#7: Juanita Banana by the Peels
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #39
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #59
YouTube: “Juanita Banana”
Lyrics: “Juanita Banana”
The Peels consisted of Gail Allan, Bill Spilka, Harvey Davis, and Harold Swart. They were a study group who were assembled by co-writer of “Juanita Banana”, Tash Howard. Bill Spilka was born in 1933. He attended Princeton. He played trombone while at Princeton with the Stan Rubin and His Tigertown Five from 1953 to 1955. Harvey Davis wrote and recorded one rock n’ roll single in 1959 titled “Come Back Baby”.