#580: Do The Freddie by Chubby Checker
Peak Month: May 1965
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #40
YouTube.com: “Do The Freddie”
Lyrics: “Do The Freddie”
Ernest Evans was born in 1941 in Spring Gulley, South Carolina. He grew up in South Philadelphia. As a child, his mother took him to a show performed by child piano prodigy Sugar Child Robinson. Also at the performance was the country singer Ernest Tubb. Ernest was so inspired, that he decided to become an entertainer when he grew up. At the age of eleven he formed a street corner doo-wop group. He took up piano and while attending South Philadelphia High School, one of his friends was Fabian Forte. After school he worked at Fresh Farm Poultry on 9th Street at the Produce Market. His boss decided to give a nickname to his portly employee and called him “Chubby.”
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#583: Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens by 6 Cylinder
Peak Month: May 1980
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens”
Lyrics: “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens”
6 Cylinder was a band from Vancouver (BC) that formed in August 1977. Its founding members were Wayne Bassett, Lorne Burns, Bob Popowich, Dan Smith and Carl Erickson. Bassett and Burns were former Nechako bandmates. With 6 Cylinder, Wayne Bassett played piano, fiddle, and was on vocals, while Lorne Burns was on drums, and vocals. Bassett and Burns were session musicians on the 1974 Buddy Knox album Buddy Knox Rocks! Former Just What The Doctor Ordered and Access Junction bandmates Bob Popowich and Dan Smith also joined 6 Cylinder. Bob Popowich played played bass and added vocals, while Dan Smith played guitar and also was a vocalist. Former member with both the Nocturnals and the Cement City Cowboys, Carl Erickson, played alto and tenor saxophone, as well as adding vocals. In January 1978, Ian Berry, formerly with Wildroot, Sweet Beaver and Cement City Cowboys, joined 6 Cylinder. Berry contributed keyboards, tenor saxophone and vocals. Prior to the formation of the classic lineup of 6 Cylinder, all six bandmates appeared in the recording studio on Cam Molloy’s album Cam Molloy, released in 1977-78.
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#584: I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone by The Monkees
Peak Month: December 1966
5 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #2o
YouTube.com: “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone”
Lyrics: “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone”
Robert Michael Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942 in Houston, TX. His mother, Bette invented liquid paper and would later leave the $20 million estate to him. Affectionately nicknamed “Nez,” he learned to play saxophone as a young child and joined the United States Air Force years later. After two years in the Air Force, he left to pursue a career in folk music. In 1962 Nesmith won a talent contest at San Antonio College. He left Texas and moved to Los Angeles, with the intent of getting into the movie business. He became the “hoot master” at a regular hootenanny at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In 1963 Nesmith released a 45 of a song he wrote called “Wanderin'”. In 1964 Nesmith wrote “Different Drum”, which was a #13 hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in Vancouver in 1967.
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#585: Holiday Rap by MC Miker G & Deejay Sven
Peak Month: May 1987
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Holiday Rap”
Lyrics: “Holiday Rap”
Lucien Witteveen was a breakdancer and rapper, and Sven van Veen was a DJ. They both lived in the Netherlands. In 1986 they met at a disco in Hilversum. They knew the 1983 song by Madonna titled “Holiday”. They pair decided to cut a demo rap version of the song they titled “Holiday Rap”. They also used portions of the melody from Cliff Richard’s 1963 hit “Summer Holiday“. “Holiday Rap” was credited to MC Miker “G” & Deejay Sven. The first demo was not of suitable quality. So they got Dutch music DJ Ben Liebrand to produce the record. Continue reading →
#586: Bandit of My Dreams by Eddie Hodges
Peak Month: January 1962
7 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #65
YouTube.com: “Bandit Of My Dreams”
“Bandit Of My Dreams” lyrics
Samuel Hodges was born in 1947 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. By the age of six he became a child actor billed as Eddie Hodges. He appeared on the Jackie Gleason Show and on Name That Tune in 1953. In 1957 he was cast in the role of ten-year-old Winthrope Paroo in the Broadway musical The Music Man. In the stage production he was one of those singing “The Wells Fargo Wagon” and “Gary, Indiana”, along with Robert Preston. In the 1962 film The Music Man, Ron Howard would appear as Winthrope Paroo. Eddie Hodges first film was in 1959 with Frank Sinatra in A Hole in The Head. Hodges played opposite Frank Sinatra (Tommy Manetta) as his 11-year-old son. The film about a down-and-out widowed father featured the Oscar award winning song “High Hopes” (Best Original Song) and a Grammy Award nomination. In the film Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges sang a duet. In 1959 Eddie Hodges appeared on The Jimmy Durante Show where he sang with Durante, Ray Bolger and Jane Powell. In 1960 Eddie Hodges starred as Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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#587: Big Time Operator by Keith Hampshire
