#241: Gloria’s Theme by Adam Wade
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: December 1960
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #9
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #49
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube: “Gloria’s Theme”
Lyrics: “Gloria’s Theme”
Patrick Henry “Adam” Wade was born in 1935 in Pittsburgh (PA). After high school he worked as a lab assistant with Dr. Jonas Salk on a polio research team. Wade began to pursue a recording career, signing with Coed Records in 1959. His first single release was “Tell Her for Me” which climbed to #66 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album, And Then Came Adam, was released late that year. The liner notes exclaim:
From the world of science to the glittering world of entertainment, from test tubes to records, from guinea-pigs to real live audiences – this is the unorthodox and exciting saga of Adam Wade thus far. Although he has been a member of the entertainment fraternity for no more than a few months, his achievements in such a short space of time have given us an indiction that Adam is a talent to be reckoned with – one who will be a leading personality in popular music for many years to come.
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#3: Love Me To Pieces by Jill Corey
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CKOY
Peak Months: July-August and October 1957
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
YouTube: “Love Me To Pieces”
Lyrics: “Love Me To Pieces”
Jill Corey (born Norma Jean Speranza) was born in 1935 in Avonmore, Pennsylvania. Her father was a coal miner in this western Pennsylvanian coal mining town. Her mother died when she was four-years-old. She began singing as an imitator of Carmen Miranda at family gatherings, on amateur shows in grade school, and contralto in the local church choir. At the age of 13, she began to develop her own style. She won first prize at a talent contest sponsored by the Lions Club, which entitled her to sing a song on WAVL in Apollo, Pennsylvania. This got her an offer to have her own program. By the age of 14 she was working seven nights a week, earning $5-$6 a night, with a local orchestra led by Johnny Murphy. From 1950 to 1956 she was a regular on the television variety program Robert Q’s Matinee. By the age of 17 she was a local celebrity talent.
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#4: Four Strong Winds by Neil Young
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: February 1979
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #30
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube: “Four Strong Winds”
Lyrics: “Four Strong Winds”
Neil Young was born in Toronto in 1945. His family moved to Omemee, Ontario, and he contracted polio in 1951, two years before the polio vaccine was introduced. He learned guitar and dropped out of high school. He played in the Winnipeg based band called The Squires, who toured parts of Manitoba and northern Ontario. They played instrumental covers of Cliff Richard’s backup band, The Shadows. Young moved to California in 1966 where he was a founding member of the Buffalo Springfield. In 1968 he released his self-titled debut studio album. And in 1969 he became the fourth member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
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#1277: Till The End of The Day by The Kinks
Peak Month: May 1966
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #50
YouTube: “Till the End of the Day”
Lyrics: “Till the End of the Day”
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in 1963 in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray Davies and Dave Davies, Mick Avory, and Pete Quaife. Ray Davies was born in 1944 in London. He received a Spanish guitar for his 13th birthday. At the age of 18 he was a member of the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band, and also fronted the Ray Davies Quartet. Davies then joined the Hamilton King Band until June 1963. Dave Davies was born in London in 1947. He learned to play skiffle music, and later electric guitar. Peter Quaife was born in 1943 in Devon. He learned bass guitar in his teens and formed the Ravens with Ray and Dave Davies in 1963. Continue reading →
#1451: Purple Haze by Dion
Peak Month: February 1969
Peak Position ~ #16
5 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #63
YouTube: “Purple Haze”
Lyrics: “Purple Haze”
Dion Francis DiMucci was born in the Bronx, NY, in 1939. His parents named him Dion in honor of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplents who captured the interest of millions around the world after the five infants were born in May 1934. Dion’s dad, Pasquale DiMucci, was a vaudeville performer and Dion accompanied him to see his dad on stage. As a child he was given an $8 dollar guitar by his uncle while he lived on 183rd Street. Dion’s childhood was set in the midst of conflict between his parents. In an interview with New York Magazine in 2007, Dion remembers “…There was a lot of unresolved conflict in my house… My pop, Pasquale, couldn’t make the $36-a-month rent on our apartment at 183rd and Crotona Avenue.” He was a dreamer, a failed vaudevillian, and sometimes Catskills puppeteer. He’d talk big and lift weights he’d made from oilcans, while Frances, Mrs. DiMucci, took two buses and the subway downtown to work in the garment district on a sewing machine. “When they’d start yelling, I’d go out on the stoop with my $8 Gibson and try to resolve things that way.”
