Cornelius Bell. They became popular playing rock and roll in Fort Worth clubs. Early in 1958, Artie Glenn (the writer of “Crying in the Chapel” which became a number-one R&B hit for the Orioles in 1953) gave Ray the opportunity to record two demos, both self-penned songs. Glenn sent copies of the demo to various people, including Lee Hazlewood and Lester Sill. They invited Sharpe to come to Phoenix for a session on April 2, 1958. His recording career started when Lee Hazelwood produced his single, “That’s the Way I Feel” / “Oh, My Baby’s Gone” on the Hamilton label. Both Duane Eddy and legendary session musician and rhythm guitarist Al Casey were in the studio with Ray Sharpe for his debut recording.
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#34: Fashion Victim by Rough Trade
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: February 1981
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fashion Victim”
Lyrics: “Fashion Victim”
Kevan Staples was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1950. His parents were musicians and artists. Carole Pope was born in Manchester, UK, also in 1950. Her father was a stilt walker and her mother a music hall performer. The Popes moved from Manchester to Montreal in 1955. They later moved to Toronto. Growing up, Carole studied sculpture. Kevan Staples and Carole Pope met at an audition in 1968 for Deva Loca Sideshow, a band that never ended up forming. In 1969, Staples and Pope began performing as a folk duo named O. They appeared in clubs in Toronto’s Yorkville neighborhood. In the 1960’s, Yorkville showcased the hippie movement for the rest of Canada, at least on the TV news. Yorkville was hyped as a magnet for intellectuals, artists and musicians. Writers, Margaret Atwood and Gwendolyn MacEwan, and singer-songwriters Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were all part of the scene. Staples and Pope subsequently formed the Bullwhip Brothers in 1971. Finally, they changed their name to Rough Trade in 1974. O, Bullwhip Brothers and Rough Trade each drew on sexual satire, the latter from gay male iconography. In 1976, Carole Pope appeared in a concert titled Torch Showcase at a venue named A Space, in Toronto. She performed “The One Who Really Loves You” by Mary Wells and “You’re My World” by Cilla Black.
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