#6: Wasn’t That A Party by the Rovers
Peak Month: November-December 1980
Peak Position #1
19 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube.com: “Wasn’t That A Party”
Lyrics: “Wasn’t That A Party”
The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians that originated in Toronto, Canada. They formed in 1963 and were named after the traditional song “The Irish Rover” they are best known for their international television series, contributing to the popularization of Irish Music in North America, including for their breakthrough song in 1968 called “The Unicorn”. Founding members and brothers, George Millar and Will Millar, were both born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Will Millar was born in 1940, and George in 1947. The children grew up in a musical household as their father Bob played button-key accordion for several bands throughout the years. Their cousin Joe Millar, who also sang, took part in the family kitchen parties playing button-key accordion and harmonica. As children, George and Will performed with their sister, Sandra Beech as “The Millar Kids” in Ireland, before the family emigrated to Canada.
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#10: Too Bad by Doug and the Slugs
Peak Month: March-April-May 1980
Peak Position #2
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Plus 3 weeks Playlist
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Too Bad”
Lyrics: “Too Bad”
Doug Bennett was born in Toronto in 1951. He worked as a graphic designer after his schooling and at the age of 22 moved to Vancouver in 1973. He got a job as a cartoonist and editor for the weekly alternative paper the Georgia Strait. He also played with a number of bands. By 1977 Bennett was in search of some new outlets for his creativity and was introduced to guitarist John Burton. Burton had been in a group called The Ugly Slugs. Bennett and Burton began performing locally and added bassist Dennis Henderson, drummer Ted Laturnus and and Drew Neville on keyboards. They became Doug and The Slugs.
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#27: Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles
Peak Month: January 1980
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube.com: “Video Killed The Radio Star”
Lyrics: “Video Killed The Radio Star”
Trevor Charles Horn was born in the outskirts of the city of Sunderland, in the town of Hetton-le-Hole, in the county of Tyne and Wear in northeast England. At age eight he learned to play the double bass. Subsequently, he learned to play guitar and sight-read and play the recorder. At times he played in his fathers’ band the Joe Clarke Big Band. At the age of 14 Trevor was in a band called the Outer Limits, named after the 1963 sci-fi television show The Outer Limits. After public school, he got work in a rubber factory, and later as a progress chaser in a plastic bag factory. In the latter job he was fired after three months. He soon got work in a band that played at a Top Rank Ballroom. He also performed songs he’d composed on guitar on BBC Radio Leicester. When he was twenty-one, Trevor Horn moved to London and playing in a band hired to re-record top 20 songs for BBC radio to fit the needle time restrictions at the time. Next, Horn got work for a year with Ray McVay’s big band. This included performances at the world ballroom dancing championship and the television show Come Dancing. As well, he was hired as a session musician for rock groups and to record advertising jingles.
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#29: Boulevard by Jackson Browne
Peak Month: September 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube.com: “Boulevard”
Lyrics: “Boulevard”
Clyde Jackson Browne was born in 1948 in Heidelberg, Germany. His father was on assignment writing for Stars and Stripes magazine for the United States military. At the age of three, Jackson Browne moved with his family to Los Angeles. As he grew up he developed an interest in music and was singing and playing guitar in folk clubs, including The Troubadour Club in West Hollywood. In 1966, Browne joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Before he turned 18, Browne moved to Greenwich Village and was a staff writer for Electra Records. He was a musician on several albums and began to write songs that were covered by Joan Baez, the Eagles, the Byrds, Linda Ronstadt and others. In 1971 his self-titled debut album included the top ten hit “Doctor My Eyes”. Another track, “Rock Me On The Water”, peaked at #48 in 1972 and was covered by Linda Ronstadt. As well, Jackson Browne co-wrote “Take It Easy”, a #12 hit for the Eagles in 1972. On March 15, 1972, Jackson Browne gave his first concert in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
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#34: Dreamer by Supertramp
Peak Month: November 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube.com: “Dreamer”
Lyrics: “Dreamer”
Richard “Rick” Davies was born in 1944 in Swindon, England. By the age of eight, it was clear his only real interest in school was music. At the age of 12 he became a snare drummer with the British Railways Staff Association Brass and Silver Jubilee Band. Davies recalls, “As a kid, I used to hear the drums marching along the street in England, in my home town, when there was some kind of parade, and it was the most fantastic sound to me. Then, eventually, I got some drums and I took lessons. I was serious about it… I figured if I could do that – I mean a real drummer, read music and play with big bands, rock bands, classical, Latin, and know what I was going to do – I would be in demand and my life was set… Eventually, I started fiddling with the keyboards, and that seemed to go over better than my drumming, for some reason. So you’ve gotta go with what people react to.”
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#70: Under My Thumb by Streetheart
Peak Month: January 1980
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #2 ~ CKLG
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Under My Thumb”
Lyrics: “Under My Thumb”
Kenny Shields was from Nokomis, Saskatchewan in 1947. When he was six years old he won an amateur talent contest. Once he graduated from high school he pursued music and in 1967 formed a band in Saskatoon named Witness Inc. The band had several Top Ten hits in local radio markets in the Canadian Prairies and in Ontario. These include “I’ll Forget Her Tomorrow”, “Jezebel” and “Harlem Lady”. In 1969 Sheilds had a near fatal car accident and had to undergo therapy and rehab for a number of years. This meant he had to quit the band. In 1975 Shields was back with Witness Inc. and by that time he was the only original member in the band. But the pseudo-psychedlic sound that Witness Inc. was known for was no longer in vogue. The band changed its name to Streetheart and with it got a newer rock ‘n roll sound. Bass player Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve and keyboard player, Daryl Gutheil, made the transition from Witness Inc. As Streetheart, they were joined by Paul Dean and Matt Frenette who both moved on to form Loverboy.
