#432: Tokyo Rose by Idle Eyes
Peak Month: May 1985
14 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tokyo Rose”
Lyrics: “Tokyo Rose”
Tad Campbell was born in Vancouver (BC). After high school he found himself in Australia moonlighting for a band called the Daydream Islanders between shifts while working for a luxury liner that cruised around parts of the continent. In 1980 he replied to an ad looking for a guitarist, and ended up with the band playing for months at a resort in the Whitsunday Islands. A chambermaid at a hotel Campbell knew, Donna McConville, became the bands’ lead singer. Though they had other Australian musicians in the line-up, when Campbell and McConville decided to move to Vancouver, the other bandmates chose not to follow. Back in Vancouver the pair got a new lineup and called themselves Idle Eyes. But the lineup kept changing. Tad Campbell recalls that “their first tour was cancelled when the drummer backed out the day they were supposed to leave.” Part of the problem was that Idle Eyes was made up almost entirely of bandmates from New Zealand and Australia who had visa issues. Eventually, Donna McConville returned to Australia and became a backing singer for John Farnham.
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#433: In Your Soul by Corey Hart
Peak Month: July 1988
13 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “In Your Soul”
Lyrics: “In Your Soul”
Corey Hart was born in 1962 in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for his international Top Ten hits “Sunglasses at Night” (#7 Billboard Hot 100) and “Never Surrender” (#3 Billboard Hot 100). Hart is known as one of Canada’s most successful singer-songwriters. He’s sold over 16 million records worldwide. On the Billboard Hot 100 Hart scored 9 consecutive Top 40 Hits. Back in Canada he succeeded in charting 30 top 40 singles (including 11 Top 10 singles during his career). Hart is a Grammy Nominated, ASCAP & multiple Juno and ADISQ award winner. He has also written and produced several songs for fellow Quebec recording star Celine Dion.
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#434: Never Going Back by the Lovin’ Spoonful
Peak Month: August 1968
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “Never Going Back”
Lyrics: “Never Going Back”
Bass player Steve Boone (born on Long Island) and drummer Joe Butler (born on Long Island in 1941) had been playing in a band called The Kingsmen based on Long Island in the early 1960’s. By 1964 their band (not to be confused with the Kingsmen from Washington State who had a hit with “Louie Louie”) were one of the top rock and roll bands on Long Island. Their live sets included folk songs put to a rock beat, pop standards and some new hits showcasing the British Invasion. Steve’s brother, Skip Boone, and several three other bandmates filled out the group. In 1964, Joe and Skip chose to relocate to Manhattan. They focused on writing original material and blending a rock bass and drums with their jug band sound. Three other bandmates chose not to move, except Steve Boone, who joined Joe and Skip in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the nexus of the folk music scene.
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#435: Echo Park by Keith Barbour
Peak Month: November 1969
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #40
YouTube: “Echo Park”
Lyrics: “Echo Park”
Keith Barbour was born in 1941 in New York City. He is an American singer-songwriter. While he was an undergraduate, Barbour was a member of the Jabborwocks, Brown University’s oldest male vaudeville-inspired a cappella group. He was a member of The New Christy Minstrels from 1967 to 1969, singing their hit song “Green Green”. During that time the ‘Minstrels were singing their own versions of happy songs like “Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang”. Barbour left in 1969 to pursue a solo career, signing with Epic Records. Barbour released an album, Echo Park, in 1969, which hit #163 on the Billboard 200.
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#436: Taos New Mexico by R. Dean Taylor
Peak Month: May 1972
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #83
YouTube: “Taos New Mexico”
Lyrics: “Taos New Mexico”
Richard Dean Taylor was born in Toronto in 1939. At the age of 12 in 1951, he made his debut singing performance at open-air Country & Western shows in Greater Toronto. In 1960 he recorded his first single release titled “At The High School Dance”, and also formed a band. Taylor toured around south-central Ontario and into Upstate New York and Michigan. In 1962 he went to New York City, recorded and released “I’ll Remember”. It was a Top 30 hit on CHUM-AM in Toronto. In 1963 R. Dean Taylor auditioned to be a writer for a new record label called Motown. He was hired to work at Motown and released a Beatlemania-themed song titled “My Ladybug (Stay Away From That Beatle)”. However, the label chose not to release the single.
