#46: Let Me go by Heaven 17
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: June 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube: “Let Me Go”
Lyrics: “Let Me Go”
Heaven 17 was formed in 1980 by trio Martyn Ware, Glenn Gregory, and Ian Craig Marsh. Ware was born in 1956 in Sheffield, England. Initially, he worked in the computer industry and saved money to purchase an electronic keyboard. In 1977, he co-founded Human League along with Ian Craig Marsh. After the first two albums meeting with little commercial success, Martyn Ware was ejected from the band. Ian Marsh quit Human League in protest and formed the British Electric Foundation. Ian Craig Marsh was born in Sheffield, England, in 1956. In the early seventies he was part of a community theatre group Meatwhistle. Inspired by Alice Cooper, Marsh formed Musical Vomit in 1973, performing stunts like vomiting soup on stage, and singing songs about masterbation. For his antics, Ian Marsh was expelled from school. Another member of Musical Vomit was Glenn Gregory, who was born in Sheffield in 1958. Gregory went on to work as a photographer in London, and with the band 57 Men. In 1981, he was asked by Martyn Ware to join the newly forming Heaven 17.
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#149: Peanuts by Little Joe & The Thrillers
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: October 1957
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #4
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “Peanuts”
Lyrics: “Peanuts”
Joseph Cook was born in South Philadelphia, in 1922, and started singing in church. His mother, Annie Hall, was a locally well-known blues singer and his grandmother was a Baptist preacher. By the time he was 12, he and three cousins had formed a gospel vocal group, The Joe Cook Quartet. This evolved into The Evening Star Quartet. They were given a one-hour weekly radio show in Philadelphia. Cook was noted for his falsetto singing as well as his personality, and first recorded in 1949. In 1951 the group recorded “Say A Prayer for the Boys In Korea” for Apex Records. He also worked in shipbuilding for the US Navy, and as a delivery driver. In the early 1950s Cook decided to make the transition to secular rhythm and blues music, later declining an offer to join The Soul Stirrers after Sam Cooke left. In the mid-50s, Cook formed a new doo-wop vocal group he named the Thrillers.
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#100: Any Other Way by Jackie Shane
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: April 1963
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Any Other Way”
Lyrics: “Any Other Way”
Jackie Shane was born in 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee. In an obituary, MusicRow reported “She was born male, but identified as female throughout her life.” Jackie Shane later told a reporter “I was a female trapped in a male body.” However, liner notes for Jackie Shane’s albums referred to Shane as “he.” Jackie’s grandmother’s singing around the house had an influence on Shane’s vocal development. Further encouragement from Jackie’s grandmother allowed Shane to display vocal talents as while growing up. By the age of five Jackie Shane was dressing as a girl, and by thirteen Shane told her mother she was a woman in a man’s body. Jackie Shane began a music career as a young teen, demonstrating vocal and rhythmic ability. This was noticed by Louis Lavelle, who recruited Shane and Les Monday to form a musical trio. They performed at a variety of small gigs, including at local fairgrounds and on radio stations. Initially a drummer as well as a vocalist, Shane would play drums standing up while singing. Shane’s drumming talent led to studio session work as a drummer, including on Lillian Offitt’s “Miss You So” in the summer of 1957. Working in Nashville regularly as a stage performer during the late 1950s, Shane also worked in the studio as a drummer on tracks by Larry Williams, Big Maybelle, Gatemouth Brown, Little Willie John, Joe Tex, and other performers.
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#145: Sex…I’m A… by Berlin
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: May 1983
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #62
YouTube: “Sex…I’m A…”
Lyrics: “Sex…I’m A…”
The genesis of Berlin was the rock band the Toys, formed in 1976 in Orange County, California, by bass guitarist John Crawford, drummer Dan Van Patten, guitar player Chris Ruiz-Velasco, and vocalist Tyson A. Cobb. After a few shows, the band changed its name to Berlin and stayed together for about three years but ultimately regrouped, discharging Cobb as lead singer. After a brief replacement, Terri Nunn took over as lead vocalist after answering an ad through the Musicians Contact Service in Hollywood in 1979. The band’s first single, “A Matter of Time”, was released in 1979 on Renegade Records and they appeared on television for the first time on the short-lived Hollywood Heartbeat, hosted by former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch. Terri Nunn left Berlin later that year to pursue an acting career, and was replaced by Virginia Macolino.
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#129: Beautiful Second Hand Man by Ginette Reno
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: November-December 1970
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #26
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Beautiful Second Hand Man”
Lyrics: “Beautiful Second Hand Man”
Ginette Raynault was born in 1946 in Montreal. She began singing in 1960 at the age of 14, and won the talent contest “Les Découvertes de Jean Simon” (Jean Simon’s Discoveries). With this success, three Montreal clubs – Café Caprice, le Café de l’Est and the Café Provincial – offered her a professional contract. Jean Simon suggested Ginette adopt the stage name Reno—a phonetic spelling of her real last name (as pronounced in Francophone). In 1962, Ginette Reno released her debut single “J’aime Guy”, a French version of the minor pop hit “Yessiree”, released earlier that year by American pop singer Linda Scott. The following year, Reno released “Roger” which was a hit on French-language pop stations across Quebec. The single was accompanied by a self-titled debut album in 1963. It included the track “Le Jour Viendra”, a French version of the Ruby and the Romantics number-one hit “Our Day Will Come”, and “Avec Toi” which was a French-language cover of Marcie Blaine’s “Bobby’s Girl”. The flip side, “Roger”, was a big hit in 1963.