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#80: Dreaming by Cliff Richard
Peak Month: November 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Dreamin’”
Lyrics: “Dreamin’”
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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#93: Come Back by the J. Geils Band
Peak Month: April 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube.com: “Come Back”
Lyrics: “Come Back”
The classic lineup of the J. Geils Band had five members. They are John “J” Geils on lead guitar; Danny Klein on bass guitar; Peter Wolf as lead vocalist and on percussion; Magic Dick on harmonica, saxophone, trumpet; Seth Justman on keyboards and backing vocals; And Stephen Jo Bladd on drums, percussion, and backing vocals. John Warren Geils Jr. was born in 1946, in New York City. He grew up in New Jersey. He learned jazz trumpet and drums and was part of a marching band in school. He dated Meryl Streep in 1962. In the mid-60’s he switched from jazz trumpet to guitar. In 1966, he formed a jug band named Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels, which was rounded out with Danny Klein and Magic Dick. This was different from the San Francisco band Sopwith Camel who had a Top 30 hit in the winter of 1966-67 with “Hello Hello.” Danny Klein was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1946. Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1945. He first learned to play the trumpet, and then harmonica and saxophone. Peter Walter Blankfield was born in the Bronx in 1946. In 1964, billed as Peter Wolf, he formed a Boston-area band called The Hallucinations, which included drummer Stephen Jo Bladd. Wolf was later DJ Woofa Goofa on Boston station WBCN, with an all-night blues and jazz radio show. Stephen Jo Bladd was born in Boston in 1942. Seth Justman was born in 1951 in Washington D.C. The J. Geils Band formed in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1968. Continue reading →
#96: Message In A Bottle by the Police
Peak Month: January 1980
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube.com: “Message In A Bottle”
Lyrics: “Message In A Bottle”
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born in Wallsend on Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, England, in 1951. His mother was a hairdresser and his father was a milkman and engineer. When he was ten-years-old, young Sumner got introduced to Spanish guitar, when a family friend left it at the Sumner residence. After high school he was variously a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer. He went to college and from 1974-76 was a public school teacher. Sumner performed jazz in the evening, weekends and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. He gained his nickname, “Sting,” due to his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought Sumner looked like a bee which prompted the name “Sting.” According to Sting, in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, “they thought I looked like a wasp, and they’d joke. They called me Sting. They thought it was hilarious…That became my name.”
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#99: Breakdown Dead Ahead by Boz Scaggs
Peak Month: May 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Breakdown Dead Ahead”
Lyrics: “Breakdown Dead Ahead”
William Royce “Boz“ Scaggs was born in 1944 in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland. His father was a traveling salesman, and the family moved to Oklahoma and next to Texas. While attending a private school in Dallas, Scaggs met Steve Miller while he was 12-years-old. Scaggs was learning to play guitar and was invited to join Miller’s band the Marksmen. In 1961-62 Boz Scaggs joined Steve Miller’s band the Ardells while the pair were studying university in Madison, Wisconsin. Scaggs followed Miller to Chicago in ’62-’63. Then he went to London and Sweden to perform as a solo artist in concert. While in Sweden, Boz Scaggs released his debut album, Boz, in 1965. The album only sold in Sweden and soon went out of print.
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#105: Rock Lobster by the B-52’s
Peak Month: April-May 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
1 week Playlist
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #56
YouTube.com: “Rock Lobster”
Lyrics: “Rock Lobster”
Frederick William Schneider III was born in 1951 in Newark, New Jersey. He went to college in Atlanta and wrote a book of poetry for one class project. After college, he was a janitor as well as a Meals on Wheels driver. At the time the B-52’s formed, Schneider III had very little musical experience. The B-52’s got their start when the fledgling bandmates played an impromptu number after drinking at a Chinese restaurant in Athens, Georgia. The band played their first real gig in 1977 at a Valentine’s Day party for their friends. Ricky Helton Wilson was born in 1953, and learned to play guitar in the winter of 1972-73. In the summer of 1969, Ricky Wilson met Wilson met Keith Strickland at a marijuana shop. In the following months, Wilson quietly came out as gay to Strickland while the two were in their teens. During mid-1969, both Wilson and Strickland collaborated in writing and performing music, loosely calling themselves Loon, and aspired to perform live. From 1969 to 1971, Wilson and Strickland collaborated with two high school friends in the four-member band Black Narcissus.
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#108: Kid Is Hot Tonight by Loverboy
Peak Month: November 1980
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube.com: “Kid Is Hot Tonite”
Lyrics: “Kid Is Hot Tonite”
Loverboy is a band formed in 1979. It has been stated by Mike Reno that their name was chosen due to a dream by Paul Dean. He had come up with the name after spending the previous night with some of the bandmates, including Reno and their girlfriends, before going to the movies. The girlfriends were browsing through fashion magazines, where the guys in the band saw a Cover Girl advertisement. Cover Girl became Cover Boy, and then became Loverboy in Dean’s dream later that night. After being told by Dean about the dream the next morning, Reno agreed to try it out and it stuck. The group made its live debut opening for Kiss at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on November 19, 1979.
