#2: Girls by the Moments and Whatnauts
City: Quebec City, PQ
Radio Station: CJFM
Peak Month: July 1975
Peak Position in Quebec City ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
YouTube: “Girls”
Lyrics: “Girls”
The Moments are a group formed in 1965. After several lineup changes, the R&B group released their debut single “Not on the Outside” in 1968. It reached #5 on CKLW in Windsor (ON), and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. Al Goodman was born in 1943 in Jackson (MS). He was in an a cappella doo-wop group from the age of 14. In 1952, Al moved to New York City and got a position as a sound mixer with Sylvia Robinson’s All Platinum Records in Englewood, NJ. After she heard him singing to himself, she revamped The Moments to add Goodman to the lineup.
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#37: Where Is This Love by the Payola$
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: March 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Where Is This Love”
Lyrics: “Where Is This Love”
n 1978 a band was formed in Vancouver by Paul Hyde and Bob Rock called the Payola$. Hyde was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1955, and came to Vancouver in his teens. Bob Rock was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1954, and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, with his family in his later childhood. Rock learned to play guitar. Meeting in the Victoria suburb of Langford, the band settled on a name recalling the American music industry scandal investigated by the US Congress starting in 1959 called Payola. This was an illegal act where record companies paid deejays and radio stations a bribe for playing a single the record company wanted to get promoted. While it was legal for a record company to receive money in exchange for playing it on the radio, such a transaction had to be disclosed and not counted as regular airplay. While the Payola scandal did not spread into the Canadian radio market, as local legendary Vancouver Deejay Red Robinson attests in Robin Brunet’s book Red Robinson: The Last Deejay, Payola still had a bad name in the industry in America into the 80s. Consequently, although the Payola$ sold well in Canada, they met with stiff resistance south of the border.
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#4: Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
City: Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, PQ
Radio Station: CHRS
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #65
YouTube: “Purple Haze”
Lyrics: “Purple Haze”
In 1942 Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington. His grandparents, Nora and Ross Hendrix immigrated from America to Vancouver in 1911. There they raised Jimi’s father, James Allen Hendrix, who moved to Seattle in 1941 where he met Lucille Jeter, Jimi’s mother. In 1946, Johnny Allen Hendrix’s name was changed to James “Jimmy” Marshall Hendrix. As a child when he was asked to sweep the floor with a broom, his parents and grandparents would find him in his room strumming the broom like he was playing a guitar. He was given a guitar when he was 15 years old. Despite a limited mainstream exposure of four years while billed as Jimi Hendrix, he is widely considered one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
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#38: Go For Soda by Kim Mitchell
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #86
YouTube: “Go For Soda”
Lyrics: “Go For Soda”
Joseph Kim Mitchell was born in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1952. In his teen years Mitchell learned to play guitar. When he was 14 he joined a band called Grass Company. After high school, by 1970 he was playing in a number of bands in Sarnia. He was in a band called Zooom for a few years. Then in 1973 he formed the Max Webster, a progressive rock and heavy metal band. Max Webster released six studio albums. Though it didn’t get a following in the USA, by the early 1980s the band had Top 20 hits in Hamilton, Toronto, Regina, Victoria, Quebec City, and Top 30 hits in Ottawa and Halifax. Kim Mitchell toured with Max Webster until it dissolved in 1982. Kim Mitchell tested a new sound in the club circuit in southwestern Ontario and formed the Kim Mitchell band.
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#39: Trouble With Normal by Bruce Cockburn
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: April 1983
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Trouble With Normal”
Lyrics: “Trouble With Normal”
Bruce Cockburn was born in Ottawa in 1945. He has stated in interviews that his first guitar was one he found around 1959 in his grandmother’s attic, which he adorned with golden stars and used to play along to radio hits. Some of these included songs by the Beau Marks from Montreal. Later he was taught piano and music theory by Peter Hall, the organist at Westboro United Church which Cockburn and his family attended. Cockburn had been listening to jazz and wanted to learn musical composition. Hall encouraged him and, along with his friend Bob Lamble, a lot of time was spent at Hall’s house listening to and discussing jazz. After graduating, he took a boat to Europe and busked in Paris. Cockburn attended Berklee School of Music in Boston, where his studies included jazz composition, for three semesters between 1964 and 1966. That year he dropped out and joined an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year.
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#46: Romantic Traffic by the Spoons
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: January 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Romantic Traffic”
Lyrics: “Romantic Traffic”
The Spoons were a band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario. After several lineup changes they released their debut album, Stick Figure Neighbourhood. But they had to wait until 1982 with the release of their second album, Arias & Symphonies to get national attention. By that time the band consisted of Spoons co-founders Gordon Deppe (on lead vocals and guitar) and Sandy Horne on bass and vocals. The Spoons second drummer, Derrick Ross, joined the band in late 1979. The keyboard player, Rob Preuss, was the band’s second keyboard player after Brett Wickens departed.
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#2: I Only Have Eyes For You by the Flamingos
City: Saint John, NB
Radio Station: CFBC
Peak Month: July 1959
Peak Position Saint John ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “I Only Have Eyes For You”
Lyrics: “I Only Have Eyes For You”
The Flamingos were an R&B doo-wop group that formed in Chicago in 1953. John E. Carter was one of the founding members of the group that was first named The Swallows. In 1952, Jacob “Jake” Carey and Ezekiel “Zeke” Carey were looking to form a group in Chicago. They happened to meet with their cousins Paul Wilson and Johnny Carter at the Hebrew Israelite congregation. By 1953 the group came together and after a few lineup changes Sollie McElroy was added. They became popular at house parties and some small clubs. They appeared at a local Chicago talent show named Martin’s Corner. Winning the talent show, they became part of the regular billing for awhile. The Flamingos’ first single was with Chance Records titled “If I Can’t Have You”, was a moderate local success, as was the follow-up “That’s My Desire”. But it was Johnny Carter’s composition of “Golden Teardrops”, with its complex vocal harmonies and Carter’s soaring falsetto, that cemented their reputation as a top regional act of the day.
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#47: We Live For Love by Pat Benatar
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: June 1980
Peak Position in Regina ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “We Live For Love”
Lyrics: “We Live For Love”
Patricia Mae Andrzejewski was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. She was raised near the city of Babylon, Long Island. Her dad was a sheet-metal worker and her mom was a beautician. At the age of eight she began to take voice lessons. After high school, she spent a year to study health education, but dropped out to marry high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar, who was drafted into the United States Army. She was 19. While her husband was stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia, she worked as a bank teller near Richmond (VA). She quit her job and formed the Pat Benatar Band. Dennis Benatar was discharged from the Army and the couple moved to New York in May 1975 so Benatar could pursue a singing career. She performed at an amateur night at the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in Manhattan. Later in 1975, Pat Benatar got a part in Harry Chapin’s rock musical The Zinger showing at a theatre in Huntington Station, Long Island.
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#32: Gimme Some Lovin’ by Traffic
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68
YouTube: “Gimme Some Lovin’”
Lyrics: “Gimme Some Lovin’”
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. Both Stevie and Muff were playing at the Golden Eagle club as the Muff Woody Jazz Band, when Spencer Davis heard them and immediately approached them about forming a new band, the Spencer Davis Group.
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#52: Mommy and Daddy by the Monkees
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: October 1969
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #109
YouTube: “Mommy And Daddy”
Lyrics: “Mommy And Daddy”
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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