#2: Chanson D’Amour by the Fontane Sisters
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: July 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “Chanson D’Amour”
Lyrics: “Chanson D’Amour”
The Fontane Sisters were a trio of sisters. They were Bea (born 1915), Geri (born 1921) and Marge (born 1917) Rosse, all from New Milford, New Jersey. Bea and Marge started out singing for local functions, doing so well that they were urged to audition in New York City. Originally they performed as a trio with their guitarist brother Frank, under the name the Ross Trio (Rosse with the “e” omitted). The group auditioned for NBC and was soon sent off to work in Cleveland, Ohio. When they returned to New York in 1944, Frank was drafted into the Army. He went to France and was mortally wounded by a German sniper. Geri, who had just finished school, took her brother’s place, making it an all-girl trio. The sisters first performed together as The Three Sisters. Sheet music of two of their songs, “I’m Gonna See My Baby”, and “Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes”, was published by Santly-Joy in 1944.
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#3: Round The Bay Of Mexico by Harry Belafonte
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position Dutch Singles Chart ~ #11
YouTube: “Round the Bay Of Mexico”
Lyrics: “Round The Bay Of Mexico”
Harold “Harry” George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in 1927 in New York City. He lived with one of his grandmothers in Jamaica from 1932 to 1940. In the 1940s, he worked as a janitor’s assistant, during which a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and befriended Sidney Poitier, who was also financially struggling. At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City. His classmates included Tony Curtis, Bea Arthur, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, and Walter Matthau. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949, but quickly developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives. Along with guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In the 1949-50 season, Belafonte was a regular on the all-black variety show Sugar Hill Times on CBS.
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#38: Chiquita Mia by Clu Gulager
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: April 1961
Peak Position in Hull ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Chiquita Mia”
Lyrics: N/A
William Martin Gulager was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, in 1928. He was a from the Cherokee tribe. His Cherokee nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time of his birth. From the age of 16, from 1946 to 1948, Gulager served in the United States Army at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. He later studied acting in Paris, France, before returning to America in 1952. On September 26, 1956, Gulager appeared in The United States Steel Hour about the friendship between two baseball players. In the fall of 1957, he took a part in a Civil War-themed episode of The Alcoa Hour. In 1958 he appeared as Roy Carter in the episode “The Return of Roy Carter” in the TV show Have Gun Will Travel. In the spring of 1959, he appeared in an episode of The Lawless Years, about the Roaring Twenties. That fall Gulager appeared in an episode in the Cold War-themed TV show Five Fingers. As well, he appeared in episodes of Wagon Train, Riverboat, Back Saddle, Playhouse 90, Laramie, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
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#4: Oklahoma! by Ray Conniff Orchestra
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: July 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Oklahoma!”
Lyrics: “Oklahoma!”
Joseph Raymond “Ray” Conniff was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1916, long known as “The Jewelry Capital of the World” for all of its jewelry manufacturers. He studied music arranging from a course book. In 1938, he played trombone on “Livery Stable Blues”/”High Society” with Bunny Berigan And His Orchestra. This was the first of three singles he was in the recording studio with Berigan on in the late ’30s. In 1940, he wrote “Prelude in C Major” for Artie Shaw, and later the “Feather Merchant’s Ball” for Teddy Powell and His Orchestra. Conniff served in the U.S. Army in WWII, and joined the Artie Shaw and His Orchestra. In 1942, he wrote “Just Kiddin’ Around” for Shaw, which became at Top 30 hit. Ray Conniff played trombone on several sides for Art Hodes and His Chicagoans, Jerry Jerome and His Cats And Jammers, Yank Lawson’s Jazzband, Bob Crosby and His Orchestra, and the Cozy Cole Orchestra. He wrote songs for Ray Linn’s Hollywood Swing Stars, Harry Hayes And His Band, Sonny Burke and His Orchestra, and the Billie Rogers Orchestra. He also variously wrote, arranged and played on songs recorded by Harry James and His Orchestra.