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#5: Daddy Cool by Boney M
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: February 1977
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spanish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Finnish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on South African Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on British Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Daddy Cool”
Lyrics: “Daddy Cool”
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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#6: Angeleyes by ABBA
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: December 1979
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
YouTube: “Angeleyes”
Lyrics: “Angeleyes”
ABBA is a pop band from Sweden. Agneta Fältskog was born in 1950 in the lakeside city of Jönköping in southern Sweden. Fältskog wrote her first song at the age of six, which she named “Två små troll” (“Two Small Trolls”). In 1958, she began taking piano lessons, and also sang in a local church choir. In early 1960, Fältskog formed a musical trio, the Cambers. At age 15 she left school to pursue a career in music. She considers Connie Francis, Lesley Gore, Aretha Franklin and Marianne Faithfull as her prime influences on her musical style. Fältskog worked on reception for a car firm while performing with the Bernt Enghardt band. In 1967 she wrote “Jag var så kär” (“I Was So in Love”), after a dating relationship ended. The single topped the Swedish pop charts in early 1968. That year she met Björn Ulvaeus, a member of the Hootenanny Singers. Ulvaeus was born in the western coast city of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1945. In the early Sixties, Ulvaeus joined the Hootenanny Singers. They had a #5 hit in Sweden in 1964 with “Gabrielle”, based on the Russian folksong “May Here Always Be Sunshine”. The folk group had many Top Ten hits in Sweden into the early 70s, including a cover of “Green, Green Grass of Home” (“En sång en gång för längese’n”).
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#7: Everytime I See Your Picture by Luba
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: April 1983
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube: “Everytime I See Your Picture”
Lyrics: “Everytime I See Your Picture”
Lubomyra Kowalchyk was born in 1958 in Montreal, Quebec. During her teens she travelled across Canada performing traditional Ukrainian folk songs at weddings and festivals. Growing up she studied piano, guitar, flute and voice. She was a fine-arts student when she formed a band called Zorya in 1973, releasing an album. In 1977 she released her second album titled. Lubomyra. In 1978 she formed a band named Luba with herself as the lead vocalist. Then, when her father died in 1979, she wrote what would become her signature song, “Everytime I See Your Picture”, as a tribute to him.
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#27: When A Man Loves A Woman by Luba
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: January 1988
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Lyrics: “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Lubomyra Kowalchyk was born in 1958 in Montreal, Quebec. During her teens she travelled across Canada performing traditional Ukrainian folk songs at weddings and festivals. Growing up she studied piano, guitar, flute and voice. She was a fine-arts student when she formed a band called Zorya in 1973, releasing an album. In 1977 she released her second album titled. Lubomyra. In 1978 she formed a band named Luba with herself as the lead vocalist. Then, when her father died in 1979, she wrote what would become her signature song, “Everytime I See Your Picture”, as a tribute to him. The first studio album for the band Luba, Chain Reaction, was released in 1980. A Luba (EP) was released in 1982 containing “Every time I See Your Picture”. The song climbed to #1 in Ottawa, #3 in Halifax, #6 in Montreal and #11 in Kitchener (ON). She performed in front of 12,000 rock fans at the Montreal Forum in January 1983. She was the opening act at that concert for the headliner Chris de Burgh.
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#9: I’m Into Something Good by Herman’s Hermits
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: November 1964
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart #5
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #7
YouTube: “I’m Into Something Good”
Lyrics: “I’m Into Something Good”
Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone was born in a suburb of Manchester, England, in 1947. Keith Hopwood was born in 1946, in the same suburb of Davyhulme. Karl Anthony Green was born in 1947, also in Davyhulme. Derek “Lek” Leckenby was born in Leeds in 1943. Jan Barry Whitwam was born in 1946 in Manchester. Both Leckenby and Whitwam were members of a band called the Wailers who played covers by Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and other early rock recording artists. Peter Noone originally was in an amateur band called the Cyclones. He moved on to the Heartbeats in 1961, a Buddy Holly cover band. Just after he turned 14, Noone debuted on Coronation Street, playing the role of Stanley Fairclough starting in December 1961. In the fall of 1962 Herman’s Hermits was formed. Peter Noone was the lead vocalist. Karl Green played bass guitar. Keith Hopwood played rhythm guitar. “Lek” Leckenby played lead guitar and Barry Whitwam played drums.
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