#31: Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square) by Tony Bennett

City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: October 1956
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”
Lyrics: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in New York City in 1926. His parents were grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (nee Suraci), and he was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. Both parents had come from the Calabria region in southern Italy. With a father who was ailing and unable to work, Anthony and his brother and sister grew up with their parents in poverty. Anthony had an uncle in vaudeville who inspired him as a young child to consider entertaining as a career. By age 10 Anthony was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around Queens. Though he had an aptitude to study painting and music, he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. Anthony mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a nightclub in Paramus, New Jersey.

Continue reading →

#38: Love Has Remembered Me by April Wine

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: November 1985
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Love Has Remembered Me”
Lyrics: “Love Has Remembered Me”

April Wine is a Canadian rock band that has released 34 singles, 16 studio albums and 9 live albums. They formed in Waverly, Nova Scotia, in 1969. The founding members were brothers David Henman (guitar) and Ritchie Henman (drums) and Myles Goodwyn (lead vocals, guitar). The Henman brothers cousin Jim Henman was also part of the band, but was replaced by bass player Jim Clench in 1971, a year after the band moved to Montreal and released their self-titled debut album. Miles Francis Goodwin was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, in 1948. James Patrick Clench was born in Montreal in 1949. The Henman brothers were born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Continue reading →

#39: Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me) ~ Red Rider

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: July 1984
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ Getting Airplay
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #71
YouTube: “Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me)”
Lyrics: “Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me)”

Tom Cochrane was born in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, in 1953. When he was eleven he got his first guitar. In his late teens and early twenties, he performed in coffee houses across Canada in the early 70’s. His debut album, Hang On To Your Resistance, was released in 1974. Then Tom Cochrane made his way to Los Angeles. In 1975, Cochrane got work composing theme music for the movie My Pleasure Is My Business. This was a film about Xavier Hollander, the call girl and adult film star who authored her own memoir, The Happy Hooker, in 1971. Unable to get subsequent work in Hollywood, Cochrane returned to Canada for drive a taxi and work on a cruise line. At a concert at the El Mocambo for Red Rider in 1978, Tom Cochrane met the band. Soon after Cochrane was invited to join Red Rider.

Continue reading →

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: July 1986
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Standin’ In Line”
Lyrics: “Standin’ In Line”

In 1981 five musicians in Charlottetown formed a band they named Haywire. They were keyboard player David Rashed, vocalist and steel pan drummer Paul MacAusland, guitarist Marvin Birt, drummer Scott Roberts and bass player Ronnie Switzer. In 1984 they entered the Homegrown Vol. 1 contest on Halifax, Nova Scotia, FM station Q104. The next year Haywire won the Labatt’s Battle of the Bands in Saint John, New Brunswick. Winning $10,000 first prize, they used their prize money to record a 5-song EP. It sold over 5,000 copies across in the Maritimes. In 1986 Music Express Magazine named Haywire ‘Canada’s Best Group’. The accolades won Haywire a five-album contract with Attic Records. By this time Sean Kilbride had become the band’s drummer.

Continue reading →

#1: Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight by James Taylor

City: Fort St. John, BC
Radio Station: CKNL
Peak Month: February 1973
Peak Position in Fort St. John ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”
Lyrics: “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”

James Vernon Taylor was born in Boston in 1948. From the age of three, he lived with his family in North Carolina. Taylor would say later “Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people.” During his childhood he took cello lessons, and picked up guitar at the age of 12. James Taylor got to know people in the folk music scene on Martha’s Vineyard, where his family had a vacation home. In 1963 he was playing coffeehouses on the island as part of a duo named Jamie & Kootch. But in 1961 he was enrolled in a boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts. The pressures of the school were too much for the very sensitive James, even though he was doing well academically. Back in North Carolina he became depressed and by 1965 was sleeping for 20 hours a day.

Continue reading →

#24: The Sun Always Shines On T.V. by A-ha

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: February 1986
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #4
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Danish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Finnish Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on South African Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #9
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #10
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #12
YouTube: “The Sun Always Shines On T.V.”
Lyrics: “The Sun Always Shines On T.V.”

A-ha is a Norwegian synth-pop band. It was founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy who was born with the name Pål Gamst in 1961 in Tonsenhagen, in suburban Oslo. Pål first to learn the flute, then he studied music composition. His performance skill revealed him to be a child prodigy. He was later known as Pål Waaktaar and co-founded the Oslo band Bridges in 1978. Bridges released two albums and folded in 1981. The following year, Paul Waaktaar founded A-ha. Lead singer, Morten Harket, was born in 1959 in the mining town of Kongsberg, Norway. At the age of 4, he started writing music and playing piano. The third bandmate is Magne Furuholmen. He was born in 1962 and learned to play keyboards and guitar. In 1978, he joined Bridges along with Paul Waaktaar.

Continue reading →

#42: Queen of the Broken Hearts by Loverboy

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: October 1983
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #34
YouTube: “Queen of the Broken Hearts”
Lyrics: “Queen of the Broken Hearts”

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.

Continue reading →

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: March 1964
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Citizen Freak: “Mountain Of Ice/School Days”

Barry Ennis was born in 1942 in Eston, Saskatchewan. He was the lead singer of Barry Ennis and the Keymen in the mid-sixties. The band formed in 1963 when Ennis was 21-years-old. In 1964, he released the single “Mountain Of Ice” with the B-side “School Days”.

Continue reading →

#53: Deep Cuts The Knife by Helix

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #12
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Deep Cuts The Knife”
Lyrics: “Deep Cuts The Knife”

Helix was a heavy metal band formed in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1974. The classic lineup for the band included Brent Doerner and Paul Hackman on guitar, Daryl Gray on bass guitar, Greg “Fritz” Hinz on drums, and Brian Vollmer the lead singer. Vollmer was born in 1955 in Listowel, Ontario. Hackman was born in 1953 in St. Thomas, Ontario. He played in two local bands, Whitehorse and Purple Wedge, and joined Helix in 1976 when there was a lineup change. The band was formed to enter a Battle of the Bands in Kitchener in 1974. At first they were named the Helix Field Band, and later shortened to Helix. A helix is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring, or the thread of a machine screw. Helix released their debut album, Breaking Loose, in 1979. The band released In 1984, they released their fourth studio album titled Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge. A track from the album, “Rock You”, reached the Top 30 on the Canadian RPM Top 100 Singles chart in 1984.  Continue reading →

#44: Sweet Impossible You by Brenda Lee

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: October 1963
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #45
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
Peak Position on the UK Singles chart ~ #28
YouTube: “Sweet Impossible You”
Lyrics: “Sweet Impossible You”

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.”

Continue reading →