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#5: The Girl With The Golden Braids by Perry Como
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: July-August 1957
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Pop Singles ~ #13
YouTube: “The Girl With The Golden Braids”
Lyrics: “The Girl With The Golden Braids”
Pierino Ronald “Perry” Como was born in Canonsburg, PA, in 1912. He was one of 13 children of parents who emigrated from Italy. He learned to play the organ from a young age. Como took on other jobs to pay for music lessons, and learned to play many different instruments, but never had a voice lesson. He showed more musical talent in his teenaged years as a trombone player in the town’s brass band, playing guitar, singing at weddings, and as an organist at church. Como was a member of the Canonsburg Italian Band along with bandleader Stan Vinton, father of singer Bobby Vinton and often a customer at Como’s barber shop. Como started helping his family at age 10, working before and after school in Steve Fragapane’s barber shop for 50¢ a week. By age 13, he had graduated to having his own chair in the Fragapane barber shop, although he stood on a box to tend to his customers. As Pierno Como had a good singing voice, he was asked to sing at weddings, especially in the local Greek community. In time he became known as the “wedding barber” even in the Pittsburgh area and across Ohio.
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#6: Misty by Johnny Mathis
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: January 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ #12
YouTube: “Misty”
Lyrics: “Misty”
Johnny Mathis was born in Gilmer (TX) in 1935. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5-years-old. His father was a vaudeville singer and piano player. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. Mathis’ first song was “My Blue Heaven”. He started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. In 1955, Mathis got a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club in San Francisco.
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#36: Where’s The Boy I Never Met by Jane Morgan
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: November 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Where’s The Boy I Never Met”
Lyrics: N/A
Florence Catherine Currier was born in 1924 in the suburbs of Boston. Her family moved to Florida when she was four-years-old. When she was five, Florence started taking voice lessons as well as piano. In the summertime, she was a child actor in theater productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Playhouse was founded by her brother. At the age of 17, in the summer of 1941, she was listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse. During her years at school, she competed in singing competitions with other students across Florida and the Southeast. Upon graduating from high school in Daytona Beach, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan. She had plans to become an opera singer, and studied opera at the school.
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#7: I Ain’t Down Yet by Dinah Shore
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: March 1961
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ #103
YouTube: “I Ain’t Down Yet”
Lyrics: “I Ain’t Down Yet”
Frances Rose Shore was born 1916 in the small town of Winchester, Tennessee. Her parents were Russian-Jewish immigrant shopkeepers. At 18 months of age, she was stricken with polio. She developed a limp and a deformed foot. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in sociology. In 1938 she appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, and made her radio debut on WSM in Nashville. She moved to New York City and auditioned to appear on radio. One of the popular songs of the era was “Dinah”, first recorded by Ethel Waters in 1925, and Louis Armstrong in 1930. Shore sang “Dinah” for WNEW DJ Martin Block. When he could not remember her name, he called her the “Dinah girl”, and soon after the name stuck, becoming her stage name. Dinah Shore eventually was hired as a vocalist at radio station WNEW, where she sang with Frank Sinatra. She recorded and performed with the Xavier Cugat orchestra, and signed a record contract with RCA Victor in 1940.
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#8: A Certain Smile by Johnny Mathis
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ #14
YouTube: “A Certain Smile”
Lyrics: “A Certain Smile”
Johnny Mathis was born in Gilmer (TX) in 1935. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5-years-old. His father was a vaudeville singer and piano player. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. Mathis’ first song was “My Blue Heaven”. He started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. In 1955, Mathis got a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club in San Francisco.
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#9: Very Much In Love by Johnny Mathis
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: June-July 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Best Sellers ~ #88
YouTube: “Very Much In Love”
Lyrics: “Very Much In Love”
Johnny Mathis was born in Gilmer (TX) in 1935. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5-years-old. His father was a vaudeville singer and piano player. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. Mathis’ first song was “My Blue Heaven”. He started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. In 1955, Mathis got a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club in San Francisco.
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