#1243: Love Song by Elton John
Peak Month: May 1976
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Love Song”
Lyrics: “Love Song”
Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in 1947. When he was three years old he astounded his family when he was able to play The Skater’s Waltz by Émile Waldteufel by ear at the piano. When he was eleven years old he won a scholarship as a Junior Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Music. Between the ages of 11 and 15 he attended the Academy on Saturday mornings. In 1962, by the age of 15, he was performing with his group, The Corvettes, at the Northwood Hills Hotel (now the Northwood Hills Public House) in a northern borough of London. While he was playing with a band called Bluesology in the mid-60s he adopted the stage name Elton John. His stage name, which became his legal name in 1967, was taken from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean, and their lead singer, Long John Baldry. Continue reading →
#1245: Cry Your Eyes Out by Les Emmerson
Peak Month: September 1973
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Cry Your Eyes Out”
Les Emmerson was born in 1944. In 1963 he formed the Staccatos. The Ottawa group included lead singer and local disc jockey Dean Hagopian. After some local hits they got the attention of Capitol Records. One of their 1965 singles imitated the surfing sound with “Moved To California”. In 1966 their Top 40 hit on the Canadian RPM singles chart, “Let’s Run Away”, won the group the two Juno awards that year for Best Produced Single and Vocal Instrumental Group Of The Year. Then they released “Half Past Midnight” and the song peaked on the Canadian RPM singles chart at #8 in May 1967. It won them a JUNO award for Best Produced Single and got them gigs in the trendy music scene in the downtown Toronto neighborhood of Yorkville. Coca-Cola lined them up for some jingles and they shared one of two sides of an album in 1968 with The Guess Who called A Wild Pair.
Continue reading →
#1246: Rocket In My Heart by Paul Janz
Peak Month: July 1990
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Rocket In My Heart”
Lyrics: “Rocket In My Heart”
In 1951 Paul Janz was born into a Mennonite family and his dad was a Mennonite minister. They lived for a few years in Three Hills, Alberta. At the age of four Janz moved with his family to Balen, Switzerland. He was raised on gospel and traditional church music and from childhood sang in a church choir. Early on he was inspired by his upbringing and started to experiment with musical arrangements by the age of ten. When he turned 13 he showed off his emerging skills on the trumpet in a Salvation Army Band. In his teen years he acquired proficiency on drums, guitar and opera with the Basel Conservatory of Music. He also ended up arranging and conducting with the Basel Symphony. He formed a group called Deliverance and based himself in Munich for much of the 70s. The group had success in Germany and scored a minor hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 called “Leaving L.A”. that peaked in the ‘States at #56. The song drew on the popular style of the Bee Gees in the aftermath of Saturday Night Fever.
Continue reading →
#1248: That’s When Your Heartaches Begin by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: April 1957
3 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #58
YouTube.com: “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”
Lyrics: “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”
On July 18, 1953, Elvis Presley recorded “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” at a Sun Records session in Memphis, Tennessee. He paid $3.98 ($35.26 in 2017 dollars) for studio time to allow recording of a double-sided single. The demo he recorded at the time he was 18 years old. On the A-side, he recorded “My Happiness”, later made famous by Connie Francis in 1958. He would later revisit the song on at least two occasions. The first was as the 38th of 47 songs recorded on December 4, 1956, during the Million Dollar Quartet sessions on December 4, 1956. In these sessions Elvis is one of four musicians playing along with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. His final version of the song was recorded at the Radio Recorders Studio on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles on January 13, 1957. It was the B-side to “All Shook Up”.Continue reading →
#1249: Our Love’s a Chain by Illustration
Peak Month: May 1970
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Our Love’s A Chain”
The Illustration was a Canadian big band jazz-rock ensemble formed in a similar vein to Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, the Ides of March and Lighthouse. Their horn section led the way giving them a jazz-rock and R&B fusion. Norman Burgess, Donald Sanders and Glenn Higgins played saxophone. Leo Harinen, Benoit Perreault and Billy Sheill played trumpet. Roger Homefield played trombone, while Bill Ledster provided lead vocals that rivaled David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Jim Peterik of the Ides of March. Rounding out the dozen musicians in the band were guitarist Garry Beattie, bassist Richard Terry, drummer Claude Roy and John Ranger on keyboards. The band was from St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and formed at the Fontaine Blue in 1969. They were excellent musicians but suffered from poor management causing their star to fade just as they were about to take off.
