#142: Act Naturally by the Beatles
Peak Month: September-October 1965
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube: “Act Naturally”
Lyrics: “Act Naturally”
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool in 1942. He attended the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and met fellow classmates George Harrison on a school bus. When Paul was 14 his mom died from a blockage in one of her blood vessels. In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. Other original members of the Quarrymen, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Pete Shotton left the band when their set changed from skiffle to rock ‘n roll. John Duff Lowe, a friend of Paul’s from the Liverpool Institute, who had joined the Quarrymen in early 1958 left the band at the end of school. This left Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as remaining trio. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident.
Continue reading →
#143: Conquistador by Procol Harum
Peak Month: July 1972
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Conquistador”
Lyrics: “Conquistador”
Procol Harum named themselves after a male blue Burmese cat, which had been bred by Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and belonged to her friend Liz Coombes. Band manager Guy Stevens suggested the group name themselves after its name, to which the group immediately accepted. However, the cat’s pedigree name was in fact Procol Harun, the Procol being the breeder’s prefix. But the name was taken down over the telephone, causing a misspelling with the final letter an “m” instead of the correct “n.”
Continue reading →
#144: Unless You Care/Can’t We Go Somewhere by Terry Black
A-side: “Unless You Care”
Peak Month: September 1964
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #99
YouTube: “Unless You Care”
Lyrics: “Unless You Care”
B-side: “Can’t We Go Somewhere”
Peak Month: September 1964
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Can’t We Go Somewhere”
Terrance Black was born in Vancouver in 1949. Local DJ, Red Robinson, has said about Terry Black: “Back in the British Invasion days, a young Vancouver singer took the city by storm. He was discovered by Buddy Clyde on Dance Party, a teen show on CHAN TV (now Global). Buddy was able to get the attention of the owner of Dunhill records, the same label that the Mamas and Papas recorded for as well as P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and others of the day.” Terry Black’s first single, “Sinner Man,” was a minor hit in Canada in 1964. His vocal style mimicked the sound of many male vocalists who were part of the British Invasion.
Continue reading →
#145: Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor by Johnny Horton
Peak Month: March 1958
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX Chart
Pick Hit ~ February 16, 1958
Peak Position ~ #1 ~ Red Robinson’s Teen Canteen Survey
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor”
Lyrics: “Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor”
John LeGale Horton was born on April 30, 1925, in Los Angeles, born to migrant fruit pickers. He spent most of his life growing up in East Texas when the family wasn’t back in California picking fruit. A great athlete, twenty-six colleges offered him basketball scholarships after his graduation from high school. Horton chose to study geology for a while in Seattle. Then in 1948 he went north to Alaska to pan for gold. While there he began to write songs. Back in the lower forty-eight, Horton was a winner at a talent contest in Henderson, Texas. This prompted him to move back to California and seek a career in music. He was a guest on Cliffie Stone’s Hometown Jamboree on KXLA-TV in Pasadena. This spawned The Singing Fisherman, Horton’s own half-hour show. He got married to a girl he met in Hollywood named Donna Cook. In high demand to perform on the Louisiana Hayride, they relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana. Touring was hard on the newlyweds and Horton got divorced.
Continue reading →
#146: Love Can Move Mountains by Celine Dion
Peak Month: January 1993
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Survey
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Love Can Move Mountains”
Lyrics: “Love Can Move Mountains”
Céline Marie Claudette Dion was born in the Montreal suburb of Charlemagne, Quebec, in 1968. She developed a talent for singing in early childhood. At the age of 13 she recorded an album which included a song she wrote titled “Ce n’était qu’un rêve” (“Nothing But a Dream”). The song climbed into the Top Ten in Quebec. She competed in Tokyo, Japan, at the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and won awards for Top Performer and Best Song. In 1983 she recorded the single “D’amour ou d’amitié” (“Of Love or Friendship”) which became a number one hit in Quebec and peaked at #5 on the national pop chart in France. In early 1984 in Germany, Dion also released a German-language version of “D’amour ou d’amitié” titled “Was bedeute ich dir”. In 1988 she won the Eurovision contest in Dublin for her rendition of “Ne partez pas sans moi” (“Don’t Leave Without Me”). The song was composed by Atilla Şereftuğ, a Swiss citizen, and Dion was entered as a Swiss Eurovision contestant. That same year she gave 75 concerts as part of her Incognito tournée in the province of Quebec to support her latest French-language album.
