#209: Swingtown by Steve Miller Band
Peak Month: December 1977
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Swingtown”
Lyrics: “Swingtown”
Steven Haworth Miller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1943. His parents were jazz enthusiasts, and were also good friends with Les Paul and Mary Ford, after the singing duo moved to Milwaukee in 1949. When his family moved to Dallas in the summer of 1950, Steve got to hear bluesman T-Bone Walker and jazz great Charlie Mingus. In 1955 Miller formed a band called the Marksmen, which included a young Boz Scaggs. He kept up his interest in music out of high school, forming the Ardells in 1961, while at college back in Wisconsin.
Continue reading →
#210: Ginny In The Mirror by Del Shannon
Peak Month: March 1962
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #117
YouTube: “Ginny In The Mirror”
Lyrics: “Ginny In The Mirror”
Charles Weedon Westover was born on December 30, 1934. He was known professionally as Del Shannon. Westover was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He learned ukulele and guitar and listened to country music. He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called The Cool Flames. When his service ended, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan. There he worked as a carpet salesman and as a truck driver in a furniture factory. He found part-time work as a rhythm guitarist in singer Doug DeMott’s group called Moonlight Ramblers, working at the Hi-Lo Club. Ann Arbor deejay Ollie McLaughlin heard the band. In July 1960, Westover signed to become a recording artist and composer on the Bigtop label. Westover changed his name to Del Shannon. It was a combination of Shannon Kavanagh (a wannabe wrestler who patronized the Hi-Lo Club) with Del, derived from the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, which Westover’s carpet store boss drove.
Continue reading →
#211: Two For The Show by Trooper
Peak Month: August 1976
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Two For The Show”
Lyrics: “Two For The Show”
In 1967 Ra McGuire and Brian Smith played in a Vancouver band named Winter’s Green. The band recorded two songs, “Are You a Monkey” and “Jump in the River Blues” on the Rumble Records Label. “Are You A Monkey” later appeared on a rock collection: 1983’s “The History of Vancouver Rock and Roll, Vol. 3.” In the early seventies Winter’s Green changed their name to Applejack and added drummer Tommy Stewart and bassist Harry Kalensky to their lineup. Applejack became a very popular band in the Vancouver area, and began touring extensively in British Columbia. The band played a few original tunes such as “Raise A Little Hell”, and “Oh, Pretty Lady”, as well as Top 40 songs by artists such as Neil Young, and Chicago.
Continue reading →
#212: Susie Q by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Peak Month: October 1968
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Susie Q”
Lyrics: “Susie Q”
John Fogerty was born in 1945 in Berkeley, California. He was raised in nearby El Cerrito. He learned to play guitar in his youth. In 1959 John Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford formed a trio named the Blue Velvets. Based in El Cerrito, California, just north of Berkeley, they were joined in 1960 by John’s brother, Tom, who had been in a band called The Playboys. The Blue Velvets were influenced by Little Richard and other rock ‘n roll greats. They played a number of hits on the radio and their cover of Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Want To Dance,” was an audience favorite. In 1964 the Blue Velvets changed their name to the Golliwogs. They had a Top Ten hit called “Brown Eyed Girl” in San Jose (#7), Fresno (#3) and Miami (#8) in the winter of 1965-66. It was a blues infused tune, but not the same-titled song that Van Morrison would take up the charts the following year.
Continue reading →
#213: Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J
Peak Month: July 1991
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Mama Said Knock You Out”
Lyrics: “Mama Said Knock You Out”
James Todd Smith was born in 1968 on Long Island, New York. The Chicago Tribune later reported, “[As] a kid growing up middle class and Catholic in Queens, life for LL was heart-breaking. His father shot his mother and grandfather, nearly killing them both. When 4-year-old LL found them, blood was everywhere.” In 1972, Smith and his mother moved into his grandparents’ home in St. Albans, Queens, where he was raised. In 1978, after hearing the music of pioneering rap group, The Treacherous Three, Smith began rapping at the age of ten. By the age of 16, in 1984, he was making demos with two turntables, mixer and amplifier.
Continue reading →
#214: Get It Right Next Time by Gerry Rafferty
Peak Month: October 1979
14 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “Get It Right Next Time”
Lyrics: “Get It Right Next Time”
Gerry Rafferty was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1947. From the age of 17 he got work variously in a butcher’s shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe shop. Once Beatlemania took hold, he formed a band called the Maverixs, who were a cover band singing songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In the mid 1960s Rafferty earned money as a busker on the London Underground. In 1966, Rafferty joined the band The Fifth Column. The group released the single “Benjamin Day”/”There’s Nobody Here”. However it was a commercial flop. In 1969 he joined the folk group the Humblebums, and remained with them, performing at numbers of folk festivals into 1971.
Continue reading →
#215: Don’t Worry Baby by the Beach Boys
Peak Month: June 1964
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Don’t Worry Baby”
“Don’t Worry Baby”
Brian Wilson was born in Inglewood, California, in 1942. In biographer Peter Ames Carlin’s book, Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, he relates that when Brian Wilson first heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” it had a huge emotional impact on him. As a youngster, Wilson learned to play a toy accordion and sang in children’s choirs. In his teens he started a group with his cousin, Mike Love and his brother, Carl. Mike was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and Carl was born in 1946 in Hawthorne, California. Brian Wilson named the group Carl and the Passions in order to convince his brother to join. They had a performance in the fall of 1960 at Hawthorne High School, where they attended. Their set included some songs by Dion and the Belmonts. Among the people in the audience was Al Jardine, another classmate. Jardine was born in Hawthorne in 1942. He was so impressed with the performance that he let the group know. Jardine would later be enlisted, along with Dennis Wilson to form the Pendletones in 1961. Dennis was born in Inglewood in 1944.
Continue reading →
#216: Mama Let Him Play by Doucette
Peak Month: June 1978
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Mama Let Him Play”
Lyrics: “Mama Let Him Play”
In 1952 Jerry Doucette was born in Montreal into a musical family. At the age of four his family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. At the age of six got his first guitar. When he was eight he began to take guitar lessons. When he was eleven he joined a band called the Reefers. When he turned 16 he moved to Toronto and was a member of a number of bands including Brutus. He moved to Vancouver in 1972 and played with the Alexis Radlin Band. Soon after he joined the Seeds of Time who were searching for a guitarist. In 1974 they changed their name to the Rocket Norton Band. Doucette remained with this band until he decided to go solo in 1977, after Mushroom Records expressed support for such a move.
Continue reading →
#217: 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.”
Continue reading →
#218: Torture by Kris Jensen
Peak Month: October 1962
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “Torture”
Lyrics: “Torture”
In 1942, Peter Jensen was born in New Haven, Connecticut. From a young age, Pete was a big fan of the singing cowboys, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. When Pete was sixteen years old, he met Denise Norwood. She was a songwriter who penned “The Garden Of Eden.” This was a hit for Joe Valino. Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, Jensen collaborated with Denise Norwood. He recorded numbers of her songs at her home studio. In 1959, Colpix Records released Jensen’s recording of “Bonnie Baby”. The tune made the local charts on WHIL Boston. Jensen variously recorded for Leader, Kapp, Hickory and finally White Whale. Jensen could not only sing, but also play the guitar and bass guitar. Though he would release at least sixteen singles between 1959 and 1966, he is remembered in America as a one-hit wonder. But not in Vancouver where he charted three songs on the local pop charts.
Continue reading →
