#54: Listen To The Radio by Pukka Orchestra
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: May 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Listen To The Radio”
Lyrics: “Listen To The Radio”
The Pukka Orchestra was formed in Toronto in 1979. The core of the band consisted of vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Graeme Williamson (born in Glasgow, Scotland) and guitarists/co-songwriters Neil Chapman and Tony Duggan-Smith. The band’s name is derived from the Hindi word pukka, which means “Genuine”, “Authentic”, “First Class”. The name was coined by Duggan-Smith’s extremely British grandfather who had been the harbourmaster of Calcutta and had later worked for Marconi. When Duggan-Smith told him he was playing music for a living his grandfather replied, “That’s all very nice Tony, but don’t bother with any mediocre bands, get yourself into a Pukka Orchestra”. The band made frequent use of numerous guest musicians, jokingly commenting “Are you in the Pukka Orchestra? Why not, everyone else is.”
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#55: Walk Away by The Box
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: May 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Walk Away”
Lyrics: “Walk Away”
The Box was formed in 1981 by former Men Without Hats keyboard player Jean-Marc Pisapia. He was born in 1957 in Montreal and learned to play piano at the age of four. He studied architecture at the University of Montreal. After a summer tour with Men Without Hats in 1981, Jean-Marc formed Checkpoint Charlie, inviting guitarist Guy Florent and bass guitarist Jean-Pierre Brie to join him. In 1983, the band added Jean-Marc’s brother, Guy Pisapia, on keyboards. This enabled Jean-Marc to give his attention primarily to lead vocals. At this time the band changed their name to The Box. In 1984 The Box released a self-titled album with a debut single titled “Walk Away”.
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#33: Bow Down (To The Dollar) by Joshua
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Bow Down (To The Dollar)”
Joshua was a band from Woodstock, Ontario. They first signed to GRT of Canada Ltd. in 1971 by Harry Hinde. Much of their vocal work comprised of intricate three-part vocal harmonies. There was also a good blend of raw rock ‘n roll, and funky rhythms with some pretty good guitar and keyboard work. The members of the band were Al Feth, Bill Broadhurst, Carl Burgess (on guitar), Don Dunlop, and Pat Gamble (born 1952) on drums.
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#75: Act Of An Innocent by Parachute Club
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ New on LG73 (Hit Bound)
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Act Of An Innocent”
Lyrics: “Act Of An Innocent”
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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#1: Makin’ Love by Floyd Robinson
City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Makin’ Love”
Lyrics: “Makin’ Love”
Floyd Robinson was born in 1932 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 17. In 1954, he released a hillbilly song he wrote titled “G-I-R-L, Girls”. It contained the lyric “We can penetrate the ocean, we can fly around the world. But there just ain’t no answer for G-I-R-L girls.” This was followed later that year with “Love, Love, Love”. He wrote “Little Space Girl” (uncredited according to Wikipedia) which was a Top 20 for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner in early 1959. Robinson recorded “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” but it got little notice. Both “Little Space Girl” and “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” used the Chipmunk-like high-pitched squeaky vocals found in “The Chipmunk Song”. Robinson’s followup was “Makin’ Love”.
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#3: Get Down by Curtis Mayfield
City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube: “Get Down”
Lyrics: “Get Down”
Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago in 1942. Mayfield received his first guitar when he was ten, later recalling that he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it. At the age of 14 in 1956, he joined his high school friend Jerry Butler’s group The Roosters with brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks. He wrote and composed songs for this group who would become The Impressions two years later. Mayfield was with the Impressions when they backed Jerry Butler on the Top Ten hit in 1958 titled “For Your Precious Love”. At the age of 17 in 1960, Mayfield co-wrote “He Will Break Your Heart”. The song became a number-one R&B hit for Jerry Butler, and a #7 crossover pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 which also reached #5 in Montreal.