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#23: French Song by Lucille Starr
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: June 1964
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #37
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #54
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #1
YouTube: “The French Song”
Lyrics: “The French Song”
Lucille Marie Raymonde Savoie was born in Saint Boniface, Manitoba, in 1938. During her childhood years in Saint Boniface, she first sang in church. When Starr was seven the family moved to Maillardville, a Francophone community in Coquitlam, British Columbia, where she learned to play guitar, bass and mandolin. In 1958, she met Bob Regan at a wedding. They began playing together in concert. They soon married and started playing and recording under the billing “Bob and Lucille.” They released two singles on the Ditto label recorded in Hollywood, California, in 1958. The first recording was “Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe”, followed up with “The Big Kiss”.
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#12: I Will Follow You by Georgia Gibbs
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: April-May 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “I Will Follow You”
Lyrics: “I Will Follow You”
Georgia Gibbs was a traditional pop singer who sang with the Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and other big bands in the 40s. She went on to have numerous hits prior to the arrival of Elvis Presley in 1956, who with other rock n’ rollers swept many traditional pop singers like Georgia Gibbs off the pop charts. Gibbs was born in 1919 as Frieda Lipschitz in a Russian-Jewish immigrant home in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father died shortly after she was born and as an infant lived in an orphanage until she was seven years old. Before she left the orphanage her musical talents were in bloom and she got lead roles each year in the orphanage’s variety show. Back at home when her mother got work as a midwife, young Frieda was often left on her own for weeks at a time with only a Philco radio for company.
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#126: Change by Tears For Fears
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CFTR
Peak Month: July 1983
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ airplay – did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “Change”
Lyrics: “Change”
Raoul Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1961. His parents legally changed his first name to Roland Orzabal within a few weeks of his birth. His father had a nervous breakdown early in Roland’s childhood. Later, his father ran an entertainment business, with his mother a dancer in the troupe. Orzabal met Curt Smith when they were in their teens, and both living in Smith’s birthplace of Bath, England. Smith learned to play guitar in his teens. In 1979 Orzabal and Smith became part of a new wave band called Neon. They released a couple of records and were session musicians for recordings by new wave band Naked Eyes. Smith and Orzabal were also part of a new wave band called Graduate who had a Top Ten hit in Spain in 1980 titled “Elvis Should Play Ska”. A grueling tour of Germany temporarily caused the duo to question the viability of a life as pop stars.
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#24: You Are Everything by Stylistics
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKVL
Peak Month: February 1972
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #9
YouTube: “You Are Everything”
Lyrics: “You Are Everything”
The Stylistics were created from two Philadelphia groups, the Percussions and the Monarchs. The two bands attended the same high school. The Stylistics was first conceived when Airrion Love’s English teacher, Beverly Hamilton, suggested the two bands merge. Russell Thompkins Jr., James Smith, and Airrion Love came from the Monarchs. James Dunn and Herb Murrell were in the Percussions. The name “the Stylistics” came from their guitar player Robert Douglas. Three original members, Airrion Love, James Dunn, and Russell Thompkins Jr., were born in Philadelphia. Herb Murrell was born in Lane, South Carolina and James Smith was born in New York City, but moved to Philadelphia after his father’s death in 1962. Dunn, Love, Murrell, Smith and Thompkins Jr. were the classic Stylistics lineup from 1968 to 1980. During this time the group charted five singles into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100, a dozen on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles/Hot Black Singles chart, and ten singles in the UK Pop Singles Top Ten.
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#142: Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: July-August 1970
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #67
YouTube: “Big Yellow Taxi”
Lyrics: “Big Yellow Taxi”
Roberta Joan Anderson was born in 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta. Her father was a grocer and her mother a schoolteacher. After the end of World War II, her family moved to North Battleford, Saskatchewan. When she was 9 years old, Joni and her family moved 85 miles southeast to Saskatoon. She took piano lessons as a child. In her teenage years, since she couldn’t afford a guitar, Joni taught herself to play the baritone ukelele which she bought for $36. In her teens Anderson listened to rock-n-roll radio broadcasts out of Texas where the radio signals were especially strong at night. She played at parties and also hung out at a local coffeehouse in Saskatoon called the Louis Riel. She later learned the guitar. In 1964 she began her professional musical career by playing clubs and festivals around Canada. Her repertoire consisted mostly of standard folk songs, many recorded by her idol, Judy Collins, until she began writing her own songs, starting with “Day After Day”, which she wrote while on her way to the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1965.
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