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#114: Don’t Stand So Close To Me by the Police
Peak Month: December 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
Peak 1981 Year-End Position on Billboard ~ #71
YouTube.com: “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”
Lyrics: “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born in Wallsend on Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, England, in 1951. His mother was a hairdresser and his father was a milkman and engineer. When he was ten-years-old, young Sumner got introduced to Spanish guitar, when a family friend left it at the Sumner residence. After high school he was variously a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer. He went to college and from 1974-76 was a public school teacher. Sumner performed jazz in the evening, weekends and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. He gained his nickname, “Sting,” due to his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought Sumner looked like a bee which prompted the name “Sting.” According to Sting, in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, “they thought I looked like a wasp, and they’d joke. They called me Sting. They thought it was hilarious…That became my name.”
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#116: Doin’ It Right by the Powder Blues
Peak Month: March 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
2 weeks Playlist
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Doin’ It Right”
Lyrics: “Doin’ It Right”
In 1978 Prism band member, Tom Lavin, left the group to form Powder Blues. Lavin had also recorded and been a member of Denise McCann’s backing band. Powder Blues was made up of Tom Lavin on guitar and vocals, Jack Lavin on bass, Mark Hasselbach on trumpet, Duris Maxwell on drums, Wayne Kozak, Gordon Bertram and David Woodward all on saxophone, Bill Hicks on drums and Will MacCalder on keyboards and vocals. Jack Lavin had been a member of Teen Angel. Willie MacCalder was formerly a member of Willie and The Walkers. Duris Maxwell was a former member of Skylark and Doucette. Gordie Bertram had been a member of Foreman Byrnes. Mark Hasselbach had been with Airbrush, a jazz band. David Woodward, born in Arlington, Virginia, had been a member of Toronto’s Downchild Blues Band since 1971.
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#119: Money by the Flying Lizards
Peak Month: February 1980
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #50
YouTube.com: “Money”
Lyrics: “Money”
David Cunningham was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, in 1954. From 1973 to 1977, Cunningham attended the Maidstone College of Art in Kent, England. Deborah Evans-Stickland was born in the 1950s and went to art school. She joined the Flying Lizards in 1976. David Toop was born in 1949 in suburban London. He studied at the Hornsby College of Art. He became involved with the London Musicians Collective. In 1975 he recorded New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments. Steve Beresford was born in 1950 in Shropshire, England. Beresford joined the Portsmouth Sinfonia in the 70s. While the Flying Lizards were a recording act, Beresford and Toop were also part of a band called Alterations. Michael Upton was born in 1938 in Birmingham, England, and studied at the Birmingham College of Art in the mid-50s. Vivien Goldman was born in 1952 in London. She began her career as a journalist for Cassettes and Cartridges in the early 70s. Next, she was hired as a PR officer for Atlantic Records, and subsequently for Island Records, where she worked with Bob Marley. She was a writer and editor for London-based Sounds magazine in the late 1970s, at the time she joined the Flying Lizards. Julian Marshall British singer, songwriter, and keyboard player, who was one half of the duo Marshall Hain.
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#137: She’s So Cold by the Rolling Stones
Peak Month: December 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #26
YouTube: “She’s So Cold”
Lyrics: “She’s So Cold”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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#141: 99 by Toto
Peak Month: November-December 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “99”
Lyrics: “99”
Born in 1954 in Los Angeles, David Paich is the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and singer of the band Toto. He co-wrote “Lowdown” with Boz Scaggs, numbers of hits for Toto including “Hold The Line”, “99”, “Rosanna” and “Africa”, and 1978 disco hit “Got To Be Real” for Cheryl Lynn. In 1977, Paich produced the No. 1 R&B hit “Break It to Me Gently” for Aretha Franklin. In 1978 he founded Toto.
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#168: Refugee by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Peak Month: March 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Refugee”
Lyrics: “Refugee”
Thomas Earl Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mom worked at a tax office. While still ten years old, Tom Petty met Elvis Presley on the film set for Follow That Dream. But it was seeing the Beatles on TV in February 1964, that gave Tom Petty his inspiration. He recalls, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.
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#176: Echo Beach by Martha & the Muffins
Peak Month: June 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Echo Beach”
Lyrics: “Echo Beach”
Martha Johnson was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1950. Johnson worked in Toronto as a medical receptionist. She started her career playing the organ with cover band “Oh Those Pants”. She then was part of Toronto band the Doncasters in the early 1970s. Johnson joined David Millar, Mark and Tim Gane, and Carl Finkle to form the band Martha & the Muffins in 1977. Martha & the Muffins emerged from the early punk/new wave/art pop scene which was centered around various clubs along Toronto’s Queen Street West and the Ontario College of Art, where Millar and Mark Gane were students. Martha Johnson played keyboards, David Millar and Mark Gane played guitar. Gane’s brother, Tim, was the band’s drummer. And Carl Finkle played bass guitar. The band had their debut performance at the Ontario College of Art Hallowe’en party in October 1977. Some of the clubs they played at included the Beverly and the Rivoli. Regarding the name for the band, Mark Gane recalls “We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better.” They had wanted a name that was edgy, but not aggressive like the Sex Pistols.
