#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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#2: Girls by the Moments and Whatnauts
City: Quebec City, PQ
Radio Station: CJFM
Peak Month: July 1975
Peak Position in Quebec City ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
YouTube: “Girls”
Lyrics: “Girls”
The Moments are a group formed in 1965. After several lineup changes, the R&B group released their debut single “Not on the Outside” in 1968. It reached #5 on CKLW in Windsor (ON), and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. Al Goodman was born in 1943 in Jackson (MS). He was in an a cappella doo-wop group from the age of 14. In 1952, Al moved to New York City and got a position as a sound mixer with Sylvia Robinson’s All Platinum Records in Englewood, NJ. After she heard him singing to himself, she revamped The Moments to add Goodman to the lineup.
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#37: Where Is This Love by the Payola$
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: March 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Where Is This Love”
Lyrics: “Where Is This Love”
n 1978 a band was formed in Vancouver by Paul Hyde and Bob Rock called the Payola$. Hyde was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1955, and came to Vancouver in his teens. Bob Rock was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1954, and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, with his family in his later childhood. Rock learned to play guitar. Meeting in the Victoria suburb of Langford, the band settled on a name recalling the American music industry scandal investigated by the US Congress starting in 1959 called Payola. This was an illegal act where record companies paid deejays and radio stations a bribe for playing a single the record company wanted to get promoted. While it was legal for a record company to receive money in exchange for playing it on the radio, such a transaction had to be disclosed and not counted as regular airplay. While the Payola scandal did not spread into the Canadian radio market, as local legendary Vancouver Deejay Red Robinson attests in Robin Brunet’s book Red Robinson: The Last Deejay, Payola still had a bad name in the industry in America into the 80s. Consequently, although the Payola$ sold well in Canada, they met with stiff resistance south of the border.
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#4: Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
City: Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, PQ
Radio Station: CHRS
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #65
YouTube: “Purple Haze”
Lyrics: “Purple Haze”
In 1942 Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington. His grandparents, Nora and Ross Hendrix immigrated from America to Vancouver in 1911. There they raised Jimi’s father, James Allen Hendrix, who moved to Seattle in 1941 where he met Lucille Jeter, Jimi’s mother. In 1946, Johnny Allen Hendrix’s name was changed to James “Jimmy” Marshall Hendrix. As a child when he was asked to sweep the floor with a broom, his parents and grandparents would find him in his room strumming the broom like he was playing a guitar. He was given a guitar when he was 15 years old. Despite a limited mainstream exposure of four years while billed as Jimi Hendrix, he is widely considered one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
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#38: Go For Soda by Kim Mitchell
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #86
YouTube: “Go For Soda”
Lyrics: “Go For Soda”
Joseph Kim Mitchell was born in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1952. In his teen years Mitchell learned to play guitar. When he was 14 he joined a band called Grass Company. After high school, by 1970 he was playing in a number of bands in Sarnia. He was in a band called Zooom for a few years. Then in 1973 he formed the Max Webster, a progressive rock and heavy metal band. Max Webster released six studio albums. Though it didn’t get a following in the USA, by the early 1980s the band had Top 20 hits in Hamilton, Toronto, Regina, Victoria, Quebec City, and Top 30 hits in Ottawa and Halifax. Kim Mitchell toured with Max Webster until it dissolved in 1982. Kim Mitchell tested a new sound in the club circuit in southwestern Ontario and formed the Kim Mitchell band.
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#39: Trouble With Normal by Bruce Cockburn
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: April 1983
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Trouble With Normal”
Lyrics: “Trouble With Normal”
Bruce Cockburn was born in Ottawa in 1945. He has stated in interviews that his first guitar was one he found around 1959 in his grandmother’s attic, which he adorned with golden stars and used to play along to radio hits. Some of these included songs by the Beau Marks from Montreal. Later he was taught piano and music theory by Peter Hall, the organist at Westboro United Church which Cockburn and his family attended. Cockburn had been listening to jazz and wanted to learn musical composition. Hall encouraged him and, along with his friend Bob Lamble, a lot of time was spent at Hall’s house listening to and discussing jazz. After graduating, he took a boat to Europe and busked in Paris. Cockburn attended Berklee School of Music in Boston, where his studies included jazz composition, for three semesters between 1964 and 1966. That year he dropped out and joined an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year.
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