#15: The Curtains Falling by Vicky Leandros
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: April 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “The Curtains Falling”
Vasiliki Papathanasiou (Greek: Βασιλική Παπαθανασίου) was born in Greece in 1949. She took Vicky Leandros as her stage name. She is a Greek singer living in Germany. Leandros is the daughter of singer, musician and composer Leandros Papathanasiou (also known as Leo Leandros as well as Mario Panas). In 1965, she released a single titled “Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht” which climbed to #16 in West Germany. In 1967 she achieved worldwide fame after gaining fourth place for the country of Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “L’amour est bleu”, which became a worldwide hit. It reached the Top 20 in Austria and Japan. Her album, L’amour est bleu, was a number-one selling album in 1967 in the French-language market in Quebec. As was the album Le temps des fleurs the following year again in Quebec.
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#145: Land Of Hunger by Earons
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Dance Club chart ~ #1
YouTube: “Land Of Hunger”
Lyrics: N/A
The Earons were a band from Tampa Bay, Florida. They were inspired by the cosmic mythology of Sun Ra. Group members use the following stage names: .28 (a.k.a. Henry Pizzicarola, vocals), .22 (Percival Prince, guitar), .33 (Kevin Nance, keyboards), .69 (Melvin Lee, bass) and .18 (Lonnie Ferguson, drums). Prior to joining the Earons, Kevin Nance, Lonnie Ferguson and Melvin Lee were members of The Machine. This was a studio disco funk and rock group, active from 1977 to 1981. In an MTV interview, Earon bandmates wearing space suits, were asked what an Earon is and where do you come from? They responded, “Earons are earotronic energies from here on earth, with no names, only numbers. And we exist in all colors. We are actually products of a civilization known as Sumer, which existed some six to eight thousand years ago, near the spot where Africa, Asia and Europe, connect. Our earotronic energy was stored in an instrument used by the Sumerians called the earotron. This earotron enabled the user to store positive energies to be released at a time designated by the universe. Now is the time. Our energies have been released. And we’ve taken the form of musical beings here on earth to bring the message of sameness to everyone here on earth. We’re all earons, living in love here on earth.”
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#154: You Came by Kim Wilde
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
Peak Position on Denmark Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Portugal Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on France Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “You Came”
Lyrics: “You Came”
Kim Wilde was born in 1960 with the birth name Kim Smith. Her father, Reginald Smith, was a pop singer who took the stage name Marty Wilde. Kim Wilde’s first professional singing credit was as a backup singer to her brother Ricky Wilde’s 1972 song “I Am an Astronaut.” In 1981, at the age of 21 Kim Wilde became an international star with her hit single “Kids in America”. It topped the pop charts in Finland and South Africa, reached #2 in Ireland, Sweden and the UK, and the Top Ten in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and West Germany. Later in 1981, “Chequered Love” topped the pop chart in South Africa, reached #2 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany, and was also a Top Ten hit in Australia, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.
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#1: And She’s Mine by the Guess Who?
City: Medicine Hat, AB
Radio Station: CHAT
Peak Month: October 1966
Peak Position in Medicine Hat ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “And She’s Mine”
Lyrics: “And She’s Mine”
Randolph Charles Bachman was born in 1943 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When he was just three years old he entered the King of the Saddle singing contest on CKY radio, Manitoba’s first radio station that began in 1923. Bachman won the contest. When he turned five years he began to study the violin through the Royal Toronto Conservatory. Though he couldn’t read music, he was able to play anything once he heard it. He dropped out of high school and subsequently a business administration program in college. He co-founded a Winnipeg band called Al & The Silvertones with Chad Allan in 1960.
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#23: After The Heartache by Doug Lycett
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: June 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “After The Heartache”
Lyrics: N/A
Doug Lycett was born in Orono, Ontario. He headed a country-rockabilly band named Doug Lycett and the Kingston Monarchs. At this time of writing, little can be found online about the singer-songwriter.
