#58: Torero by Renato Carosone
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CKOY
Peak Month: July 1958
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
YouTube: “Torero”
Lyrics: “Torero”
Renato Carosone was born in Naples in the Kingdom of Italy in 1920. At 14, he wrote “Triki-trak”, his first composition for piano, and in 1935, he was hired by an opera dei pupi puppet theater to play music to the battles of Count Roland and Renaud. Subsequently, he worked at E.A. Mario’s publishing house teaching new songs to singers. He studied piano and composition at the Naples Conservatory under Alberto Curci, and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. A few months later he signed a contract with comedian Aldo Russo to perform as a band leader in Italian East Africa. The troup landed in Massawa, Eritrea, to work in a restaurant-theatre frequented by Italian workers. He remained after a short stay with Aldo Russo, and met a woman and got married.
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#64: Love Over And Over by Kate and Anna McGarrigle
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: July 1982
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Love Over And Over”
Lyrics: “Love Over And Over”
Anna McGarrigle was born in Montreal in 1944, with her sister Kate born there two years later. In the 1960s, in Montreal, while Kate was studying chemical engineering at McGill University and Anna art at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, they began performing in public and writing their own songs. From 1963 to 1967 they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group Mountain City Four. Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, and others. These covers led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They released their debut album Kate & Anna McGarrigle in 1976. It charted into the Top 30 on the pop album chart that year in Sweden. A track from the album, “Complainte pour Ste. Catherine” charted in the UK.
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#63: Chantal by Goddo
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: December 1979
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Chantal”
Lyrics: “Chantal”
Greg Godovitz was born in 1951 in Toronto. He began playing guitar in 1964 with a band named The Pretty Ones. He began his professional music career in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the bassist for the Canadian rock band Fludd. Founded by Ed and Brian Pilling, Fludd gained popularity with hits such as “Turned 21“, “Get Up, Get Out & Move On“, and “Cousin Mary“. Following his departure from Fludd, Godovitz was briefly involved in the Toronto rock band Sherman and Peabody. Greg Godovitz founded the hard rock trio Goddo. The original lineup included Godovitz on bass and lead vocals, Gino Scarpelli on guitar, and Marty Morin on drums, with Doug Inglis later replacing Morin. In 1975, the band released a cover of the Kinsmen’s 1963 hit “Louie Louie”. The band’s self-titled debut album was released in 1977 with the lead single “Under My Hat”.
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#38: Doggone Right by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube: “Doggone Right”
Lyrics: “Doggone Right”
William “Smokey” Robinson Jr. was born in Detroit in 1940. An uncle gave him the nickname “Smokey Joe” when he was a child. From the age of five he became acquainted with Aretha Franklin, who lived a few doors from his home in the Belmont neighborhood. In 1955 he formed a doo-wop group named the Five Chimes and renamed them the Matadors in 1957. Later that year they changed their name again to the Miracles. The other members of the Miracles were Robert Edward “Bobby” Rogers, who was born in 1940 in Detroit in the same hospital as Robinson. Bobby Rogers joined the Five Chimes in 1956. Born in 1942, Claudette Annette Rogers was from New Orleans and joined the Miracles in 1957. Ronald Anthony “Ronnie” White co-founded the Five Chimes with Smokey Robinson. Warren Thomas “Pete” Moore was born in Detroit in 1938 and was an original member of the Five Chimes. Moore and Robinson met at a musical event in public school in Detroit. Marv Tarplin was born in Atlanta in 1941. He became the Miracles guitarist in 1959 after the group had a dismal reception at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem in 1959. With a guitarist backing the five singers, they were headed for stardom.
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#66: My Mistake (Was To Love You) by Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: August 1974
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube: “My Mistake (Was To Love You)”
Lyrics: “My Mistake (Was To Love You)”
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. was born in 1939 in Washington D.C. His father was a Pentecostal church minister who never held down a job for more than three years in a row. Marvin’s childhood consisted of “brutal whippings”, since Gay Sr. would strike him for any shortcoming, including putting his hairbrush in the wrong place or coming home from school a minute late. Marvin later stated, “It wasn’t simply that my father beat me, though that was bad enough. By the time I was twelve, there wasn’t an inch on my body that hadn’t been bruised and beaten by him.” He also said that “living with Father was like living with a king, an all-cruel, changeable, cruel and all-powerful king”. He later recalled, “if it wasn’t for Mother, who was always there to console me and praise me for my singing, I think I would have been one of those child suicides you read about in the papers.”
