#3: If A Tree Falls by Bruce Cockburn
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: February 1989
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #16
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “If A Tree Falls”
Lyrics: “If A Tree Falls”
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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#13: Six Days On The Road by Dave Dudley
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month: July 1963
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
Peak Position on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart ~ #2
YouTube: “Six Days On The Road”
Lyrics: “Six Days On The Road”
David Darwin Pedruska was born in 1928 in the hamlet of Spencer, Wisconsin. His grandparents came to the USA from East Prussia. At the age of 11, he was given a guitar by his grandfather and learned to play the chords. He had a short career as a semi-professional baseball player for a semi-pro team in Texas. After he suffered an arm injury, he was no longer able to play baseball. He then decided to pursue a career in country music. In 1955, he released his first single titled “Cry Baby Cry”. He was one of the earliest artists to record for the National Recording Corporation, with “Where’s There’s A Will” in 1959. Dudley was injured once again in 1960, this time in a car accident, setting back his career in music. By 1960, Dudley had released five singles and failed to crack the national country charts. He signed with Vee Jay Records and first appeared on the Country charts in 1961 with “Maybe I Do”. He later moved to Golden Wing Records.
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#14: Dear One by Darrell McCall
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month: May 1962
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Dear One”
Lyrics: “Dear One”
Darrell McCall was born in 1940 in New Jasper Township, Greene County, Ohio. He was a childhood friend of future country music star Johnny Paycheck. At the age of 15, he landed a job as a disc jockey at a local Ohio radio show on Saturday mornings. During this time, he also performed as a musician at dances and other events. After graduating from high school, McCall joined the military and was stationed in Kentucky. In 1957 he appeared on an episode of Country Style U.S.A. In 1958, after finishing his duty in the army, McCall moved to Nashville with Paycheck to record as a duo. The duo failed, but McCall soon found work as a background singer during recording sessions for various artists including Faron Young, George Jones, and Ray Price. Next, he began to tour with the bands of Young, Price and Hank Williams Jr.
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#15: A Hundred Pounds Of Clay by Craig Douglas
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month: June 1961
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “A Hundred Pounds Of Clay”
Lyrics: “A Hundred Pounds Of Clay”
Terrence Perkins was born in the Isle of Wight in 1941. He helped out on his parents farm. In his mid-teens Terry became a milkman and got a reputation as the singing milkman. He got invited to a cinema to sing, and was asked what song he was singing while delivering milk. In 1957 he won a talent contest on the Isle of Wight singing the Pat Boone hit, “Love Letters In The Sand”. He came to attention of Decca Records manager Bunny Lewis and signed with the label in 1958. He was given the stage name Craig Douglas. It seemed there were already a number of Terry’s in the recording business and released his first single that year. Among his first single releases was a cover of the Jimmie Rodgers hit “Are You Sincere?” In early 1959, he covered the Fleetwoods’ “Come Softly To Me”. Later that year his cover of the Dion & the Belmont tune “A Teenager In Love”, landed Douglas in the #13 spot on the UK Singles chart. But it was his cover of the Sam Cooke song “Only Sixteen” that found him on top of the UK pop charts for four weeks in September 1959. In 1959, Douglas was voted ‘Best New Singer’ in 1959 in the British music magazine, New Music Express (NME).
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#4: Round And Round by Frozen Ghost
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: October 1988
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Round And Round”
Lyrics: “Round And Round”
Arnold David Lanni was born in 1956 in Toronto. In 1979, he founded the band Sheriff. In 1983 Sheriff had a Top Ten hit in Canada titled “When I’m With You”. Sheriff released a studio album with the single and toured from 1979 to 1985 until it disbanded. “When I’m With You” later became a number-one hit on February 4, 1989, on the Billboard Hot 100. Lanni was Sheriff’s keyboard player and rhythm guitarist. Fellow Sheriff bandmate and bass guitar player, Wolf Hassel, co-founded Frozen Ghost with Lanni later in 1985.
