#3: Wild Thing by Fancy

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: September 1974
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Wild Thing”
Lyrics: “Wild Thing”

Fancy was a band made up of studio musicians produced by Mike Hurst. They were fronted by Penthouse pet Helen Caunt (October 1971) to add sex appeal to the band. The musicians included Ray Fenwick (born in Greater London in 1946), Fenwick was with the blues band the Syndicats in 1964. In 1965, he joined the Dutch band Tee-Set (who had a 1970 international hit with “Ma Belle Amie”). From 1967 to 1969, Fenwick was with the Spencer Davis Group. He played in the Chess Records studio for Bo Diddley from 1972 onward. Another bandmate was Michael “Mo” Foster, who was born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1944. He learned the recorder at the age of nine. He formed a skiffle band in 1959 named The Tradewinds. From 1961 to 1964 he played dances with a band called the Baskervilles. The third musician was Les Binks, born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, in 1951.

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#1: After The Goldrush by Prelude

City: Kelowna, BC
Radio Station: CKOV
Peak Month: December 1974
Peak Position in Kelowna ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “After The Goldrush”
Lyrics: “After The Goldrush”

Prelude are an English-based vocal harmony group, who in their most famous line-up consisted of singer and guitarist Brian Hume, his wife Irene Hume – on vocals, and guitarist and singer Ian Vardy. Vardy and Brian Hume had covered Simon & Garfunkel’s song “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine” in 1967, billed as The Carnival. They formed Trilogy in their native Gateshead in northeast England in 1970, adding Irene Hume. They changed their name soon after to Prelude. They backed Ralph McTell on his recording of “Streets Of London”, which was released as a single in the UK in 1974. Prelude released a non-charting single titled “Edge of the Sea” in 1972. The following year Prelude signed with the Dawn Record label. They went to the recording studio to work on their debut album, How Long is Forever? One of the tracks was “After The Goldrush”.

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#575: Sugar Baby Love by the Rubettes

Peak Month: September-October 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube: “Sugar Baby Love”
Lyrics: “Sugar Baby Love”

In 1973, Wayne Bickerton, then head of A&R at Polydor Records, wrote four songs in an “American 50’s type” sound with co-writer Tony Waddington. A group of session musicians and singers were gathered in a London studio and recorded a demo of these tracks. Three of the session musicians were then asked to form the beginnings of a band, and with that John Richardson, Alan Williams and Pete Arnesen were the start of The Rubettes. John got some musician friends to round out the group, with Mick Clarke, Bill Hurd and Tony Thorpe making the original group of six.

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#72: Earache My Eye by Cheech & Chong

Peak Month: October 1974
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #9
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube.com: “Earache My Eye”
Lyrics: “Earache My Eye”
Spoken word skit: “Earache My Eye”

Richard Anthony “Cheech” Marin was born in 1946 in Los Angeles. His nickname “Cheech” is short for chicharron (which is a dish generally featuring fried pork belly, or fried pork rind). In a 2017 NPR interview, Marin attributed the nickname to his uncle: “I came home from the hospital, I was like a couple of days old or something, my uncle came over and he looked in the crib and he said [in Spanish], ‘Ay, parece un chicharrón.’ Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?” Cheech moved to Vancouver, BC, in September 1967, to avoid being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Thomas B. Kin Chong was born in 1938 in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up in Calgary, Chong stated in an interview, “when I was 16 but probably just before they were going to throw me out anyway.” He played guitar to make money. “I discovered that music could get you laid, even if you were a scrawny, long-haired, geeky-looking guy like me.”

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#126: Star Baby by the Guess Who

Peak Month: September 1974
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube.com: “Star Baby”
Lyrics: “Star Baby”

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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#240: This Is Your Song by Don Goodwin

Peak Month: March 1974
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #86
YouTube: “This Is Your Song”
Lyrics: “This Is Your Song”

Don Goodwin was born in California and raised in Aspen, Colorado. In the spring of 1974 Goodwin was mentioned in the press as being 18-years-old. So, it’s likely he was born in 1955 (or early 1956). A December 15, 1973, New On The Charts feature in Billboard reported this about the young recording artist. “Goodwin is a much-traveled 18-year-old who now lives in Aspen, Colorado, after moving 28 times with his family. His career is helmed by Paul Anka who saw Goodwin auditioning at a Las Vegas hotel. Silver Blue president Joel Diamond signed Goodwin after visiting Vegas and hearing “This Is Your Song” produced by Anka as a Goodwin demo. The single broke out in WIXY-AM, Cleveland, CKLW-AM Detroit, and KJRB-AM, Spokane. Written and co-produced by Anka, “(This Is) Your Song” surrounds Goodwin’s distinctively light voice with a clever ballad arrangement building from a plucked bass figure.”