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#38: Still by the Sunrays
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: May 1966
Peak Position in London ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #42
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #93
YouTube: “Still”
Lyrics: “Still”
Eddy Medora was born in Los Angeles in 1945. He writes about the backstory to the Sunrays. “We were called the Renegades. We were a garage band rehearsing in my parents home in Pacific Palisades. We were in 7th and 8th grade. I saw a band perform called the Riptides – they had a local hit called Machine Gun….After I saw the response from the crowd, I knew I wanted to start a band. We played all over West L.A. There were five of us – Marty, Darrol, Mike, Ricky, and myself. We were doing pretty well when Mike moved away. Darrol also left. In the first year of high school, I met Steve and Vince. These guys did not have a band. They were both good musicians. They asked if they could join our band. We auditioned them. After we heard them play, I knew they had all of our votes.”
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#3: You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester
City: Quebec City (Levis), PQ
Radio Station: CFLS
Peak Month: April 1979
Peak Position in Quebec City ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
Peak Position on Israeli Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #11
YouTube: “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
Lyrics: “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
Sylvester James Jr. was born in 1947 in Los Angeles. His father had numerous affairs and left Sylvester’s mother and children when he was a young child. He began singing at the age of three, and sang the Al Jolson 1922 hit, “My Buddy”, at a neighborhood child’s funeral a few years later. Biographer, Joshua Gamson in his book The fabulous Sylvester: the legend, the music, the seventies in San Francisco, describes a view of Sylvester as a boy. The women at his church described him as “feminine” and as “pretty as he could be, just like his mother. He wasn’t rough like the other boys. He was prim and proper. We were always hugging on him and kissing on him, because he was so cute.” Family members also described him as “his own kind of boy — ‘born funny'” — preferring the company of girls and women like his grandmother to that of other boys. “He stayed inside a lot, reading encyclopedias, listening to music, and playing his grandmother’s piano.” When Sylvester would turn down the boys’ invitations to play with them, they would say things like, “He act like a girl!” or “He’s going to be a girl.” But his mother would defend him, including his joy at dressing up in her and his grandmother’s clothes, saying that he was not a girl, just a different kind of boy, and a valued part of their family.
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#21: Caught Up In The Rapture by Anita Baker
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: January-February 1987
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Caught Up In The Rapture”
Lyrics: “Caught Up In The Rapture”
Anita Baker was born in 1958 in Toledo, Ohio. She was raised by foster parents. By the age of sixteen she was singing in R&B nightclubs in Detroit. Baker joined Chapter 8 in 1975 and the group toured until they got a record deal in 1979. Chapter 8’s first album, Chapter 8, was released that year and featured the singles “Ready For Your Love”, a duet between Baker and bandmate Gerald Lyles, which cracked the Top 40 on the R&B charts. Chapter 8 was dropped by the label who were convinced that Baker, as the group’s lead singer, did not have “star potential.” Anita Baker returned to Detroit, working as a waitress and a receptionist until, in 1982, Otis Smith, a former associate of Ariola Records, convinced Baker to start a solo career under his Beverly Glen label.
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#11: The Windmills Of Your Mind by Dusty Springfield
City: Pointe Claire, PQ
Radio Station: CFOX
Peak Month: July 1969
Peak Position in Pointe Claire ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
Peak Position on Philippine Singles chart ~ #34
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #40
YouTube: “The Windmills Of Your Mind”
Lyrics: “The Windmills Of Your Mind”
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was born in West Hampstead in north London, in 1939. Along with her oldest brother, Dion, she recorded her first tape of a song they sang while still children. Her dad was an unhappy accountant who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but never became one. While Mary’s mother, according to the Karen Bartlett autobiography, Dusty: An Intimate Portrait, “was continuously drunk and sat all day in cinemas.”As she grew up, Mary went to school at a Roman Catholic Convent. At the age of 18 she became a member of a female group named the Lana Sisters. The group sang backup to pop singer Al Saxton who had several Top 30 hits in the late 50’s in the UK, including a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen” and “You’re The Top Cha.” While Saxton enjoyed his moments of fame, Mary teamed up with her brother, Dion, and a friend of theirs named Tim Field. By the end of 1959 she had taken the stage name of Dusty Springfield. The trio, now known as The Springfields, got a record deal with Philips Records in 1961.
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