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#16: My Little Red Book by Gainsborough Gallery
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: April 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “My Little Red Book” – Standells version
YouTube: “My Little Red Book” – Manfred Mann version
Lyrics: “My Little Red Book”
At first there was a guitarist and lead singer named Mel Degan and bass guitarist Dennis Paul who were based in Edmonton. They formed a band called The Skeptics. In 1964 they relocated in Calgary and were joined with vocalist Jae Mack, guitarist Peter Marley and drummer Ray McAndrew. They got a reputation on the local scene playing at coffee shops and halls. By 1966 they were billing themselves as The Gainsborough Gallery. This was in honour of the Calgary art museum of the same name (and where they also received fan mail). Tim McHugh joined the band on keyboards.
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#17: Do It Again by the Beach Boys
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: September 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube.com: “Do It Again”
Lyrics: “Do It Again”
Brian Wilson was born in Inglewood, California, in 1942. In biographer Peter Ames Carlin’s book, Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, he relates that when Brian Wilson first heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” it had a huge emotional impact on him. As a youngster, Wilson learned to play a toy accordion and sang in children’s choirs. In his teens he started a group with his cousin, Mike Love and his brother, Carl. Mike was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and Carl was born in 1946 in Hawthorne, California. Brian Wilson named the group Carl and the Passions in order to convince his brother to join. They had a performance in the fall of 1960 at Hawthorne High School, where they attended. Their set included some songs by Dion and the Belmonts. Among the people in the audience was Al Jardine, another classmate. Jardine was born in Hawthorne in 1942. He was so impressed with the performance that he let the group know. Jardine would later be enlisted, along with Dennis Wilson to form the Pendletones in 1961. Dennis was born in Inglewood in 1944.
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#18: Magificent Seven by Al Caiola
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month in Calgary: January 1961
Peak Position #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #28
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #35
YouTube.com: “The Magnificent Seven”
Alexander Emil Caiola was born in 192o in Jersey City, New Jersey. During World War II Caiola played with the United States Marine Corps 5th Marine Division Band that also included jazz singer and bandleader Bob Crosby. Caiola served in the Battle of Iwo Jima as a stretcher bearer. He got work with CBS TV in 1946, and stayed until 1956, working on shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Arthur Godfrey and Steve Allen. Caiola was a studio musician in the 1950s in New York City. He released some minor records under his own name in that decade, including Deep in a Dream: The Guitar of Al Caiola in 1955. In addition, he performed under the musical direction of John Serry Sr. on an album for Dot Records in 1956. That year he released the album, Serenade In Blue. In 1958, Caiola released a jazz guitar album titled Music for Space Squirrels. And in 1959, another jazz guitar album High Strung, was released on RCA Victor after Caiola left Atco Records. In 1960, Al Caiola released seven studio albums featuring his guitar. These were variously on Time Records, Roulette Records, Chancellor Records, and finally United Artists.
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#5: Hard Sun by Indio
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: September 1989
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hard Sun”
Lyrics: “Hard Sun”
Gordon Peterson was born in 1962 and grew up in Dundas, Ontario. He worked on his grandfather’s tobacco farm in Ontario from the age of fifteen. The name Indio came to him while recording the second half of the album Big Harvest in California with Larry Klein. One afternoon, he drove down to Mexico and the last town before he crossed the border was named Indio. At that point Peterson decided he didn’t want to use his own name on the album and decided to use Indio. Big Harvest took two months to record. It involved several high-profile artists including Hamiltonian guitar player, Bill Dillon, and Peter Gabriel’s guitarist, David Rhodes. Larry Klein played bass. New York singer Brenda Russell sang background vocals, as did Joni Mitchell. Other collaborators included Indian violinist L. Subramaniam. Big Harvest appeared on the RPM 100 Chart in 1989.
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#19: Whenever You Need Somebody by Rick Astley
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: April 1988
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Whenever You Need Somebody”
Lyrics: “Whenever You Need Somebody”
Richard Paul Astley was born in 1966 in Newton-le-Willows, a market town in Merseyside, England. He began to sing in a church choir at the age of ten. After graduating from school, he formed a band called FBI who played covers of the Beatles and the Shadows. Astley was the band’s drummer, but became the lead vocalist. He was noticed by producer Pete Waterman, and signed to a record contract. His first release was in 1987 titled “When You Gonna”, with Lisa Fabien. It made the Top 20 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Astley released his first solo single later that year titled “Never Gonna Give You Up”. It topped the pop charts in 16 nations around the world from Australia to Zimbabwe.
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