#1138: When A Boy Falls In Love by Mel Carter
Peak Month: August 1963
9 weeks on Vancouver’s C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY Survey
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube: “When A Boy Falls In Love”
Lyrics: “When A Boy Falls In Love”
Mel Carter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1939. As a child he was in a choir at New Prospect Baptist Church. In 1954, Carter began studying under jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott. Carter went to Chicago and met Sam Cooke when Cooke was part of the Soul Stirrers. Mel Carter was also part of a street corner doo-wop group. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, Mel Carter appeared on stage with Dinah Washington at Ciros. In 1960 Carter released his first single on Arwin Records titled “I’m Coming Home”. In 1961 he switched labels to Mercury and released “I Need You So”. Then in 1962, he released a duet with Clyde King titled “The Wrong Side of Town”, which was a minor hit in California and West Virginia. In the spring of 1963, Mel Carter released “When A Boy Falls In Love” on the Derby label.
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#1012: Baby Weemus by April Stevens & Nino Tempo
Peak Month: June 1963
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Baby Weemus”
Caroline Vincinette LoTempio was born in 1929 in Niagra Falls, New York. Stevens has recorded since she was fifteen years old. From the official website of April Stevens & Nino Tempo comes this story: “One day, while standing outside Hollywood’s famous Wallach Music City on Sunset and Vine, she was approached by Tony Sepe, the owner of Laurel Records, who asked her if she could sing. The young teenager thought he was probably flirting, but answered his question in the affirmative. Before long, she changed her name to April Stevens and recorded a few songs for Sepe’s small independent label. An aunt of Carol LoTiempo’s had suggested April as a name, and as she was born in April LoTiempo liked the name. Still in high school, April then moved on to record for Society Records. on “Don’t Do It”, her first for Society, her sweetly innocent approach to addressing very real concerns for a teenage girl was given a twist at the end by giving in to the boy’s advances, as long as there’s a commitment. “Don’t Do It” was banned from airplay… “”Stop holding my hand,” April pleaded; but in the second verse, she suggestively purred “I need it, how I need it…ooooh I want it.” Consequently, “Don’t Do It” sold by word of mouth only, from under the counter.”
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#1108: Coochie Coochie Coo by Hudson Brothers
Peak Month: February 1975
Peak Position #7
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #108
YouTube: “Coochie Coochie Coo”
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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#1102: Sing Little Birdie Sing by Rosemary Clooney
Peak Month: June 1957
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Sing Little Birdie Sing”
Rosemary Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1928. The town of 6,000 is situated on the Ohio River, across from the village of Aberdeen, Ohio. Rosemary and her sister Betty became entertainers in their teens and in 1945 got a spot on Cincinnati radio station WLW. This led to a recording contract for Rosemary Clooney with Columbia Records in 1946. That year she began to sing with Tony Pastor’s Big Band. With Pastor’s band she had three Top 20 hits on the Billboard pop chart: “You Started Something” (1948), “Grieving for You” and “A You’re Adorable” (both in 1949). In 1949 Clooney left the band and began recording solo. In 1950–51, she was a regular on the radio and television versions of Songs For Sale on CBS. Then, in 1951 she recorded “Come On-A My House”. The song topped the pop charts in the USA for six weeks, and was the number-four song for the year of 1951.
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#1077: Celebrate by the Infidels
Peak Month: March 1992
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Celebrate”
Lyrics: “Celebrate”
Margaret Leslie Johnson was born in Toronto in 1959. She became as a child performer in the mid-1960s when, after entering elementary school, she and her brother were chosen by Toronto producer Ed Mirvish to appear as part of the cast in a Royal Alexandra Theatre production of Porgy and Bess. Subsequent musicals featured Johnson as a child performer in South Pacific and Finian’s Rainbow. Later, she was given formal training at the National Ballet School in Toronto, and the Banff School of Fine Arts in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Banff, Alberta. According to Molly Johnson’s website bio, in 1974, at the age of 15, she fronted a Toronto disco band named A Chocolate Affair. The band lasted for a year.
