#726: Big League by Tom Cochrane & Red Rider
Peak Month: December 1988
13 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Big League”
Lyrics: “Big League”
Tom Cochrane was born in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, in 1953. When he was eleven he got his first guitar. In his late teens and early twenties, he performed in coffee houses across Canada in the early 70’s. His debut album, Hang On To Your Resistance, was released in 1974. Then Tom Cochrane made his way to Los Angeles. In 1975, Cochrane got work composing theme music for the movie My Pleasure Is My Business. This was a film about Xavier Hollander, the call girl and adult film star who authored her own memoir, The Happy Hooker, in 1971. Unable to get subsequent work in Hollywood, Cochrane returned to Canada for drive a taxi and work on a cruise line. At a concert at the El Mocambo for Red Rider in 1978, Tom Cochrane met the band. Soon after Cochrane was invited to join Red Rider.
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#727: Morning Dew by Lulu
Peak Month: September 1968
6 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #52
YouTube.com: “Morning Dew”
Lyrics: “Morning Dew”
Born in 1948 as Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, Lulu is a singer and actress from Scotland. In a 2015 interview with the Telegraph in the UK, she said “I’ve been one of the luckiest people but I’ve been thrown from pillar to post, emotionally. I’ve dealt with demons, sadness … anxiety, anxiety, anxiety. I wasn’t happy. I don’t want people to really see me, I don’t want you to see my pain, I don’t want to have to tell you about the angst and craziness going on in my head. And I was trained to do that, as a very young girl. I’ve always tried not to be vulnerable. I’m fine, that’s what I always say. I’m fine. Let me tell you what my brother says FINE means? F—ing Incapable of Normal Expression!” She told reported Neil McCormick that her emotional roller coaster ride stems from her childhood.
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#728: Tonight’s The Night by The Shirelles
Peak Month: October 1960
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube.com: “Tonight’s The Night”
Lyrics: “Tonight’s The Night”
The Shirelles were a girl group that formed in 1957 in order to enter a talent show at their high school. The foursome were Shirley Owens, Beverly Lee, Addie “Micki” Harris and Doris Coley. Owens was born Shirley Alston Reeves in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1941. Harris was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1940. Lee was also born in Passaic, in 1941. Coley was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1941. Their performance at that 1957 high school talent show led to a record contract with Decca Records. In 1958 they had a minor hit titled “I Met Him on a Sunday”. It was written by the foursome. The song concerned a girl who meets a guy on a Sunday. She misses him the next day, goes out on a date with him on Wednesday, kisses him on Thursday. And by Saturday she says “bye bye baby.” Such were the fates of some teens in the late 50’s checking out if there momentary crushes were solid enough to go steady.
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#729: Done Too Soon by Neil Diamond
Peak Month: June 1971
7 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position on CKVN ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #65
YouTube.com: “Done Too Soon”
Lyrics: “Done Too Soon”
Neil Leslie Diamond was born in Brooklyn in 1941. His parents were Russian and Polish immigrants and both Jewish. His dad was a dry-goods merchant. When he was in high school he met Barbra Streisand in a Freshman Chorus and Choral Club. Years later they would become friends. When he was sixteen Diamond was sent to a Jewish summer camp called Surprise Lake Camp in upstate New York. While there he heard folk singer, Pete Seeger, perform in concert. That year Diamond got a guitar and, influenced by Pete Seeger, began to write poems and song lyrics. While he was in his Senior year in high school, Sunbeam Music Publishing gave Neil Diamond an initial four month contract composing songs for $50 a week (US $413 in 2017 dollars). and he dropped out of college to accept it.
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#730: Who Do You Love by Tom Rush
Peak Month: May 1971
9 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position on CKVN ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Who Do You Love”
Lyrics: “Who Do You Love”
Tom Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1941. By the age of twenty he had a weekly gig at a folk music coffee house named Club 47 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His appearances at The Unicorn in Boston resulted in his 1962 debut album, Tom Rush at the Unicorn. His 1963 album, Got A Mind To Ramble, included a cover of “Nine Pound Hammer.” His 1968 album, The Circle Game, helped a wider audience appreciate the songwriting abilities of Joni Mitchell. Between 1962 and 1975, Tom Rush released twelve studio albums and one compilation LP. He had a break from studio recording until 1982 when he released two more albums. But back in 1966 Tom Rush released the album, Take A Little Walk With Me. It included a song titled “Who Do You Love”. In 1967 a Michigan band named The Woolies had a #11 hit in Vancouver with “Who Do You Love”. It would be four years later that Tom Rush’s version of the song made the Vancouver pop charts on CKVN.
