#12: Something To Sing About by the Raftsmen
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: December 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Something To Sing About”
Lyrics: “Something To Sing About”
The Raftsmen was formed by Louis Leroux, Martin Overland and Marvin Burke. Overland had been the lead singer, guitarist, and music arranger for the 1950s Montreal trio The Strangers, along with his sister Arlene on claves and drummer Leon Segal. They began getting regular gigs at folk clubs in Montreal and Toronto in the early ’60s. They sang for NASA astronauts in Cap Canaveral, Florida, the Chicago Playboy Club and the Famous Grill of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. They also began to tour in Canada and the USA with Ian & Sylvia, The Travellers’ and Joan Baez. On the Raftsmen III album in 1967 the bio for Louis Leroux states “One day while practicing to be Attorney-General, in the local phone booth, with his wire-tapping kit and armed with his genuine replica oof a C.I.A. badge (Canadian version), he decided to call his U.N.C.L.E. As fortunes of the Cold War would have it, his A.N.T. answered “Hello? Napoleon?” In a fit of frustration he screamed back T.H.R.U.S.H.” You guessed it – all screamers get hit records.” This flavor of folk humor from the Sixties may be lost on some readers today.
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#29: Memory by Menage
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Memory”
Lyrics: “Memory”
Menage was a disco project by Warren Schatz and Eric Matthew focused on disco adaptations of Broadway show tunes. Schatz was born in Brooklyn in 1945. He recorded an album in 1971. He went on to variously write, arrange or produce songs for Frankie Valli, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Vicki Sue Robinson, Donny Osmond, Dolly Parton and others. His most notable effort was with Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Top Ten Hit Turn The Beat Around” in 1976. He also was the executive producer for Evelyn “Champagne” King’s Top Ten 1977 hit “Shame”.
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#30: L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me) by The Box
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1986
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”
Lyrics: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”
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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#4: Mexican Hat Rock by the Applejacks
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Mexican Hat Rock”
The Applejacks is a group formed by Dave Appell in 1954. Born in 1922 in Philadelphia, Appell began working as an arranger for United States Navy big bands while he was a sailor in the navy. He also worked as an arranger for African-American swing band leader Jimmie Lunceford. He also was an arranger for dance band leaders Earl Hines and Benny Carter. He formed the Dave Appell Four in 1953 and released a version of the 1928 Guy Lombardo fox trot hit “Coquette”. The Applejacks released their debut single in 1954 titled “Sweet Patootie Pie”. The other members of the band became studio musicians at Cameo-Parkway Records in Philadelphia. They were keyboardist and pianist Demetrios Pappas, Frank Day (born Francesco Cocchi), George Young (born in Philadelphia in 1937), percussionist Hector Rosado, bass player Steve Buskrone, and drummer, percussionist Vic Stevens. While the Applejacks were performing and recording singles, Frank Day was concurrently in a local Philadelphia band named Billy Duke and his Dukes who released ten singles between 1955 and 1957. In 1956, Dave Appell and the Applejacks appeared in the Alan Freed rock flim Don’t Knock the Rock.
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#31: Captain Of Her Heart by Double
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: June 1986
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #9
Peak Position on Norway Single chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Captain Of Her Heart”
Lyrics: “Captain Of Her Heart”
Double (pronounced doo-BLAY) is a singing duo from Switzerland. Felix Haug was born in greater Zurich in 1952, and Kurt Maloo (born Kurt Meier) was also born in Zurich the following year. Haug learned to play drums and keyboards. In 1980, he played drums on the debut album by Yello titled Solid Pleasure. Meier was part of several bands that performed in local competition festivals, playing covers from The Beatles to Cream. From 1969 to 1972, he attended the Swiss Business School, but, after receiving his degree, Meier chose a career as a conceptual artist and painter. He exhibited his works at local galleries in Zurich and founded, along with three artist friends, the performance group MAEZ. At his own gallery openings, Kurt Meier, who changed his name to Kurt Maloo in 1975, always played the electric guitar. The solo performances metamorphosed into a band named Troppo, including two other members of MAEZ. It became a nine-piece band influenced by the New York Dolls and Funkadelic.