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#2: Sugar On Sunday by the Clique
City: Medicine Hat, AB
Radio Station: CHAT
Peak Month: November 1969
Peak Position in Medicine Hat ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “Sugar On Sunday”
Lyrics: “Sugar On Sunday”
The Clique was a late-1960s American sunshine pop band from Austin, Texas. They started as the Roustabouts in the Beaumont, Texas, area, 90 miles east of Houston. Next, they renamed themselves the Sandpipers before finally settling on the Clique in 1967. At that point they moved to Houston. Original members of the band were drummer John Kanesaw, bass guitar player Bruce Tinch, lead guitar player Cooper Hawthorne, lead singer and keyboard player Larry Lawson, singer and horn and saxophone player David Dunham, and Randy Shaw also on vocals and horns.
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#1: I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do by ABBA
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJBK
Peak Month: May 1976
Peak Position in London ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
Peak Position on Australia Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Belgium Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on South Africa Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Austria Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do”
Lyrics: “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do”
ABBA is a pop band from Sweden. Agneta Fältskog was born in 1950 in the lakeside city of Jönköping in southern Sweden. Fältskog wrote her first song at the age of six, which she named “Två små troll” (“Two Small Trolls”). In 1958, she began taking piano lessons, and also sang in a local church choir. In early 1960, Fältskog formed a musical trio, the Cambers. At age 15 she left school to pursue a career in music. She considers Connie Francis, Lesley Gore, Aretha Franklin and Marianne Faithfull as her prime influences on her musical style. Fältskog worked on reception for a car firm while performing with the Bernt Enghardt band. In 1967 she wrote “Jag var så kär” (“I Was So in Love”), after a dating relationship ended. The single topped the Swedish pop charts in early 1968. That year she met Björn Ulvaeus, a member of the Hootenanny Singers. Ulvaeus was born in the western coast city of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1945. In the early Sixties, Ulvaeus joined the Hootenanny Singers. They had a #5 hit in Sweden in 1964 with “Gabrielle”, based on the Russian folksong “May Here Always Be Sunshine”. The folk group had many Top Ten hits in Sweden into the early 70s, including a cover of “Green, Green Grass of Home” (“En sång en gång för längese’n”).
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#22: Blue Guitar by Richard Chamberlain
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube: “Blue Guitar”
Lyrics: “Blue Guitar”
George Richard Chamberlain was born in 1934 in Beverly Hills, California. After high school graduation in 1952, he studied acting at a college in Pomona. But, he was drafted in December 1952, and sent to fight in the Korean War. He rose to the rank of sergeant. In 1959, Richard Chamberlain appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The following year, he made a guest appearance in the crime-drama series Rescue 8, about the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Other guest appearances in TV shows in the early ’60s include Gunsmoke, the crime series Bourbon Street Beat, Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff, The Deputy starring Henry Fonda, and another western titled Whispering Smith. In 1960, Chamberlain starred opposite Richard Falk in The Secret of the Purple Reef. In 1961, Chamberlain starred with Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens, and Duane Eddy in the western A Thunder of Drums.
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#24: Mary Ann Regrets by Burl Ives
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: January 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #38
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “Mary Ann Regrets”
Lyrics: “Mary Ann Regrets”
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was born in 1909 in Hunt City, Illinois. As a youngster, one day Ives was singing in the garden with his mother, and his uncle overheard them. He invited his nephew to sing at the old soldiers’ reunion in Hunt City. The boy performed a rendition of the folk ballad “Barbara Allen” and impressed both his uncle and the audience. He went to college from 1927 to 1929, but decided he was wasting his time. In 1930, he began traveling across the USA as an itinerant singer during the early 1930s, earning his way by doing odd jobs and playing his banjo. He was jailed in Mona, Utah, for vagrancy and for singing “Foggy Dew” (an English folk song), which the authorities decided was a bawdy song. Around 1931, he began performing on WBOW radio in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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#3: Wonderful To Be Young by Cliff Richard
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: December 1962
Peak Position in London ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Wonderful To Be Young”
Lyrics: “Wonderful To Be Young”
Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line”.
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