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#369: So You Are A Star by the Hudson Brothers

Peak Month: December 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “So You Are A Star”
Lyrics: “So You Are A Star”

William Louis Hudson Jr. was born in 1949. Mark Jeffery Anthony Hudson was born in 1951. Brett Stuart Patrick Hudson was born in 1953. The three brothers were all born in Portland, Oregon. Their father left the family when the boys were young after he told their mother he “was going out for a pack of cigarettes.” Bill and Mark formed a band in 1963. Brett was eleven and recalls he was “too young and overweight and I wasn’t in the band.” But when Brett got sick with a virus, his older brothers decided he could join the band if he got better (they were afraid Brett was going to die). Brett got better and joined the My Sirs. In 1964 they added a guitarist named Kent Fillmore to their group. Bill also played guitar, Brett played bass guitar, and Mark played drums and keyboards. All three Hudson brothers sang vocals, with Bill as lead vocalist. After winning several local “battle of the bands”-type contest, the group recorded several songs at a local recording studio, where they received the attention of a local promoter, who offered them a contract promoting Chrysler automobiles.

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#874: Carrie’s Gone by J.C. Stone

Peak Month: November 1974
Peak Position #9
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Carrie’s Gone”

J.C. Stone was a Vancouver recording artist in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974 he released a single titled “Carrie’s Gone”.

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#401: This Flight Tonight by Nazareth

Peak Month: October 1974
10 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #117
YouTube: “This Flight Tonight”
Lyrics: “This Flight Tonight”

William “Dan” McCafferty was born in 1946 in Dunfermline, near Fife, Scotland. His musical influences include Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Otis Redding. He learned to play the bagpipes and the talkbox in his teens, as well as becoming a singer. He formed a band in 1961 called the Shadettes. By 1963 McCafferty was performing professionally full time before audiences. Manuel “Manny” Charlton was born in 1941 in La Línea de la Concepción on the Bay of Gibraltar in Spain. In his youth he learned to play guitar. Charlton was in the Mark 5 and the Red Hawks before joining the Shadettes. Pete Agnew was born in Dunfermline in 1946. He learned to play rhythm guitar and bass guitar in his youth. Agnew joined the Shadettes in 1961. Darrell Antony Sweet was born in 1947 in the South Coast of England in Bournemouth. He was a piper in his youth and also learned to play drums.

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#723: Piano Man by Billy Joel

Peak Month: May 1974
Peak Position #5
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Piano Man”
Lyrics: “Piano Man”

William Martin Joel was born in 1949 in The Bronx. His father, Helmut “Howard” Joel, was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and sold his textile business at a fraction of its value to be able to move to Switzerland. From there his father traveled to Cuba and was able to enter the United States from the Caribbean. Billy Joel’s mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in Brooklyn, also to Jewish parents. Young William was coerced by his mother to take piano lessons at the age of four. He kept taking piano lessons until he was sixteen. His parents divorced when he was eight, and in his later years in high school Billy Joel played at a piano bar to make some extra income to support his single mother, his sister and himself. Though his parents were Jewish, Billy Joel did not identify as Jewish and began to attend a Roman Catholic parish at age eleven. In 1964, at the age of 15, Joel was the pianist on the recording of “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” for the Shangri-Las. Later, he played piano on the demo for “Leader Of The Pack”, which the Shangri-Las later recorded and became a number-one hit in November 1964. He took up boxing and was in the Golden Gloves, winning 22 fights, but quit after he got his nose broken.

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Peak Month: August 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Shang-A-Lang”
Lyrics: “Shang-A-Lang”

Tinker’s Moon was a band from Montreal. Discogs.com comments that they were a session band from Montreal in the 1960s and 70s. Who they played for as session musicians isn’t detailed, at least from my internet search. There was an article about them on jam.canoe website. But an article search only resulted in an Error 404 message. By 1974 this band of session musicians decided to cut a few recordings, and they were apparently performing – presumably in the Montreal area. This included in their set some Top Ten hits on the UK charts that weren’t making it across the Atlantic.

