#1334: I Will by Billy Fury
Peak Month: July 1964
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I Will”
“I Will” lyrics
Billy Fury was born Ronald Wycherley on April 17, 1940, in Dingle, England. An impromptu audition in a Birkenhead dressing room of the Essoldo Theatre in 1958 resulted in Wycherley joining Larry Parnes’ management stable. The entrepreneur provided the suitably enigmatic stage name, and added Billy Fury to the bill of a current package tour. Fury enjoyed a UK Top 20 hit with his debut single, “Maybe Tomorrow”, in 1959. His first Top Ten hit was an Everly Brothers sound-alike tune, “Colette”, that peaked at #9 in 1959. The following year he completed The Sound Of Fury, which consisted entirely of the artist’s own songs. Some of these were credited to Billy Fury and others to Fury’s pseudonym, Wilbur Wilberforce. Arguably Britain’s finest example of the rockabilly genre, it owed much of its authenticity to the support from guitarist Joe Brown, while the Four Jays provided backing vocals.
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#1336: Dream Boy by Annette
Peak Month: February 1961
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #87
YouTube.com: “Dream Boy”
Lyrics: “Dream Boy”
On July 17, 1955 Annette Funicello made her television debut during the live broadcast of Disneyland’s opening day ceremonies. She participated in a song and dance routine promoting the upcoming debut of Walt Disney’s new television show, The Mickey Mouse Club. Following the shows premier on Monday, October 3, 1955, The Mickey Mouse Club became an immediate hit. Its army of small, amateur mouse-eared stars took America by storm. It wasn’t long before the young audience of boys and girls developed a particular interest in a little dark haired girl named Annette. Just as she had appealed to Walt Disney himself, when he discovered her at a dance recital, Annette emerged as a favorite among many children across the USA, launching her into television stardom. As a result she appeared on numerous magazine covers and a variety of Disney branded merchandise.
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#1340: I Cry and Cry by Bobby Curtola
Peak Month: September 1962
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I Cry And Cry”
Bobby Curtola was born in Port Arthur, Ontario, in 1943. (The town would become amalgamated into the city of Thunder Bay in 1970). His cousin Susan Andrusco remembers “”Bobby would always be singing at our family gatherings. The family loved him. And he loved being the centre of attention. He would sing Oh My Papa, and my grandpa would cry.” Oh My Papa was a number-one hit for Eddie Fisher in January 1954, when Bobby Curtola was still ten-years-old. In the fall of 1959, sixteen-year-old high school student Bobby Curtola went from pumping gas at his father’s garage in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the life of a teen idol. Within a year he went from playing in his basement band “Bobby and the Bobcats” to recording his first hit single in 1960, “Hand In Hand With You,” which charted in Ontario, but not in Vancouver. After performing on the Bob Hope Show in 1960, the charismatic teenager, with his handsome boy-next-door looks was quickly finding himself within a whirlwind called “Curtolamania.”
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#1343: I’m Ready by The Hometown Band
Peak Month: January 1977
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I’m Ready”
Claire Lawrence was a member of local Vancouver group, The Collectors. That band morphed into Chilliwack. By late 1971 Lawrence left Chilliwack and founded Haida Records, with BC folk singer Valdy it’s marquee recording artist. Valdy’s music was featured in a 1972 Steve McQueen new film noir crime movie called The Getaway. Valdy appeared on a CBC TV show called The Beachcomber’s as the character Halibut Stu. Though he initially appeared on stage for the first few years by himself, Lawrence put together a touring back-up band for Valdy.
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#1344: Moonlight Desires by Gowan
Peak Month: May 1987
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Moonlight Desires”
Lyrics: “Moonlight Desires”
Lawrence Gowan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1956. His family moved to Scarborough, Canada, a suburb of Toronto, when he was a child. He recalls that his “marks in high-school were of a caliber that left me no option but to pursue the occupation of Rockstar.” He practiced piano and was trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He formed a trio called Rhindgold in 1976. As the lead vocalist and keyboardist, Lawrence Gowan also demonstrated acrobatics on the stage and dancing on top of his baby grand piano. Rhinegold was a progressive rock act in the mold of Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes.
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#1345: Latromotion by Fred Latremouille
Peak Month: March 1965
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Latromotion”
Fred Latremouille was born on October 21, 1945, in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. His father was a World War II officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force who trained new pilots on Tiger Moths. But Bruce and Margaret Latremouille were not getting along and they divorced when Fred was two years old. Margaret Latremouille next married Robert Harlow. He was the director of CBC Radio in British Columbia. Fred then was raised in West Vancouver. A household name in sportscasting, Bill Good, lived on their block. Bill Good Jr. and Fred cycled around the neighborhood. They became lifelong friends and both became familiar names to Vancouver radio listeners and then on TV. “We didn’t so much go to school together,” Bill Good Jr. said recently, “as skip school together.”
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#1352: Going Down by Tom Northcott Trio
Peak Month: May 1966
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Going Down”
Born in Vancouver in 1943. When he was still in his teens, Tom Northcott was gaining a reputation while making his rounds through the Vancouver coffeehouse circuit in the early ’60s. In particular, he frequented the Kitsilano area, the focal point of the hippie counterculture north of San Francisco.
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#1353: Time by Jerry Jackson
Peak Month: June 1961
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Time”
Lyrics: “Time”
Jerry was born in the Northeastern USA and raised in a large, talented family consisting of six sisters and six brothers. His dad was a preacher who traveled extensively throughout the southern states in the USA. His mother, a missionary, provided excellent mentoring to their children at home. They had migrated from the southern USA with their first three children several years before Jerry was born. They were all raised under strict biblical principles.Continue reading →
#1354: Tears of Misery by Pat Hervey
Peak Month: March 1963
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Tears Of Misery”
Lyrics: “Tears Of Misery”
At 5’3, Pat Hervey could belt out a tune with a style similar to Brenda Lee. Hervey was one of Canada’s early female singers who were successful in the early ’60s.
She grew up in Toronto and had her first public performance singing at the age of nine. She also sang in a high school choir and with a girlfriend who played guitar at social dances and parties. Toronto DJ Al Boliska heard her at an amateur Rock & Roll show and put her in touch with CBC Television. The network signed her and she appeared regularly on their Club 6, Country Hoedown, Music Hop, Parade, While We’re Young, and Holiday Ranch shows.
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#1356: Eurasian Eyes by Corey Hart
Peak Month: March 1986
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Eurasian Eyes”
Lyrics: “Eurasian Eyes”
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 lauded 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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