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#437: My Boomerang Won’t Come Back by Charlie Drake
Peak Month: January 1962
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back”
Lyrics: “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back”
Charles Edward Springall was born in 1925 in the London neighborhood of Elephant and Castle. In 1933, at the age of eight he began to perform comedy and song at “working men’s clubs,” social clubs for working class men in England. This continued until the start of World War II when Drake served in the Royal Air Force. After the war he eventually pursued a career in entertainment, becoming professional in 1954 with an appearance in a British version of the comedy-crime film Fast and Loose. In 1957 and 1958 he starred in his own BBC comedy show Drake’s Progress. This was followed by Charlie Drake in… which aired from the fall of 1958 to the early spring of 1960. His growing name recognition as a TV star was a catalyst for recording a cover of the Bobby Darin song “Splish Splash”. Drake’s cover climbed to #7 on the UK Singles chart. He followed this with a campy cover of “Volare”, which made the Top 30 in the UK. Drake also covered Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise”, with little commercial success. But in February 1960, Drake was back in the Top 20 in the UK with a cover of Larry Verne’s “Mr. Custer”.
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#438: Keep The Fire by Kenny Loggins
Peak Month: April 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #5
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Keep The Fire”
Lyrics: “Keep The Fire”
Kenneth Clark Loggins was born in Everett, Washington, in 1948. He grew up in Seattle, Detroit and Los Angeles County. Kenny Loggins started his professional music career at the age of 18, earning $100 per week by writing songs for a publishing firm. In 1966 he formed a band called The Second Helping that had a minor hit in San Bernardino (CA) titled “Floating Downstream On A Rubber Inflatable Raft”. In 1969 he briefly played guitar in concerts with the New Improved Electric Prunes, before writing four songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In 1970 he wrote “Danny’s Song”, which became a Top Ten hit for Anne Murray in early 1973. Kenny Loggins met Jim Messina in 1970 and the pair became a folk-pop duo Loggins and Messina in 1971.
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#439: Fine State Of Affairs by Burton Cummings
Peak Month: July 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Lyrics: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, based rock ‘n roll band The Guess Who. He was with the band from 1965 to 1975. Cummings sang, wrote or co-wrote many hit songs. These include “American Woman”, “Clap For The Wolfman”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Laughing”, “No Time”, “Share The Land”, “Star Baby” and “These Eyes”. His solo career includes many hit singles, including “My Own Way To Rock” and “Fine State Of Affairs”. His first solo hit single was “Stand Tall”, in 1976, which was his biggest hit as a solo recording artist.
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#440: No by Dodie Stevens
Peak Month: August 1960
13 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “No”
Lyrics: “No”
Geraldine Ann Pasquale was born in Chicago in 1946. She and her family moved to the San Gabriel Valley in California when she was three. She soon started taking singing and dancing lessons and was a singing prodigy by the age of four. In 1954, at the age of eight, she recorded her first song, “Merry-Go Merry-Go Round”. The song was performed on the Art Linkletter’s House Party TV show, and issued on Gold Star Records under the name Geri Pace. From 1951 to 1959 Geri Pace performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows. The USO is a nonprofit organization that provides live entertainment, such as comedians and musicians, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families.
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#441: Hole In My Shoe by Traffic
Peak Month: October 1967
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hole In My Shoe”
Lyrics: “Hole In My Shoe”
Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born in 1948 in suburban Birmingham, UK. Winwood began playing piano from the age of four, being raised in a musical family. He joined a boys choir and added drums and guitar to his repertoire. At age 14 he joined The Spencer Davis Group in 1963, with his older brother Muff. In 1965 the band had a number-one hit in the UK with “Keep On Running”. The single climbed into the Top Ten in Vancouver (BC) in 1966. A follow up single, “Somebody Help Me”, also topped the UK Singles chart in 1966, and was covered by Vancouver band the Shockers in 1967. Spencer Davis Group had two more notable hits in both the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, finally making the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten with “Gimme Some Lovin'” (#7) and “I’m A Man” (#10) in 1967. “Gimme Some Lovin'” climbed to #1 in Vancouver, while “I’m A Man” peaked at #12. In each case, Stevie Winwood was the lead vocalist.
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