#20: The River is Wide by the Grass Roots
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #36
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “The River is Wide”
Lyrics: “The River is Wide”
The Grass Roots were a band from Los Angeles. They were a band project by Los Angeles songwriter and producer duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records, to cash in on the folk rock movement. One of these songs was “Where Were You When I Needed You”, which was recorded by Sloan and Barri. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar, Larry Knetchel played keyboards, Joe Osborn played the bass and Bones Howe was on drums. The song was released under “The Grass Roots” name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.
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#66: Twelve Thirty by the Mamas and the Papas
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: October 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #14
Peak Position on South African Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Twelve Thirty”
Lyrics: “Twelve Thirty”
John Edmund Andrew Phillips was born in Paris Island, South Carolina, in 1935. His father was a military officer and John was sent to Linton Hall Military School from age seven to eleven. He hated the school and its corporal punishment. In his autobiography, Phillips recalls he also thought it was creepy that “nuns used to watch us take showers.” In high school he assembled several doo-wop groups. After he dropped out of a Naval Academy in 1953, John Phillips studied at a men’s college until 1959. In 1958 he formed a doo-wop group named the Abstracts, fashioned after the Four Preps and other popular groups of the era. The Abstracts changed their name in 1959 to the Smoothies. Another member of the group was Philip Blondheim III, who later changed his name to Scott McKenzie. The Smoothies played at night clubs in New York City with chorus girls and comedians.
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#71: Where Is My Man by Eartha Kitt
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Where Is My Man”
Lyrics: “Where Is My Man”
Eartha Mae Keith was born in 1927 in the the town of North, in central South Carolina. She has both Afro-American and Cherokee ancestry. After her mother died when she was a child, Eartha moved to live with an aunt (Mamie Kitty) in Harlem. She began her singing career at the age of 15 in 1943 as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company (the first African-American modern dance company). She went with the stage name Eartha Kitt. In 1948, she appeared in a film noir movie titled Casbah. In 1951, she recorded the Cole Porter standard “Let’s Do It”. The recording reached #12 in Australia in 1954. In 1953, Kitt recorded a Turkish folk song titled “Urska Dara” which cracked the Top 30. Later she recorded “C’est si bon” which charted to #8 on the Billboard pop chart. That winter she earned even greater success with the Christmas novelty tune “Santa Baby” which peaked at #4 on Billboard. In 1955, Eartha Kitt had a #7 hit in the UK with “Under the Bridges of Paris”.
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#75: A Night In New York by Elbow Bones and the Racketeers
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #33
YouTube: “A Night In New York”
Lyrics: “A Night In New York”
Thomas August Darnell Browder was born in 1950 in The Bronx (NY). Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder Jr., in 1965. The band disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. He taught at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead (NY). He later claimed that he established a musical career because he was a “frustrated actor.” In 1974, again with Stony Browder, he formed Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, becoming its lyricist and bass player. The band combined swing and Latin music with disco rhythms. They had their biggest hit in 1976 with “Cherchez La Femme”. The single topped the Billboard Disco Action Top 30 chart, and peaked at #2 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s self-titled debut release was a Top 40-charting album. It was certified gold and was nominated for a Grammy.
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#13: Goodbye by Mary Hopkin
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Goodbye”
Lyrics: “Goodbye”
Mary Hopkin was born in May 1950 in Pontardawe, Wales. She took weekly singing lessons as a child and began her musical career as a folk singer with a local group called the Selby Set and Mary. She released an EP of Welsh-language songs for a local record label called Cambrian, based in her hometown, before signing to the Beatles’ Apple Records. The model Twiggy saw Hopkin winning the ITV television talent show Opportunity Knocks and recommended her to Paul McCartney. Her debut single, “Those Were the Days”, produced by McCartney, was released in the UK on August 30, 1968. Hopkin had competition from well-established star Sandie Shaw, whose own single version of the song was released that fall. But Shaw’s recording stalled at #51 on the UK chart. Meanwhile, Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days” became a number-one hit in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, USA, and West Germany. Hopkins smash hit also climbed to #2 in Argentina, Australia, Austria, and South Africa.