Peak Month: January 1974
11 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube.com: “Big Time Operator”
Lyrics: “Big Time Operator”
Keith Hampshire was born in London in 1945. At the age of four he got tap dancing lessons and His family moved to Canada when he was six-years-old. They visited Toronto, took a train west and moved to Calgary. It was in Calgary that Keith Hampshire took singing lessons, founded a number of high-school bands, including the Intruders, Keith and The Bristols, and the Variations. Each band got gigs at other schools and clubs around town. The Variations opened for Roy Orbison one summer in the early 60s at the Calgary Stampede. Out of high school Keith Hampshire got a position at CFCN radio and TV as a cameraman. He ended up programming and announcing, playing Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Animals and the Searchers at the beginning of the British Invasion. At the age of 21 Hampshire moved back to the UK and got work from July 1966 to August 1967 as a DJ for a pirate radio station called Radio Caroline South. He moved back to Canada in September 1967 and got a job as a DJ with CKFH in Toronto. He got married in 1969.
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#588: Dance Desire by Haywire
Peak Month: November 1987
11 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Dance Desire”
Lyrics: “Dance Desire”
In 1981 five musicians in Charlottetown formed a band they named Haywire. They were keyboard player David Rashed, vocalist and steel pan drummer Paul MacAusland, guitarist Marvin Birt, drummer Scott Roberts and bass player Ronnie Switzer. In 1984 they entered the Homegrown Vol. 1 contest on Halifax, Nova Scotia, FM station Q104. The next year Haywire won the Labatt’s Battle of the Bands in Saint John, New Brunswick. Winning $10,000 first prize, they used their prize money to record a 5-song EP. It sold over 5,000 copies across in the Maritimes. In 1986 Music Express Magazine named Haywire ‘Canada’s Best Group’. The accolades won Haywire a five-album contract with Attic Records. By this time Sean Kilbride had become the band’s drummer.
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#590: Take Off by Bob and Doug McKenzie
Peak Month: December 1981
7 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube.com: “Take Off”
Lyrics: “Take Off”
Frederick Allan Moranis was born in 1953 in Toronto. Raised in a Jewish family, Moranis got work as a DJ in the mid-70s. In 1977 he began to appear in the CBC comedy show 90 Minutes Live. Moranis got invited to join Second City Television (SCTV) in 1980. He was teamed up with Dave Thomas. William David Thomas was born in 1949 in St. Catharines, Ontario. Out of high school, Thomas got work as a copywriter for an advertising agency. He ended up being in charge of the Coca-Cola ads by 1975. Thomas was cast in a Toronto production of Godspell alongside Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Martin Short, Gilda Radner and Andrea Martin. The troupe formed the first wave of comedians in Second City Theatre and Second City Television. Others who Dave Thomas worked with included John Candy and Catherine O’Hara.
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#591: Rough Boy by ZZ Top
Peak Month: May 1986
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “Rough Boy”
Lyrics: “Rough Boy”
ZZ Top was formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has had three members since it began. Guitar player, Billy Gibbons, is the lead vocalist for the trio. Dusty Hill also shared lead vocals and plays bass guitar. The bands’ drummer is Frank Beard. Gibbons and Hill wear beards, however Frank Beard is clean-shaven. The band has sold over 25 million records of their blues-rock infused recordings. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. They credit the rock group Cream as one of their major influences. Among their early singles was “La Grange”, in 1973. This was a song about a brothel actually called the Chicken Shack on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas, from 1905 to 1973. The Chicken Shack was the basis for a play called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas that debuted on Broadway in 1978. The song peaked at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100, but did not chart in Vancouver.
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#592: Too Hot by Alanis Morissette
Peak Month: July 1991
13 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Too Hot”
Lyrics: “Too Hot”
Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in Ottawa in 1974. At the age of six she began to take piano, and the following year took up dance. In Junior High School she appeared on five episodes of a local CTV comedy show called You Can’t Do That on Television. In 1987 she recorded a demo with the help of Rich Dodson of The Stampeders. Four years later she released her debut album, Alanis. Her debut single was titled “Too Hot”.
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