Continue reading →
#147: Baby You’re A Rich Man by the Beatles
Peak Month: August 1967
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #34
YouTube: “Baby You’re A Rich Man”
Lyrics: “Baby You’re A Rich Man”
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool in 1942. He attended the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and met fellow classmates George Harrison on a school bus. When Paul was 14 his mom died from a blockage in one of her blood vessels. In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. Other original members of the Quarrymen, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Pete Shotton left the band when their set changed from skiffle to rock ‘n roll. John Duff Lowe, a friend of Paul’s from the Liverpool Institute, who had joined the Quarrymen in early 1958 left the band at the end of school. This left Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as remaining trio. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident.
Continue reading →
#148: That’s Where I Went Wrong by the Poppy Family
Peak Month: January 1970
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Survey
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
YouTube: “That’s Where I Went Wrong”
Lyrics: “That’s Where I Went Wrong”
Susan Pesklevits was born in 1948 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When she was seven years old she was a featured singer on a local radio station. At the age of eight her family moved to the Fraser Valley town of Haney, British Columbia. When she was 13 years old she had her own radio show. In a December 1966 issue of the Caribou newspaper, the Quesnel Observer noted that Susan Pesklevits had auditioned for Music Hop in the summer of 1963 when she was only 15 years old. She had her first public performance at the Fall Fair in Haney when she was just 14 years old. It was noted she liked to ride horseback, ride motorcycles and attend the dramatic shows. Asked about what she could tell the folks in Quesnel about trends in Vancouver, Pesklevits had this to report, “the latest things in Vancouver are the hipster mini-skirts, bright colored suit slacks, and the tailored look. The newest sound is the “Acid Sound,” derived from L.S.D…. it is “pshodelic” which means it has a lot of fuzz tones and feed back. As an example, she gave “Frustration” recorded by the Painted Ship” a local band from Vancouver. Pesklevits added that on the West Coast “the latest dance is the Philly Dog. It mainly consists of two rows, one of girls and one of boys. The idea is to take steps, move in unison, while doing jerking motions and using a lot of hand movement.”
Continue reading →
#149: This Little Girl Of Mine by the Everly Brothers
Peak Month: February 1958
8 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson’s Teen Canteen Survey
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #26
YouTube: “This Little Girl Of Mine”
Lyrics: “This Little Girl Of Mine”
Isaac Donald “Don” Everly was born in 1937 and Phillip Jason “Phil” Everly was born in 1939. Don was born in Muhlenberg County in Kentucky, and Phil was born in Chicago. Their dad, Ike, had been a coal miner who decided to pursue music as a guitar player. From the mid-40s Ike and his wife, Margaret, sang as a duo in Shanendoah, Iowa. Later they included their sons “Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil,” on local radio stations KMA and KFNF. In time they were billed as The Everly Family. In 1953, the family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. Family friend and musician Chet Atkins got a record deal for the Everly Brothers with RCA Victor in 1956. However, their first single release was a commercial failure and they were dropped from the label. Next, Atkins got them connected with Archie Bleyer, and the boys were signed to Cadence Records. In 1957, their first single on the label, “Bye Bye Love“, became a million-seller and launched their career.
Continue reading →
#150: Only Time Will Tell by Asia
Peak Month: October 1982
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Only Time Will Tell”
Lyrics: “Only Time Will Tell”
Asia is a British supergroup formed in 1981. It consisted of John Wetton of King Crimson, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes of Yes, and Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Continue reading →
#151: Jenny Take A Ride! by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
Peak Month: January 1966
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Wax To Watch ~ November 27, 1965
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
YouTube: “Jenny Take A Ride!”
Lyrics: “Jenny Take A Ride!”
William Sherille Levise, Jr. was born in Michigan in suburban Detroit in 1945. He formed his first band, Tempest, when he was at Warren High School. The band gained some notice playing at a Detroit soul music club called The Village. Levise Jr. proceeded to front a band named Billy Lee & The Rivieras. Record producer and songwriter, Bob Crewe, saw the band and took them under his wing. Crewe renamed them Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. The Detroit Wheels were John Badanjek on drums, Mark Manko on lead guitar, Joey Kubert on rhythm guitar, Jim McCarty on lead guitar (not to be confused with the Yardbirds drummer of the same name) and bass guitarist Earl Elliott.
Continue reading →