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#72: High Energy by Evelyn Thomas
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #85
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on the Danish Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “High Energy”
Lyrics: “High Energy”
Evelyn Thomas was born in Chicago in 1953. She was “discovered” by UK producer Ian Levine who brought her to the UK and took her to the recording studio. In 1976, Thomas released her debut single “Weak Spot” which reached #26 in the UK pop singles chart. A followup single, “Doomsday”, missed the Top 40 in the UK. Her 1978 debut album is titled I Wanna Make It on My Own. Four more singles were released in the late ’70s. Her second album, Have a Little Faith in Me, was released in 1979.
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#34: There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) by Eurythmics
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: November 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Sweden Singles chart ~ #2
YouTube: “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)”
Lyrics: “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)”
The Eurythmics were the duo of Annie Lennox and David Stewart. They were part of the New Wave music with a heavy reliance on a synth-pop sound. They were especially successful in the UK with hits that included “Love is a Stranger”, “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This”, “Who’s That Girl?” and “Here Comes the Rain Again”. They had a successful duet with Aretha Franklin in 1985 titled “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves”.
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#3: Unwind by Ray Stevens
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: June 1968
Peak Position in Guelph: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #52
YouTube: “Unwind”
Lyrics: “Unwind”
Harold Ray Ragsdale was born in January 1939, in Clarkdale, Georgia. In high school he formed a group called The Barons. When he was 18, he was signed to Capitol Records on their Prep label. His debut single was “Five More Steps”. The single charted briefly on CKWX in Vancouver in February 1958. In the summer of 1960, Stevens “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” climbed to #22 in Vancouver. While in 1961, Stevens released a single about unscrupulous pharmaceutical products pitched to cure whatever ails you. “Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills” reached #8 in Vancouver, and also charted in the Top 50 in Winnipeg and Montreal. For several decades, Ray Stevens’ song was the longest song title to make the Billboard Hot 100.
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#35: That Sunday, That Summer by Nat King Cole
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: October-November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “That Sunday, That Summer”
Lyrics: “That Sunday, That Summer”
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. His family headed by his Baptist minister father, moved to Chicago in 1923. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. Coles first performance was the Billy Jones chart-topping 1923 hit, “Yes! We Have No Bananas”, at the age of four. Cole began formal piano lessons at 12, learning jazz, gospel, and classical music. As a youth, Cole joined the news delivery boys’ “Bud Billiken Club” band for an African-American newspaper called The Chicago Defender. At the age of 15, Nat Cole left school to follow a path in music. In 1936, with his bassist brother Eddie, Nat Cole became part of a sextet named Eddie Cole’s Swingsters. Cole was married in 1937 and moved to Los Angeles. He formed a band called the King Cole Swingsters. They were named after the British nursery rhyme Old King Cole (was a merry old soul…). ” The name next was changed to the King Cole Trio in anticipation of making radio transcriptions, and recording for small record labels.
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#37: Djobi Djoba by the Gypsy Kings
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on French (FR) Singles Chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #12
YouTube: “Djobi Djoba”
Lyrics: “Djobi Djoba”
The Gipsy Kings (gipsy no “y” ) were formed in 1979, and originally called Los Reyes. It consisted of Nicolas Reyes on lead vocals, Tonino Baliardo on lead guitar, Chico Bouchikhi on guitar, André Reyes on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Pablo Reyes on guitar and backing vocals, Max Baliardo on rhythm guitar, and Diego Baliardo on rhythm guitar and handclaps. Prior to the formation of the Gipsy Kings, Nicolas, André, Pablo and Patchaï Reyes played in Los Reyes with their father José Reyes. Tonino, Max and Diego Balairdo are sons of flamenco guitarist Ricardo Baliardo who was known as Manitas de Plata. Ricardo Baliardo was born in 1921 in a gypsy caravan in southern France. Chico Bouchikhi was born in 1954 in Arles, France, to a father who came from Morocco. Bouchikhi married a daughter of José Reyes named Marthe Reyes.
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