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#731: Zip Code by The Five Americans
Peak Month: August 1967
6 weeks on CKLGs Vancouver Chart
Peak Position: #4
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube.com: “Zip Code”
Lyrics: “Zip Code”
The Five Americans were originally a group called The Mutineers. They consisted of guitarist Mike Rabon, keyboard player Jim Durrill, guitar and harmonica player Norman Ezell, bass player Jim Grant and drummer Johnny Coble. From Durant, Oklahoma, they graduated as students from the local Southeastern State College and moved to Dallas, Texas. Coble was replaced by Jimmy Wright. Once in Texas their style shifted from mostly instrumental versions of tunes by Duane Eddy to a garage band sound. They recorded “I See The Light” in 1965 and it became a Top 30 hit in the USA the following year. It featured the Vox Continental electric organ and shouting out lyrics such as “you tried to fool me, but I got wise, now I won’t listen to none of your lies…. From now on baby, I’m gonna beware. I’ll be sorry baby, but I don’t care…”
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#732: Keep Our Love Alive by Patricia Dalhquist
Peak Month: August 1975
10 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position: #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Keep Our Love Alive”
Lyrics: “Keep Our Love Alive”
Patricia Dahlquist was born in the British Columbia town of Nelson in the Kootenay Mountains. She appeared in the film The Street in 1962. After high school she studied theatre, education, ballet, violin and voice in the years that followed. When she was in university in Vancouver, Dalquist accepted an opportunity to tour with Hagood Hardy and The Montage in 1970. She performed with him at the Playboy Club in New York City. She was also an opening act for Carmen McCrae.
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#733: Golly by The Four Lads
Peak Month: June 1957
16 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position: #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Golly”
The Four Lads are a Canadian male quartet from Toronto, Ontario. They were originally made up of Corrado “Connie” Codarini, James F. “Jimmy” Arnold, John Bernard “Bernie” Toorish and Frank Busseri. They met as members of St. Michael’s Choir School. Originally, they named themselves the Otnorots (made up mostly of spelling the place name Toronto backwards. They changed their name to the Four Dukes. But after they found out a group in Detroit had the same name, then they settled on the Four Lads. They got a break when Mitch Miller noticed them when they were recruited by talent scouts to go to New York. Mitchell had them sing back-up on Johnny Ray’s 1951 smash hit, “Cry”, and his big follow up, “The Little White Cloud that Cried”.
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#735: Why by The Chartbusters
Peak Month: November 1964
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position: #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube.com: “Why”
Lyrics: “Why”
The Chartbusters were the house band at the Crazy Horse in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C. Vernon Sandusky, a guitarist and vocalist, was the frontman for the band. He had previously been in a Coffeyville, Kansas rockabilly group named Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats. The Poe-Kats had been on tour with country star Wanda Jackson. In fact, Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats were Wanda Jackson’s backing band and can be heard on a number of her recordings in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The Chartbusters formed in 1963. Other members of the band included guitar player and backing vocalist Vince Gedeon, bass player and backing vocalist Johnny Dubas, and drummer Mitch Corday. Bobby Poe, of the same group ended up being the manager of the Chartbusters. As an American band trying to start making records at the beginning of the British Invasion, the Chartbusters chose to imitate the Beatles sound.
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#736: Hang On To Your Life/Do You Miss Me Darlin’ by The Guess Who
Peak Month: February 1971
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43/did not chart
YouTube.com: “Hang On To Your Life”
Lyrics: “Hang On To Your Life”
YouTube.com: “Do You Miss Me Darlin‘”
Lyrics: “Do You Miss Me Darlin'”
Randolph Charles Bachman was born in 1943 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When he was just three years old he entered the King of the Saddle singing contest on CKY radio, Manitoba’s first radio station that began in 1923. Bachman won the contest. When he turned five years he began to study the violin through the Royal Toronto Conservatory. Though he couldn’t read music, he was able to play anything once he heard it. He dropped out of high school and subsequently a business administration program in college. He co-founded a Winnipeg band called Al & The Silvertones with Chad Allan in 1960.
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