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#1061: Shaka Shaka by Zwol
Peak Month: November 1979
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Shaka Shaka”
Walter “Zwol” Zwolinski was born in Toronto in 1946. He formed the Canadian rock band Brutus in 1969. The band included Tom Wilson who was a former member of Little Caesar And The Consuls. The Consuls had a number-one hit in Vancouver (BC), Winnipeg (MB), Seattle and Grand Rapids (MI) in the summer of 1965 with “(My Girl) Sloopy”. It also made the Top Ten in San Francisco, San Jose (CA), Toronto, Edmonton (AB), Wilmington (DL), Reno (NV) and Erie (PA). Between 1969 and 1971 the Waterloo (ON) based Brutus were opening acts for Chicago, the Staccatos and the Guess Who. Then Brutus disbanded in ’71.
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#1111: I Come Off by Young MC
Peak Month: May 1990
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #75
YouTube: “I Come Off”
Lyrics: “I Come Off”
Marvin Young was born in 1967 in London, UK. His parents, both Jamaican immigrants, left England when he was three-years-old. They moved the family to Queens, New York, when Marvin was eight. While he was a student at the University of Southern California, he rapped over the phone to two owners of an independent record label in Hollywood named Matt Dike and Michael Ross. After he performed his rap on the phone, Young was given a record contract while he was still talking to Dike and Ross. In 1989 he cowrote with Dike, Ross and Tone Lōc on the songs “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina”. These two rap rock singles crossed over from the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart to the Billboard Hot 100, where they respectively peaked at #2 and #3.
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#1097: Doowutchyalike by Digital Underground
Peak Month: September 1990
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Doowutchyalike”
Lyrics: “Doowutchyalike”
In 1987, Digital Underground formed in Oakland, California. The frontman for the group is Gregory Jacobs who is billed as Shock G. Jacobs was born in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, and spent most of his childhood in Tampa, Florida. But after his parents divorce when he was age 12, he moved back to Brooklyn. At that time he discovered turntabling: the manipulation of phonograph records and needles and a mixer by a DJ. At that time he used the nickname MC Starchild. His nickname changed to Shah-G when his cousin, Shah-T gave him the name. It shifted in time from Shah-G to Shock G. Moving back to Tampa and then to Oakland, Shock G got work as a clerk in a music store. He met up with Chopmaster J and Kenny-K. The trio became Digital Underground.
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#1067: Tell Me What You Dream by Restless Heart
Peak Month: May 1993
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “Tell Me What You Dream”
Lyrics: “Tell Me What You Dream”
Restless Heart was a country band from the USA that formed in 1984. There were several lineup changes and by 1992 they were comprised of John Dittrich on drums, lead and background vocals; Paul Gregg on bass guitar, lead and background vocals, Dave Innis on piano, keyboards, rhythm guitar, lead and background vocals, and Greg Jennings on lead guitar and background vocals. All four were part of the original lineup. Dittrich was born in 1951 in Syracuse, New York; Gregg was born in 1954 in Altus, Oklahoma; Innis was born in 1959 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma; and Jennings was born in 1954 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1983 Dave Innis wrote “Dare Me” which was recorded by the Pointer Sisters in 1984, and peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.
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#1019: China In My Hand by T’Pau
Peak Month: April 1988
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “China In Your Hand”
Lyrics: “China In Your Hand”
Carol Ann Decker was born in 1957 in the Merseyside region of Lancashire. She formed the band T’Pau in 1986 with guitarist Ron Rogers. Ronald Phillip Rogers was born in Shrewsbury, England, in 1959. Decker met Rogers in the gigging circuit in 1981. Decker remembers trying to get initial interest even prior to forming T’Pau by sending demos to record companies. “The knock-backs from the labels were never constructive. They would just listen to the cassettes and send them back with a standard letter. Then, towards the end, it got even worse when we would get feedback with a multiple-choice table, and the responses ranged from ‘Not quite what we are looking for,’ to ‘Don’t give up your day job.’ I imagine those punky little A&R guys thought it was funny, but it really wasn’t.”
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