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#189: I Got You by Split Enz
Peak Month: January 1981
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube: “I Got You”
“I Got You” lyrics
Split Enz is a folk-rock band that formed in 1972. For the first several years they spelled their name The Split Ends. They released their first single in New Zealand and Australia in 1973. The co-founders of the band were Tim Finn and Phil Judd. Finn was the lead vocalist and played acoustic and electric guitar and piano. Phil Judd also played guitar and added vocals. Judd eventually left the band in 1978. In the late 70’s and early 1980’s, Split Enz’ membership consisted of Tim Finn, his younger brother Neil Finn on vocals and guitar, bass player Nigel Griggs, drummer Malcolm Green, keyboard player Eddie Rayner and percussionist Noel Crombie. During the 1970’s, they had two singles in the Top 50 in New Zealand which made the Top 20 in Australia.
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#201: Cocaine/Tulsa Time by Eric Clapton
A-side: “Cocaine”
Peak Month: August 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Cocaine”
Lyrics: “Cocaine”
B-side: “Tulsa Time”
Peak Month: August 1980
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tulsa Time”
Lyrics: “Tulsa Time”
Eric Patrick Clapton was born in 1945 in a village in Surrey, England. When he was thirteen he was given a steel-stringed guitar for his birthday. By the age of sixteen, Clapton was busking in Surrey. By the age of 17, in 1962 Clapton joined an R&B band called the Roosters. Another guitarist, Tom McGuinness, later joined Manfred Mann. Clapton left in the summer of 1963 to join Casey Jones and the Engineers. Soon after he switched bands to join the Yardbirds. He contributed lead vocals on “Good Morning School Girl” and other blues-based tracks. The album, Five Live Yardbirds, included covers of “Smokestack Lightening” by Howlin’ Wolf, “Five Long Years” by Eddie Boyd, “Too Much Monkey Business” by Chuck Berry, and “I’m A Man” by Bo Diddley. Committed to a solid blues sound, Clapton was troubled by a growing commercial sound the band was showcasing. “For Your Love” hit the top of the charts in the UK and Canada and reached number six in the United States. This displeased Clapton, a blues purist whose vision extended beyond three-minute singles. Frustrated by the commercial approach, he abruptly left the band on March 25, 1965, the day “For Your Love” was released.
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#237: Jesse by Carly Simon
Peak Month: November 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Jesse”
Lyrics: “Jesse”
Carly Elisabeth Simon was born in 1945 in The Bronx. Her father was from a German-Jewish family, and her mother was from a German family. In 1964, with her sister Lucy, she formed the Simon Sisters. They had a minor folk-pop hit with the nursery rhyme – lullaby “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod”. It was a Top 50 hit in Vancouver (BC) in April ’64. The Simon Sisters released three albums between 1964 and 1969 in the folk and children’s folk genres. This included recordings of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and The Pussycat”, and Lewis Carroll’s “The Lobster Quadrille”. Lucy went on to write music for the 1991 Tony Award winning musical, The Secret Garden. In 1971 Carly Simon appeared in the film Taking Off, where she was cast as an audition singer.
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#241: Johnny And Mary by Robert Palmer
Peak Month: December 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Johnny And Mary”
Lyrics: “Johnny And Mary”
Robert Allen Palmer was born in the market town of Batley, in West Yorkshire, about 9 miles southwest of Leeds, England. Palmer’s father was a British naval intelligence officer stationed in Malta. Growing up Palmer heard jazz, blues and soul music on American Forces Radio. At the age of 15, Robert Palmer joined a band called the Mandrakes. At the age of 20 he was invited to be a backing vocalist for a single by The Alan Bown Set in 1969 titled “Gypsy Girl”. In 1970 he joined a 12-piece-jazz fusion group named Dada that included Elkie Brooks. In 1971 Palmer, Brooks and her husband guitarist Peter Gage, formed a band called Vinegar Joe. Dada once opened for Jimi Hendrix, and Vinegar Joe once opened a concert for The Who. After they disbanded in 1974, Brooks went on to have a number of Top Ten hits on the UK singles chart including “Pearl’s a Singer”, “Sunshine After the Rain”, and “No More the Fool”.
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#277: Jojo by Boz Scaggs
Peak Month: September 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Jojo”
Lyrics: “Jojo”
William Royce “Boz“ Scaggs was born in 1944 in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland. His father was a traveling salesman, and the family moved to Oklahoma and next to Texas. While attending a private school in Dallas, Scaggs met Steve Miller while he was 12-years-old. Scaggs was learning to play guitar and was invited to join Miller’s band the Marksmen. In 1961-62 Boz Scaggs joined Steve Miller’s band the Ardells while the pair were studying university in Madison, Wisconsin. Scaggs followed Miller to Chicago in ’62-’63. Then he went to London and Sweden to perform as a solo artist in concert. While in Sweden, Boz Scaggs released his debut album, Boz, in 1965. The album only sold in Sweden and soon went out of print.
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#282: All Over The World by Electric Light Orchestra
Peak Month: October 1980
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “All Around The World”
Lyrics: “All Over The World”
Jeffrey Lynne was born in suburban Birmingham, England in 1947. His dad bought him a guitar when he turned twelve. In 1966 he formed a band that by 1968 called themselves the Idle Race. He left for another band by the end of the 60s named The Move. The latter development was a catalyst for working on a musical project combining rock with orchestration. Beverley “Bev” Bevan was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1944. He learned to play drums and in 1956 he joined a rock band named Denny Laine & the Diplomats. In 1965 he moved on to join Carl Wayne & the Vikings, and in 1966 The Move. Bevan went through the transition from the Move to Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne. By the end of 1970 the Electric Light Orchestra was born.