Continue reading →
#1374: Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot
Peak Month October 1971
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube.com: “Summer Side of Life”
Lyrics: “Summer Side of Life”
Gordon Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario, on November 17, 1938. His parents, Jessica and Gordon Lightfoot Sr., ran a dry cleaning business. His mother noticed young Gordon had some musical talent and the boy soprano first performed in grade four at his elementary school. He sang the Irish lullaby “Too Ra Loo Rah Loo Rah” at a parents’ day. As a member of the St. Paul’s United Church choir in Orillia, Lightfoot gained skill and needed confidence in his vocal abilities under the choir director, Ray Williams. Lightfoot went on to perform at Toronto’s Massey Hall at the age of twelve when he won a competition for boys who were still boy sopranos. During his teen years Gordon Lightfoot learned to play piano, drums and guitar.
Continue reading →
#1250: Rainbows, Pots of Gold & Moonbeams by Studebaker Hawk
Peak Month: September 1975
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Rainbows, Pots of Gold, And Moonbeams”
In 1969 a Canadian band named Motherlode had a Top Ten hit called “When I Die.” Although Canada’s RPM Magazine named them Canada’s first Supergroup, Motherlode disbanded in 1970. However, it was revived and was briefly fronted by Francophone bass player Breen Lebouf, born in North Bay, Ontario. Later in 1970 he went on to form a group called Southcote together with Lance Wright on drums and Joe Ress on keyboards with guitarist Charlie White. After three years of little success, Southcote split. Out of the ashes LeBouf, Wright and Ress got a new guitarist named Steve Cooley and formed Studebaker Hawk. In 1975 they released a single called “Rainbows, Pots of Gold and Moonbeams” written by Cooley.
Continue reading →
#1251: Blue Turns to Grey by Cliff Richard and the Shadows
Peak Month: May 1966
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Blue Turns To Grey”
Lyrics: “Blue Turns To Grey”
Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line”,
Continue reading →
#1255: Fly Little White Dove by The Bells
Peak Month: November 1970
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #95
YouTube.com: “Fly Little White Dove”
Lyrics: “Fly Little White Dove”
The mid-60s Montreal duo, Cliff Edwards and Anne Ralph, were persuaded to form a group. They added Anne’s sister Jacki Ralph on vocals, drummer Doug Gravelle and keyboard player Gordie McLeod. They named themselves The Five Bells. Shortly afterward Gordie McLeod left the group and Mickey Ottier became the groups drummer. In 1969 they released their first single called “Moody Manitoba Morning“. They continued to play clubs in Canada and landed an 11-week run at the Copacabana in New York. The group shortened their name to The Bells and Anne Ralph left the group, leaving Jackie Ralph as the featured female vocalist and Cliff Edwards the lead male vocalist.
Continue reading →
#1256: Pink Chiffon by Mitchell Torok
Peak Month: July 1960
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #60
YouTube.com: “Pink Chiffon”
Lyrics: “Pink Chiffon”
In 1929 Mitchell Torok was born in Houston, Texas. His parents were immigrants from Hungary. Torok learned the guitar at the end of elementary school. A natural athlete, Mitch went to university in Nacogdoches, Texas, on a football and baseball scholarship. While at university he was hired to write a song to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Cononco Oil Company. He also cut his first record in the late 40s while hosting a radio show in Lufkin, two hours northeast of Houston, and another radio show in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg.
Continue reading →