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#525: Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, by Alan Schick

Peak Month: May 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG’s chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy”

Alan Schick was born around 1949. He was a one-hit-wonder on the Vancouver (BC) pop charts in the summer of 1974. In 1969 Alan Schick replaced Joey Gregorash in the Manitoba band, the Mongrels. They were managed by Lorne Saifer – who presently manages Burton Cummings. Schick wrote both sides of a 1969 single release: “Do You Know Your Mother?” and “Heartaches”. Alan Schick also penned the bands’ next single release in 1970, “Ivy In Her Eyes”. Saifer got the group a contract w/RCA and later took the group to Chicago to record an album produced by Randy Bachman. The results were less than spectacular; the album was never released and the Mongrels were done.

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#578: I’m On Fire For You Baby by April Wine

Peak Month: September 1974
10 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
YouTube.com: “I’m On Fire For You Baby”
Lyrics: “I’m On Fire For You Baby”

April Wine is a Canadian rock band that has released 34 singles, 16 studio albums and 9 live albums. They formed in Waverly, Nova Scotia, in 1969. The founding members were brothers David Henman (guitar) and Ritchie Henman (drums) and Myles Goodwyn (lead vocals, guitar). The Henman brothers cousin Jim Henman was also part of the band, but was replaced by bass player Jim Clench in 1971, a year after the band moved to Montreal. They had a Top Ten hit nationally in Canada in 1972 with “You Could Have Been A Lady”.

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#587: Big Time Operator by Keith Hampshire

Peak Month: January 1974
11 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube.com: “Big Time Operator”
Lyrics: “Big Time Operator”

Keith Hampshire was born in London in 1945. At the age of four he got tap dancing lessons and His family moved to Canada when he was six-years-old. They visited Toronto, took a train west and moved to Calgary. It was in Calgary that Keith Hampshire took singing lessons, founded a number of high-school bands, including the Intruders, Keith and The Bristols, and the Variations. Each band got gigs at other schools and clubs around town. The Variations opened for Roy Orbison one summer in the early 60s at the Calgary Stampede. Out of high school Keith Hampshire got a position at CFCN radio and TV as a cameraman. He ended up programming and announcing, playing Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Animals and the Searchers at the beginning of the British Invasion. At the age of 21 Hampshire moved back to the UK and got work from July 1966 to August 1967 as a DJ for a pirate radio station called Radio Caroline South. He moved back to Canada in September 1967 and got a job as a DJ with CKFH in Toronto. He got married in 1969.

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#644: Werewolf by the Five Man Electrical Band

Peak Month: June 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG’s chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
YouTube.com link: “Werewolf”
Lyrics: “Werewolf”

The Five Man Electrical Band was a Canadian mainstream rock band from Ottawa. They had an international hit in 1970 called “Signs.” Les Emmerson was born in 1944. In 1963 the Staccatos, an Ottawa group, was formed. It included lead singer and local disc jockey Dean Hagopian. After some local hits they got the attention of Capitol Records. Other bandmates included Vern Craig on guitar, Brian Rading on bass guitar and Rick Bell on drums and vocals.  Meanwhile, Hagopian left the band by the end of 1964, and was replaced on lead vocals by Les Emmerson. One of their 1965 singles imitated the surfing sound with “Moved To California.” In 1966 Rick’s brother, Mike Bell, joined the band as a second drummer. In 1966 their Top 40 hit on the Canadian RPM singles chart, “Let’s Run Away,” won the group the two Juno awards that year for Best Produced Single and Vocal Instrumental Group Of The Year.

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#864: Molly by Bearfoot

Peak Month: March 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Molly”
Lyrics: “Molly”

In 1949, Terry Danko was born in Greens Corners, Ontario, north of Lake Erie. In his childhood he learned a number of instruments and, according to hi biographer, Carol Caffin, Danko had his own radio show at the age of twelve. He was also a regular performer before he entered his teens in Turkey Point by Lake Erie. In 1967, then eighteen-year-old Danko met fellow musician Jim Atkinson. The duo formed Tin Pan Alley in 1968, along with drummer,Tom Wells. They were a regular act in the circuit in and around Brantford, Ontario. Danko’s brother, Rick, was part of the band with rockabilly legend, Ronnie Hawkins. Once Hawkins got introduced to Tin Pan Alley, he persuaded Tony Danko and Jim Atkinson to join the Ronnie Hawkins’ Rock and Roll Revival and Traveling Medicine Show. Into the early 70’s they played with Ronnie Hawkins.
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#926: Flip Flop And Fly by Downchild Blues Band

Peak Month: March 1974
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Flip Flop And Fly”
Lyrics: “Flip Flop And Fly”

The Downchild Blues Band was formed in Toronto in 1969 and continues to perform today. It was co-founded by two brothers, Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh and Richard “Hock” Walsh. The band’s international fame is partially due to three of its songs, the originals “I’ve Got Everything I Need (Almost)” and “Shot Gun Blues”, and its adaptation of “Flip, Flop and Fly”, all from their 1973 album, Straight Up, being featured on the first Blues Brothers album, Briefcase Full of Blues, from 1978. “Flip, Flop And Fly” has been Downchild’s biggest hit single, and became the signature song of Hock Walsh. The band’s musical style is described as being “a spirited, if fundamental, brand of jump-band and Chicago-style blues.” The bands’ name came from the Sonny Boy Williamson II song, “Mr. Downchild”.