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#285: Making Plans For Nigel by XTC
Peak Month: March 1980
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Making Plans For Nigel”
Lyrics: “Making Plans For Nigel”
Colin Ivor Moulding was born in 1955 in Swindon, England. Moulding is self-taught as a bass player; he was learning rock riffs at the age of 15. Terry Peter Chambers was born in 1955 in Swindon. At age 14 he bought a drum kit and learned to play drums. Andrew John Partridge was born in Malta in 1953. He grew up in Swindon and wrote his first song at the age of 15. In 1970 he formed a band called Stiff Beach, which by 1972 was a four-piece band renamed Star Park. Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers both joined Star Park in 1972. The band opened for Thin Lizzy in 1973. Subsequently, the renamed their band the Helium Kidz. The UK pop music magazine, New Musical Express, wrote an article about them. Swindon, in Wiltshire, England, was known for several other notable musicians including Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Gilbert O’Sullivan (“Alone Again Naturally”), late 90s UK pop singles chart topper Billie Piper (“Because We Want To”, “Girlfriend”), and Josh Kumra who provided vocals on the #1 UK single, “Don’t Go” with Wretch 32 in 2011.
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#297: White Hot by Red Rider
Peak Month: April 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “White Hot”
Lyrics: “White Hot”
Tom Cochrane was born in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, in 1953. When he was eleven he got his first guitar. In his late teens and early twenties, he performed in coffee houses across Canada in the early 70’s. His debut album, Hang On To Your Resistance, was released in 1974. Then Tom Cochrane made his way to Los Angeles. In 1975, Cochrane got work composing theme music for the movie My Pleasure Is My Business. This was a film about Xavier Hollander, the call girl and adult film star who authored her own memoir, The Happy Hooker, in 1971. Unable to get subsequent work in Hollywood, Cochrane returned to Canada for drive a taxi and work on a cruise line. At a concert at the El Mocambo for Red Rider in 1978, Tom Cochrane met the band. Soon after Cochrane was invited to join Red Rider.
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#310: Sometimes A Fantasy by Billy Joel
Peak Month: December 1980
Peak Position: #3
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #36
YouTube: “Sometimes A Fantasy”
Lyrics: “Sometimes A Fantasy”
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.
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#419: Confusion by Electric Light Orchestra
Peak Month: January 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube: “Confusion”
Lyrics: “Confusion”
Jeffrey Lynne was born in suburban Birmingham, England in 1947. His dad bought him a guitar when he turned twelve. In 1966 he formed a band that by 1968 called themselves the Idle Race. He left for another band by the end of the 60s named The Move. The latter development was a catalyst for working on a musical project combining rock with orchestration. Beverley “Bev” Bevan was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1944. He learned to play drums and in 1956 he joined a rock band named Denny Laine & the Diplomats. In 1965 he moved on to join Carl Wayne & the Vikings, and in 1966 The Move. Bevan went through the transition from the Move to Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne. By the end of 1970 the Electric Light Orchestra was born.
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#359: I’m The Man by Joe Jackson
Peak Month: January 1980
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
2 weeks Playlist
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “I’m The Man”
Lyrics: “I’m The Man”
Joe Jackson was born David Ian Jackson in 1954 in Burton upon Trent, England. In his teens he learned to play violin and piano. In 1970 when he was 16-years-old, Jackson was playing piano in bars and pubs. Out of high school he attended London’s Royal Academy of Music. In the early 70s he formed a British band called Edward Bear (different from the Canadian band from Ontario), which soon changed its name to Arms and Legs. David Ian Jackson started getting the nickname “Joe” because some people thought he looked like the Charlie Brown character Snoopy in his “Joe Cool” persona.
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#360: Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel
Peak Month: September 1980
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Games Without Frontiers”
Lyrics: “Games Without Frontiers”
Peter Brian Gabriel was born in 1950 in Surrey, UK. He learned to play piano and drums in his childhood. In 1965, at the age of 15, Gabriel became part of a trio rock band called Garden Wall. The bandmates were all from the Charterhouse School, a public school in Surrey housed in a Carthusian monastery. In 1967 Garden Wall merged with two members of another band from the same school to form Genesis. The new band sought fellow school alumnus, pop singer Jonathan King, to be their producer. King got Genesis a record deal with Decca Records. But the band’s first album, Genesis to Revelation, was stocked in the ‘Religious’ record section of most stores given the title. Consequently, it sold only in the hundreds of copies.
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#782: Roll Me Away by Dwayne Ford
Peak Month: September 1980
11 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Roll Me Away”
Dwayne Ford was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1949. Ford learned the piano from the age of five. He was a professional musician by the time he turned sixteen. Ford joined the Nomads while in Alberta. Ford moved to Toronto in 1970 and was hired on by Ronnie Hawkins, as part of the Ronnie Hawkins’ Rock And Roll Revival And Travelling Medicine Show. By late 1971 Ford, and two other members of Hawkins’ band – Terry Danko and Jim Atkinson – were feeling ready for a new challenge. The three musicians left Hawkins band and formed Atkinson, Danko and Ford. Two other members of Hawkins band, guitarist Hugh Brockie and Brian Hilton also joined up with the new trio which changed its name to Bearfoot.
