#326: Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House
Peak Month: September-October 1988
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube: “Better Be Home Soon”
Lyrics: “Better Be Home Soon”
Neil Mullane Finn was born in 1958 in Te Awamutu on the North Island of New Zealand. His brother Brian Timothy Finn was born in the same New Zealand town in 1952. Neil began playing guitar when he was eight-years-old, and decided to be a professional musician at age 12. Tim Finn learned to play guitar, drums and piano. In 1972, when Tim was 20 and Neil was 14, the Finn brothers co-founded the rock band Split Enz. Over time the band shifted their sound to New Wave and Art Rock. With Split Enz they enjoyed international hits that included “One Step Ahead“, “I Got You”, and “Six Months In A Leaky Boat”.
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#327: Peanuts by the Four Seasons
Peak Month: March-April 1963
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Peanuts” ~ Four Seasons
YouTube: “Peanuts” ~ Little Joe & The Thrillers (1957)
Lyrics: “Peanuts”
Pianist Bob Gaudio was born in The Bronx in 1942. At 14 years of age he co-founded The Royals. Gaudio had been playing piano since he turned eight in 1950. Gaudio was born in November 1942 in Bergenfield, New Jersey. The Royals opened for a local New Jersey doo-wop group named The Three Friends who had a hit in New York and Baltimore in the winter of 1956-57 titled “Blanche”. After the Fort Lee concert, The Three Friends invited The Royals to come to New York to be the session musicians for their upcoming recording date in the Brill Building at 1650 Broadway. It was there The Royals met The Three Friends manager, Leo Rogers. On the strength of their musical skills, Rogers invited The Royals to be session musicians for numerous recording artists in the building. They were also given a chance to record a song.
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#328: Concrete Sea by Terry Jacks
Peak Month: September 1972
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Concrete Sea”
Lyrics: “Concrete Sea”
Terrence Ross Jacks was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1944. During his career as a recording artist he became a household name and recognized as a singer, songwriter, record producer and environmentalist. His family moved to Vancouver in 1961 and he formed a band named The Chessmen along with local guitarist, Guy Sobell. The Chessmen had four singles that made the Top 20 in Vancouver, two which were double-sided hits. These included three Top Ten hits: “Love Didn’t Die”, “The Way You Fell” and “What’s Causing This Sensation”. In 1966 Terry Jacks met Susan Pesklevits on a local CBC music show called Let’s Go.
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#329: Commotion by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Peak Month: September 1969
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Commotion”
Lyrics: “Commotion”
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.
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#331: Do The Bartman by the Simpsons
Peak Month: January 1991
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Do The Bartman”
Lyrics: “Do The Bartman”
Nancy Jean Cartwright was born in 1957 in Dayton, Ohio. When she was in Grade Four at St. Charles Borromeo school, she won the school’s speech competition when she performed of Rudyard Kipling’s How the Camel Got His Hump. In high school she was part of the Fairmont West High School theater and also the marching band. Cartwright often entered public speaking competitions. During high school she came first in the category for “Humorous Interpretation” at the National District Tournament two years in a row. It was suggested by judges of the competition that she try performing cartoon voices. After high school she went to Ohio University where she placed fifth in the National Speech Tournament’s exposition category with her speech “The Art of Animation”.
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#332: Blueberry Hill by Louis Armstrong
Peak Month: January 1957
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29 (in 1949)
YouTube: “Blueberry Hill”
Lyrics: “Blueberry Hill”
Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. He was raised by his grandmother until he was five and sent to a school for black boys when he was six. He did odd jobs for the Karnoffskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews. The Karnoffskys took young Louis into their home and treated him like family. Knowing he lived without a father, they fed and nurtured him. His first musical performance may have been at the side of the Karnoffskys’ junk wagon. To distinguish them from other hawkers, he tried playing a tin horn to attract customers. Morris Karnoffsky gave Armstrong an advance toward the purchase of a cornet from a pawn shop. Around the age of fifteen, Armstrong pimped for a prostitute named Nootsy. However, that terminated after she stabbed him in the shoulder and Armstrong’s mother almost choked Nootsy to death.
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#333: Talking Out Of Turn by the Moody Blues
Peak Month: December 1981
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #65
YouTube: “Talking Out Of Turn”
Lyrics: “Talking Out Of Turn”
Born in 1941 in wartime England, Ray Thomas picked up harmonica at the age of nine. He was in the Birmingham Youth Choir and in October 1958 he joined a skiffle group called The Saints and Sinners. The band split up in June 1959. The Saints and Sinners helped Ray discover how well his vocals were received by audiences. Next, he formed El Riot and the Rebels, featuring Ray Thomas as El Riot dressed in a green satin Mexican toreador outfit. The band won a number of competitions in the Birmingham area. It was here that Ray became known for making an entrance onstage by sliding to center stage on his knees. On one occasion Thomas sent a row of potted tulips flying into the audience. El Riot and the Rebels appeared several times on a local variety show called Lunchbox. They made their debut on Lunchbox on November 14, 1962, and played “Guitar Tango” and “I Remember You”. Mike Pinder joined El Riot and the Rebels on keyboards. On April 15, 1963, El Riot and the Rebels performed at The Riverside Dancing Club in Tenbury Wells as the opening act for The Beatles. Pinder went off to serve in the British Army. When he returned, Thomas and Pinder left El Riot and the Rebels and formed a new band called the Krew Kats.
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#334: Happiness by the Pointer Sisters
Peak Month: June 1979
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Happiness”
Lyrics: “Happiness”
Ruth (born 1946), Anita (born 1948), Bonnie (born 1950), and June (born 1953) Pointer grew up with their brothers and parents in West Oakland. Throughout their childhood the children were raised to listen to and sing gospel at the Church of God in Christ congregation in West Oakland. Their parents, Reverend Elton Pointer and Sarah Pointer, told the children rock ‘n roll and the blues were “the devil’s music.” and it was only when they were away from their watchful parents that they could sing these styles. It happened that June Pointer bought a copy of Elvis Presley’s 1957 single “All Shook Up” which her mother allowed her to play because the B-side was “Crying in the Chapel”. In 1958 the parents bought a piano and Ruth began to take piano lessons.
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#335: Barbara-Ann by the Regents
Peak Month: June 1961
8 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Barbara-Ann”
Lyrics: “Barbara-Ann”
In 1957 there was a doo-wop group formed in the Bronx called The Monterays. Group members included second tenor Ernie Maresca, second tenor Chuck Fassert, lead singer Guy Villari (born Gaetano Villari in 1942 in the Bronx), first tenor Sal Cuomo and bass singer Tony Gravagna. The group changed their name to the Desires. Ernie Maresca was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1939. He wrote a song the Desires recorded in 1958 titled “Story Of Love”. It was not released by Seville Records until 1962. Then Ernie Maresca left the group and was replaced by Don Jacabucci. The group renamed themselves The Regents. This was because they had recorded a demo at Regent Sound studio and Guy Villari smoked Regents cigarettes. To this day, Villari has the empty pack that was in his pocket when the name was chosen. It was also helpful to change their name since an African-American doo-wop group called the Desires formed in 1958, after its members met at the 118th Street Youth Center in New York City. And a doo-wop group in Brooklyn named the Desires released “I Don’t Know Why” in 1960.
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#338: So You Are A Star by the Hudson Brothers
Peak Month: December 1974
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “So You Are A Star”
Lyrics: “So You Are A Star”
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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