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#1444: There’s Something I Like About That by Chilliwack

Peak Month: June 1974
6 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “There’s Something I Like About That”
Lyrics: There’s Something I Like About That”

Bill Henderson was born in Vancouver in 1944. He learned guitar and became the guitarist for the Panarama Trio that performed at the Panarama Roof dance club on the 15th Floor of the Hotel Vancouver. He formed the psychedelic pop-rock Vancouver band, The Collectors, in 1966 with Howie Vickers. After several local hits like “Fisherwoman” and “Lydia Purple” the band disbanded by 1970. Henderson (vocals, guitar), Claire Lawrence (saxophone, keyboards), Ross Turney (drums) and Glenn Miller (bass) were all Collectors bandmates. After Howie Vickers left The Collectors, they changed their name to Chilliwack. The name was a Salish First Nations name that means “going back up,” and is the name of a city in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia.

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#1165: Teen Angel by Wednesday

Peak Month: June 1974
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Teen Angel” ~ Mark Dinning version
“Teen Angel” lyrics ~ Original Mark Dinning version
YouTube.com: “Teen Angel” ~ Wednesday version
“Teen Angel” lyrics ~ Wednesday version (see below)

“Teen Angel” is a teenage tragedy song written by Jean Dinning and her husband, Red Surrey. It became a hit for Jean’s brother, Mark Dinning, in 1959. “Teen Angel” was released in October 1959. The song was not an instant success, with radio stations in the U.S. banning the song, considering it too sad. Despite the reluctance of radio stations, the song continued to climb the charts. In the last week of 1959, the single jumped from #100 to #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It went on to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1960. In the UK it climbed to #37 on the UK Singles Chart, despite being  banned from being played by the BBC. At the end of 1960 Billboard ranked it as the #5 song of the year.

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#1230: Walk On by Neil Young

Peak Month: August 1974
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #69
YouTube.com “Walk On”
Lyrics: “Walk On”

In 1945 Neil Young was born in Toronto, Ontario, and then lived most of his years growing up in the town of Omemee in the Kawartha Lakes region near Peterborough. As boy Neil Young was diagnosed with epilepsy, Type 1 diabetes and polio. By the age of six he was not able to walk. Despite his health challenges, he developed an interest in music and was taught to play the banjo and ukulele. After playing clubs in Toronto in the early 60s Young moved to Los Angeles by the time he turned twenty and became a member of the Buffalo Springfield.

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#1372: Just One Look by Anne Murray

Peak Month: November 1974
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #86
YouTube.com: “Just One Look” ~ Anne Murray
YouTube.com: “Just One Look” ~ Doris Troy
“Just One Look”

In 1945 Morna Anne Murray was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia, a coal-mining town. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a registered nurse. Growing up she took piano lessons for six years and began taking vocal lessons at age fifteen in 1960. In 1962 she gave one of her first public performances singing “Ave Maria” at her high school graduation. She went on to be part of the CBC variety show Singalong Jubilee in 1967. Her  first album, What About Me, was released in 1968. Her signature song, “Snowbird” went to #6 in Vancouver and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. It established a following and 76 singles, 32 studio albums and 55 million record sales later, Anne Murray is one of the most awarded and honored recording artists in the Canadian music industry.

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Peak Month: April 1974
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “I Am What I Am”
Lyrics: “I Am What I Am”

In the early sixties Lois Fletcher appeared on a Canadian variety show. This led to some performances at coffee houses in Greenwich Village in New York City. After Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels saw her, she was invited to join his other folk troupe, The Back Porch Majority. Sparks had co-written “Green Green” for the New Christy Minstrels with Barry McGuire. The Back Porch Majority were meant to be a kind of junior league folk group whose stars might get the nod to join the New Christy Minstrels. But the Back Porch Majority outdid themselves releasing six albums and seven singles between 1964 and 1966.

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