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#656: What’s Your Hurry Darlin’ by Ironhorse
Peak Month: June 1980
Peak Position #9
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #89
YouTube: “What’s Your Hurry Darlin’”
Lyrics: “What’s Your Hurry Darlin’”
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 The Silvertones with Chad Allan in 1960. In 1962 the band became Chad Allan and the Expressions, and was renamed The Guess Who in 1965 with their first big hit, “Shakin’ All Over“.
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#406: Keep The Fire by Kenny Loggins
Peak Month: April 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #5
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Keep The Fire”
Lyrics: “Keep The Fire”
Kenneth Clark Loggins was born in Everett, Washington, in 1948. He grew up in Seattle, Detroit and Los Angeles County. Kenny Loggins started his professional music career at the age of 18, earning $100 per week by writing songs for a publishing firm. In 1966 he formed a band called The Second Helping that had a minor hit in San Bernardino (CA) titled “Floating Downstream On A Rubber Inflatable Raft”. In 1969 he briefly played guitar in concerts with the New Improved Electric Prunes, before writing four songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In 1970 he wrote “Danny’s Song”, which became a Top Ten hit for Anne Murray in early 1973. Kenny Loggins met Jim Messina in 1970 and the pair became a folk-pop duo Loggins and Messina in 1971.
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#407: Fine State Of Affairs by Burton Cummings
Peak Month: July 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Lyrics: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, based rock ‘n roll band The Guess Who. He was with the band from 1965 to 1975. Cummings sang, wrote or co-wrote many hit songs. These include “American Woman”, “Clap For The Wolfman”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Laughing”, “No Time”, “Share The Land”, “Star Baby” and “These Eyes”. His solo career includes many hit singles, including “My Own Way To Rock” and “Fine State Of Affairs”. His first solo hit single was “Stand Tall”, in 1976, which was his biggest hit as a solo recording artist.
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#724: Remember (Walking In The Sand) by Aerosmith
Peak Month: February 1980
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #67
YouTube: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” ~ Aerosmith
YouTube: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” ~ Shangri-Las
Lyrics: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)”
Steven Victor Tallarico was born in 1948 in Manhattan, and known professionally as Steve Tyler. He grew up in the Bronx and then Yonkers. Growing up he learned to play drums, guitar, harmonica and keyboard. In 1964 he formed a band called the Strangers. By 1970 the band was remanded Chain Reaction. They played at a concert in New Hampshire and heard Jam Band on stage, which included Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton. Within a year the three decided to form a band. Anthony Joseph Pereira was born in 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and was known professionally as Joe Perry. Though he was left-handed, he learned to play guitar at the age of 10 right-handed. While at a college prep school, the Vermont Academy, Pereira was Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Kinks and The Yardbirds. Thomas William Hamilton was born in Colorado Springs (CO) in 1951. He learned to play guitar at the age of 12. Hamilton and Joe Perry formed the Jam Band late spring in 1970. The band morphed into Aerosmith.
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#477: Holiday by Nazareth
Peak Month: March-April 1980
12 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #87
YouTube: “Holiday”
Lyrics: “Holiday”
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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#416: I Thank You by ZZ Top
Peak Month: March 1980
12 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #34
YouTube: “I Thank You”
Lyrics: “I Thank You”
ZZ Top was formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has had three members since it began. Guitar player, Billy Gibbons, is the lead vocalist for the trio. Dusty Hill also shared lead vocals and plays bass guitar. The bands’ drummer is Frank Beard. Gibbons and Hill wear beards, however Frank Beard is clean-shaven. The band has sold over 25 million records of their blues-rock infused recordings. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. They credit the rock group Cream as one of their major influences. William Frederick Gibbons was born in Houston (TX) in December 1949. He saw Elvis Presley in concert when he was just five years old in 1955, when Elvis was with Sun Records. In 1957 Billy Gibbons was taken to a recording studio to hear BB King. Gibbons learned to play percussion and got his first electric guitar in 1963 while he was still 13-years-old. He was in a number of bands while in art college in Hollywood. Back in Houston, Gibbons founded a psychedelic band named The Moving Sidewalks, who opened a concert for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and also The Doors.
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#1148: Easy Money by Valdy
Peak Month: December 1980
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Easy Money”
Paul Valdemar Horsdal was born in Ottawa in 1945. Valdy was a member of the London Town Criers during the 1960s and subsequently joined Montreal band The Prodigal Sons. Prior to beginning his solo career, he was based in Victoria. There he worked with various artists, including Canadian country music singer Blake Emmons. Emmons was the host of CTV show Funny Farm (Canada’s answer to the CBS TV show Hee Haw).
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#455: Play The Game by Queen
Peak Month: August 1980
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube.com: “Play The Game”
Lyrics: “Play The Game”
Farrokh Bulsara was born in 1946 in Zanzibar. He was raised by his Parsi parents who came to Africa from India. His family moved to India in 1954 when he was eight, where he attended British-style boarding schools near Bombay. He moved back to Zanzibar in 1963, but his family fled to England in 1964 after the Zanzibar Revolution and the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar by indigenous Africans. Bulsara was born a British subject, as Zanzibar was a British protectorate until 1963. After studying graphic art and design, Farrokh was part of several bands in the London area. In 1970 he hooked up with several members from a band called Smile, Brian May and Roger Taylor. Farrokh Bulsara named their new band Queen. He also legally changed his name to Freddie Mercury.