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#67: Middle Of The Road by the Pretenders
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: February-March 1984
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 Singles ~ #19
YouTube: “Middle Of The Road”
Lyrics: “Middle Of The Road”
The Pretenders were a band formed in 1978 in Britain. The band was fronted by Chrissie Hynde. She was born in Akron (OH) in 1951. After high school she attended Kent State University. A friend of hers was dating Kent State Massacre shooting victim Jeffrey Miller who died on May 4, 1970. The events of that day shaped Hynde and were a catalyst for her decision to move to the Britain in 1973. She eventually became a dual citizen. She worked at an architectural firm and then at Malcolm McLaren’s punk clothing store Sex. She attempted to find success as a rock musician by joining up with a number of bands. Nothing came together until she gave a demo to a record owner and she was encouraged to form a band named The Pretenders. They were named after the Platter’s 1956 number-one hit “The Great Pretender”.
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#71: Beat The Clock by the Sparks
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: January 1980
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 Singles ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Beat The Clock”
Lyrics: “Beat The Clock”
The Sparks were formed by two brothers in 1971 in Pacific Palisades, California. Ron Mael was born in Culver City, California, in 1945. Brother Russell Mael was born in Pacific Palisades (CA) in 1948. After high school, Ron began a course in cinema and graphic arts in 1963 while Russell studied theatre arts and filmmaking during 1966–1968. Ron Mael plays the keyboards and synthesizers and writes most of the songs for Sparks. When the band hit the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, he was well known for his strange appearance, often remaining motionless over his keyboard in sharp contrast to Russell’s animated and hyperactive frontman antics. Ron’s conservative clothes and unfashionable, Charlie Chaplin-esque toothbrush moustache attracted much attention. In 1972, they released their debut single “Wonder Girl”. The single stalled beneath the Billboard Hot 100 at #112.
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#37: Truck Stop by Jerry Smith
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #71
YouTube: “Truck Stop”
Jerry Dean Smith was born in Bude, Mississippi, in 1933. His family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when he was an adolescent. He served in the Air Force, loaned to the Army where he would serve as one of the Transcribers at the Korean War Armistice Agreement. After his service, he returned home to Baton Rouge, marry and begin to pursue his music career. Moving to Nashville in 1961, he quickly established himself as a session musician and became one of a group of session musicians coined as “Nashville’s Perfect Six”. He was a member of the Nashville Musicians Union for 59 years.
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#4: Rivers Of Babylon by Boney M
City: Winnipeg, MB
Radio Station: CKY
Peak Month: December 1978
Peak Position in Winnipeg ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 Singles ~ #30
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Finnish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Mexican Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on South African 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 UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #1
YouTube: “Rivers Of Babylon”
Lyrics: “Rivers Of Babylon”
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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#75: Love Action by Human League
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: April 1982
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 Singles ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #11
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #12
YouTube: “Love Action”
Lyrics: “Love Action”
Human League was formed in 1977 and were originally named The Future. By early 1978 the band changed their name to Human League. Philip Oakley was co-founder and frontman for the band. He was born in 1955 in Leicestershire, England. He left school without finishing exams and worked at a university bookshop, and as a hospital orderly. Oakley’s former schoolmate Martyn Ware had already formed the band with Ian Marsh. Ware and Marsh were looking to get a new lead vocalist and Oakley agreed. In 1978, a non-album single titled “Being Boiled” was released. It climbed to #6 in the UK, and West Germany, #10 in Ireland, and #17 in Austria. Human League released their debut album, Reproduction, in 1979. A second album, Travelogue, was released in May 1980. Shortly after, Ware and Marsh left the band and later in 1980 formed new wave/synth-pop band Heaven 17. At the time of their departure, Human League was contracted to start a European tour the following week.
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