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#81: 1-2-5 by the Haunted
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CFCF
Peak Month: May 1966
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “1-2-5”
Lyrics: “1-2-5”
Jurgen Heinz Peter was born in 1942 in Glabonz, Bohemia, in what is now part of the Czech Republic. When his family moved from war-torn Czechoslovakia to Montreal, one of his new friends in high school was Glen Holmes. Years later, Holmes recalled, “We did sensible (?) things like riding on his Ariel Motorcycle in mid winter and in his ’59 blue Ford Thunderbird convertible sometimes with the top down (in winter more sensible stuff). Somewhere in late 1962/early 1963 Jurgen and I decided that we wanted to form a band so we did.” Peter played guitar and Holmes played bass. In 1963 Jurgen Peter stood in for a local Montreal band named the Blue J’s. In 1963 Peter and Holme, formed The Haunted. Bob Burgess was the lead singer and Al Birmingham played lead guitar. But within the first year Glen Holmes left the band.
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#82: Hot Hot Hot by Arrow
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: July 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #38
YouTube: “Hot Hot Hot”
Lyrics: “Hot Hot Hot”
Arrow is the stage name of a musician from Montserrat named Alphonsus Celestine Edmund Cassell. He was born in Plymouth, Montserrat, in 1949. Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. Cassell began singing calypso in 1967, and took the Junior Monarch title that year. Cassell took up singing professionally in 1969. That year he was runner up in the Montserrat Calypso King competition. He won the title the following year, following in the footsteps of his brothers Justin (known as Hero) and Lorenzo (known as Young Challenger). He took the title a total of four times.
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#84: The World We Knew by Frank Sinatra
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “The World We Knew”
Lyrics: “The World We Knew”
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. Sinatra spent much time at his parents’ tavern in Hoboken, working on his homework and occasionally singing for spare change. After leaving school before graduating, Sinatra began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City. In New York, Sinatra found jobs singing for his supper or for cigarettes. He got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group called the 3 Flashes to let him join. Baritone Fred Tamburro stated that “Frank hung around us like we were gods or something”, admitting that they only took him on board because he owned a car and could chauffeur the group around. Sinatra soon learned they were auditioning for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show, and “begged” the group to let him in on the act. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and passed an audition from Edward Bowes to appear on the show. They each earned $12.50, and ended up attracting 40,000 votes to win first prize—a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the U.S. Sinatra quickly became the group’s lead singer, and, much to the jealousy of his fellow group members, garnered most of the attention from girls.
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#16: Lily The Pink by The Scaffold
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: April 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Lily The Pink”
Lyrics:
The Scaffold was a comedy-music-poetry trio from Liverpool, England. It consisted of Mike McGear (born Peter Michael McCartney in Liverpool in 1944), Roger McGough (born in 1937 in the Liverpool suburb of Litherland, England), and John Gorman (born in 1936 in the Liverpool suburb of Birkenhead, England). In the early 1960s, McGough worked as a French teacher and, with Gorman organised arts events. Gorman founded The Scaffold in 1964 after working as a telecommunications engineer, about the time he met Mike McGear. The members of the Scaffold were originally part of a performing revue group known as The Liverpool One Fat Lady All Electric Show. (“One Fat Lady” is the bingo term for 8 and the performers mostly lived in the Liverpool 8 district.)
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#96: Never Ending Story by Limahl
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: June 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Sweden’s Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austria Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on South Africa Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #2
YouTube: “Never Ending Story”
Lyrics: “Never Ending Story”
Christopher Hamill was born in 1958 in the suburbs of Manchester, England. He was an actor touring with the Palace Theatre Repertory Company. This included a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 1981 Hamill appeared in a minor role in the police-crime TV show The Gentle Touch. As well, Hamill was one of the actors in the “Stand and Deliver” music video with Adam and the Ants. He got a job as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. In 1982 he joined the band Kajagoogoo. Chris Hamill adopted his stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.
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