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#534: Touch And Go by The Cars
Peak Month: November 1980
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube.com:”Touch And Go”
Lyrics: “Touch And Go”
According to AllMusic.com music critic, Jason Ankeny, The Grasshoppers were a rock ‘n roll band from Cleveland who formed in 1962. There were several lineup changes and Benjamin Orzechowski joined the band in 1964 and became the lead singer. Ben Orr, who was born in 1947, went on to be a lead singer in the New Wave band, The Cars. Jeff Niesel, of Rolling Stone Magazine writes that members of the Grasshoppers Fan Club included Diane Akins, the president of the club. She remembers meeting Ben Orr when the Grasshoppers were an opening act when the Beach Boys performed in Cleveland in November, 1964.
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#550: Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens by 6 Cylinder
Peak Month: May 1980
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens”
Lyrics: “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens”
6 Cylinder was a band from Vancouver (BC) that formed in August 1977. Its founding members were Wayne Bassett, Lorne Burns, Bob Popowich, Dan Smith and Carl Erickson. Bassett and Burns were former Nechako bandmates. With 6 Cylinder, Wayne Bassett played piano, fiddle, and was on vocals, while Lorne Burns was on drums, and vocals. Bassett and Burns were session musicians on the 1974 Buddy Knox album Buddy Knox Rocks! Former Just What The Doctor Ordered and Access Junction bandmates Bob Popowich and Dan Smith also joined 6 Cylinder. Bob Popowich played played bass and added vocals, while Dan Smith played guitar and also was a vocalist. Former member with both the Nocturnals and the Cement City Cowboys, Carl Erickson, played alto and tenor saxophone, as well as adding vocals. In January 1978, Ian Berry, formerly with Wildroot, Sweet Beaver and Cement City Cowboys, joined 6 Cylinder. Berry contributed keyboards, tenor saxophone and vocals. Prior to the formation of the classic lineup of 6 Cylinder, all six bandmates appeared in the recording studio on Cam Molloy’s album Cam Molloy, released in 1977-78.
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#583: Broken English by Marianne Faithfull
Peak Month: April 1980
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #125
YouTube.com: “Broken English”
Lyrics: “Broken English”
Marianne Faithfull’s story has been well documented, not least in her insightful 1994 autobiography Faithfull. She was born in December, 1946, in Hampstead, a borough of Greater London. In 1964 she began appearing at coffeehouses in London as one of the acts on stage. She showed up at a launch party for the Rolling Stones. At the event she met Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones manager who was always on the lookout for new talent. Faithfull’s career as the crown princess of swinging London was launched with “As Tears Go By”. The song climbed to #9 in the UK and into the Top 30 in the USA and in Vancouver. At the time she was 16 years old. Her 1964 hit single was the first song ever written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Two folk albums, two pop albums and a singles collection followed. Marianne Faithfull also embarked on a parallel career as an actress, both on film in Girl On A Motorcycle (1968) and on stage in Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1967) and Hamlet (1969) By the end of the Sixties personal problems halted Marianne’s career and her drug addiction took over.
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#910: Don’t Ya Hide It by Stonebolt
Peak Month: February 1980
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Don’t You Hide It”
In 1969 guitar player Ray Roper, drummer Brian Lousley and bass player Dan Atchison were high school students. They decided to form a band named Perth Amboy, possibly after the city in New Jersey. (In 1968 a band from Michigan called the Amboy Dukes had a Top 20 hit titled “Journey To The Center Of Your Mind”). Roper was from England. Perth Amboy played at high school dances and many small venues in the Lower Mainland. In 1973 they changed their name to Stonebolt. They added John Webster on keyboards and David Wills on vocals around 1976, according to an email to this website from David Wills. David Wills left the Seattle band, Shaker, to join Stonebolt.
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#693: Young And Restless by Prism
Peak Month: July 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Young And Restless”
Lyrics: “Young And Restless”
In 1967 a new rock group appeared on the Vancouver scene called the Seeds of Time. They had several local hits including “My Home Town” and “Crying The Blues”. There were a number of lineup changes, but the bands personnel included drummer Rocket Norton, guitarist Lindsay Mitchell, and bassist Al Harlow. These three reunited after the Seeds of Time disbanded in 1974. After a brief stint as an R&B band called Sunshyne, they became Prism under Lindsay Mitchell’s initiative. In the band were new singer Ron Tabak, bassist Tom Lavin, keyboard player John Hall and drummer Rodney Higgs. Higgs was actually a pseudonym for Jim Vallance, the future songwriting partner of Bryan Adams. The band released a self-titled album in 1977 that included two local singles “Take Me To The Kaptin” and “It’s Over”. Anther single, “Spaceship Superstar”, made the Top Ten in Ottawa, Hamilton and London (ON) in the winter of 1977-78.
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#740: Nyet Nyet Soviet (Soviet Jewellery) by B.B. Gabor
Peak Month: June 1980
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
3 weeks Hitbound on CKLG
YouTube.com link: “Nyet Nyet Soviet (Soviet Jewellery)”
Lyrics: Nyet Nyet Soviet (Soviet Jewellery)”
Gabor Hegedus was born in Hungary in 1948. His childhood was spent in the context of the repressive Hungarian Communist regime as a satellite of Stalin’s USSR. The Hungarian Communist Party had received only 17% of the vote in November 1945 and 17% of the vote in national elections in August 1947. Hungarian Communist part leader, Mátyás Rákosi, forced the Social Democrats to merge with the Communists. Next, all the other political parties were declared illegal and many politicians were charged with “conspiracy against the Republic.” This included Rákosi’s main rival in the Hungarian Communist Party, László Rajk, the Minister of the Interior of Hungary who had established the State Protection Authority. László was executed after a show trial in May 1949. Under the regime as many as 1.5 million Hungarians were imprisoned at some point between 1949 and 1956, out of a population of 9.5 million. The highly unpopular Rákosi was removed from office in the July 1956, after a speech by Nikita Khrushchev on February 25, 1956, had begun a process of destalinization. Khrushchev had denounced the cult of personality that Joseph Stalin had established and Rákosi had emulated. Reforms and revolution were sparked in the fall of 1956 and László Rajk was cleared of all charges on October 6, 1956. On October 19, 1956, the new reformist Hungarian Communist Party leader, Imre Nagy, won concessions for a reduction of Soviet troops in Hungary. Students and others pushed for even more reforms and on November 4th Soviet tanks entered Budapest. The Hungarian Revolution ended on November 11, 1956. Gabor Hegedus and his parents fled to England. In a 1980 interview with Paul McGrath of the Globe and Mail, BB Gabor recalled that his family escaped Hungary just “one step ahead of the Russian tanks.”
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#1354: Night To Remember by Prism
Peak Month: February 1980
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Night To Remember”
Lyrics: “Night To Remember”
In 1967 a new rock group appeared on the Vancouver scene called the Seeds of Time. They had several local hits including “My Home Town” and “Crying The Blues”. There were a number of lineup changes, but the bands personnel included drummer Rocket Norton, guitarist Lindsay Mitchell, and bassist Al Harlow. These three reunited after the Seeds of Time disbanded in 1974. After a brief stint as an R&B band called Sunshyne, they became Prism under Lindsay Mitchell’s initiative. In the band were new singer Ron Tabak, bassist Tom Lavin, keyboard player John Hall and drummer Rodney Higgs. Higgs was actually a pseudonym for Jim Vallance, the future songwriting partner of Bryan Adams. The band released a self-titled album in 1977 that included two local singles “Take Me To The Kaptin” and “It’s Over”. Anther single, “Spaceship Superstar”, made the Top Ten in Ottawa, Hamilton and London (ON) in the winter of 1977-78.
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#863: Can’t Make No Sense by Blue Northern
Peak Month: October 1980
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Can’t Make No Sense”
Blue Northern was a Vancouver band that got their start in 1977. The founding members were Garry Comeau on guitar and fiddle, Lee Roy Stephens on bass, steel and rhythm guitar player Jimmy Wilson and Brady Gustafson on drums. As they developed their sound the band wanted to broaden their audience appeal. It happened that one of the audience members who enjoyed Blue Northern in concert was Billy Cowsill. William “Bill” Joseph Cowsill, Jr., was born in the USA in 1948 and had moved to Vancouver in 1977. He had been the lead singer of The Cowsills, a family pop singing group from Newport, Rhode Island. The Cowsills had several hits between 1967 and 1969, including “The Rain, The Park & Other Things” and “Hair.” The Cowsills appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. They also were the spokespersons for the American Dairy Association. Billy Cowsill got used to appearing in two hundred concerts a year for several years. His addition to Blue Northern gave them a talking point for MCs who introduced them when performing in the late 70s and early 80s. Cowsill also brought his considerable experience in the music industry.
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#888: Chinatown Calculation by Doug & The Slugs
Peak Month: November 1980
5 weeks on CKLG Top 20
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
3 weeks Hitbound on CKLG
YouTube.com: “Chinatown Calculation”
Lyrics: “Chinatown Calculation”
Doug Bennett was born in Toronto in 1951. He worked as a graphic designer after his schooling and at the age of 22 moved to Vancouver in 1973. He got a job as a cartoonist and editor for the weekly alternative paper the Georgia Strait. He also played with a number of bands. By 1977 Bennett was in search of some new outlets for his creativity and was introduced to guitarist John Burton. Burton had been in a group called The Ugly Slugs. Bennett and Burton began performing locally and added bassist Dennis Henderson, drummer Ted Laturnus and and Drew Neville on keyboards. They became Doug and The Slugs.
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#1032: Life Begins at the Hop by XTC
Peak Month: April 1980
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Life Begins At The Hop”
Lyrics: “Life Begins At The Hop”
In Swindon, UK, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers invited Andy Partridge to be their guitar player and join Moulding on vocals. It was 1972 and the bands initial name was the Helium Kidz. The UK pop music magazine, New Musical Express, wrote an article about them. Swindon, in Wiltshire, England, was known for several other notable musicians including Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Gilbert O’Sullivan (“Alone Again Naturally”), late 90s UK pop singles chart topper Billie Piper (“Because We Want To”, “Girlfriend”), and Josh Kumra who provided vocals on the #1 UK single, “Don’t Go” with Wretch 32 in 2011.
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#1037: Mile A Second by Burton Cummings
Peak Month: October-November 1980
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Mile A Second”
Lyrics: “Mile A Second”
Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, based rock ‘n roll band The Guess Who. He was with the band from 1965 to 1975. Cummings sang, wrote or co-wrote many hit songs. These include “American Woman”, “Clap For The Wolfman”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Laughing”, “No Time”, “Share The Land”, “Star Baby” and “These Eyes.” His solo career includes many hit singles, including “I’m Scared”, “My Own Way To Rock” and “Fine State Of Affairs”. His first solo hit single was “Stand Tall”, in 1976, which was his biggest hit as a solo recording artist.
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