#53: 19 by Paul Hardcastle
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
Peak Position on singles charts in Austria, Belgium,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany ~ #1
YouTube: “19”
Lyrics: “19”
Paul Hardcastle was born in 1957 in London, England. He told the Guardian in a 2012 interview, “All my life I wanted to be a motorbike racer, until I had a bad crash and ended up in hospital for four months. While I was bedridden I listened to the radio all the time, especially clubby stuff, and thought: “I can do that.” So I swapped my video camera for a friend’s synthesiser and did.” Hardcastle began his career in 1981 when he became the keyboard player for British soul band Direct Drive. In 1982, Hardcastle and lead vocalist Derek Green left the band to form a duo under the name First Light. They achieved some minor success in the UK chart, but during 1984 Hardcastle moved on to pursue a solo career.
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#55: Twist In My Sobriety by Tanita Tikaram
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: April 1989
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on the Israeli Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Twist In My Sobriety”
Lyrics: “Twist In My Sobriety”
Tanita Tikaram is of Malaysian and Indo-Fijian parentage and is the sister of actor Ramon Tikaram. She was born in 1969 in Münster, West Germany. Her father was in the military, and her family moved to the UK when she was in her early teens. Tikaram started singing in nightclubs while she was still a teenager and came to the attention of WEA Records. Her debut album Ancient Heart was released when she was 19 and was produced by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hoote. The debut single from the album was “Good Tradition”. The song peaked at #3 in the Netherlands, #4 in Sweden, #9 in Ireland, and #10 in the UK.
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#25: Fox On The Run by Manfred Mann
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: February 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “Fox On The Run”
Lyrics: “Fox On The Run”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. (Mike Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1940, and had studied jazz growing up). They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. They added Paul Jones and Tom McGuiness to the band, the latter who was with Eric Clapton’s band The Roosters.
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#60: Fakin’ It by Simon and Garfunkel
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Fakin’ It”
Lyrics: “Fakin’ It”
Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. His dad was a bandleader who went by the name Lou Sims. When he was eleven years old he met Art Garfunkel and were both part of a sixth grade drama production of Alice In Wonderland. Arthur Ira Garfunkel was born in 1941 in New York City. He is of Moldovian-Jewish decent. By 1954 Paul and Art were singing at school dances. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the name “Tom & Jerry”, a name that was given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.
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#64: Madam Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #10
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #13
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Madam Butterfly”
Lyrics: “Madam Butterfly”
Malcolm McLaren was born in Greater London in 1946. While still an art student, McLaren had the first public exhibition of his work in 1967, which was based on an environmental installation staged at the Kingly Street Art Gallery in central London. In October 1971, McLaren took over the back part of the retail premises at 439 King’s Road in Chelsea, West London. The store sold rock and roll records, refurbished 1950s radiograms and dead stock clothing as “In The Back Of Paradise Garage”. McLaren converted the entire ground floor into the store and renamed it Let It Rock. The store was patronised by teddy boys and McLaren’s designs (along with his girlfriend) also appeared in such theatrical and cinematic productions such as The Rocky Horror Show and That’ll Be The Day. In spring 1973 the store was renamed Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die and began selling original 1950s-inspired leather clothing. In August 1973, McLaren and co-designer Vivienne Westwood visited New York to participate in the National Boutique Fair, where they began an association with the New York Dolls, supplying them with stage wear and joining their group on tour in the UK and France.
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#65: Shaddup You Face by Joe Dolce
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: March 1981
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
Peak Position on pop charts in Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa,
Switzerland, the UK and West Germany ~ #1
YouTube: “Shaddup You Face”
Lyrics: “Shaddup You Face”
Joe Dolce was born in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947. He acted in a number of plays out of high school, and was in a band called Headstone Circus with singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards (who had a #4 hit in 1972 titled “Sunshine”). In the late 70s he moved to Melbourne, Australia. In 1978 and his first single there was “Boat People”—a protest song about the poor treatment of Vietnamese refugees. It was translated into Vietnamese, and donated to the fledgling Vietnamese community starting to form in Melbourne. His one-man show, Joe Dolce Music Theatre, was performed in cabarets and pubs.
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#20: The River is Wide by the Grass Roots
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #36
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “The River is Wide”
Lyrics: “The River is Wide”
The Grass Roots were a band from Los Angeles. They were a band project by Los Angeles songwriter and producer duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records, to cash in on the folk rock movement. One of these songs was “Where Were You When I Needed You”, which was recorded by Sloan and Barri. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar, Larry Knetchel played keyboards, Joe Osborn played the bass and Bones Howe was on drums. The song was released under “The Grass Roots” name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.
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#66: Twelve Thirty by the Mamas and the Papas
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: October 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #14
Peak Position on South African Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Twelve Thirty”
Lyrics: “Twelve Thirty”
John Edmund Andrew Phillips was born in Paris Island, South Carolina, in 1935. His father was a military officer and John was sent to Linton Hall Military School from age seven to eleven. He hated the school and its corporal punishment. In his autobiography, Phillips recalls he also thought it was creepy that “nuns used to watch us take showers.” In high school he assembled several doo-wop groups. After he dropped out of a Naval Academy in 1953, John Phillips studied at a men’s college until 1959. In 1958 he formed a doo-wop group named the Abstracts, fashioned after the Four Preps and other popular groups of the era. The Abstracts changed their name in 1959 to the Smoothies. Another member of the group was Philip Blondheim III, who later changed his name to Scott McKenzie. The Smoothies played at night clubs in New York City with chorus girls and comedians.
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#71: Where Is My Man by Eartha Kitt
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Where Is My Man”
Lyrics: “Where Is My Man”
Eartha Mae Keith was born in 1927 in the the town of North, in central South Carolina. She has both Afro-American and Cherokee ancestry. After her mother died when she was a child, Eartha moved to live with an aunt (Mamie Kitty) in Harlem. She began her singing career at the age of 15 in 1943 as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company (the first African-American modern dance company). She went with the stage name Eartha Kitt. In 1948, she appeared in a film noir movie titled Casbah. In 1951, she recorded the Cole Porter standard “Let’s Do It”. The recording reached #12 in Australia in 1954. In 1953, Kitt recorded a Turkish folk song titled “Urska Dara” which cracked the Top 30. Later she recorded “C’est si bon” which charted to #8 on the Billboard pop chart. That winter she earned even greater success with the Christmas novelty tune “Santa Baby” which peaked at #4 on Billboard. In 1955, Eartha Kitt had a #7 hit in the UK with “Under the Bridges of Paris”.
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#75: A Night In New York by Elbow Bones and the Racketeers
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #33
YouTube: “A Night In New York”
Lyrics: “A Night In New York”
Thomas August Darnell Browder was born in 1950 in The Bronx (NY). Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder Jr., in 1965. The band disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. He taught at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead (NY). He later claimed that he established a musical career because he was a “frustrated actor.” In 1974, again with Stony Browder, he formed Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, becoming its lyricist and bass player. The band combined swing and Latin music with disco rhythms. They had their biggest hit in 1976 with “Cherchez La Femme”. The single topped the Billboard Disco Action Top 30 chart, and peaked at #2 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s self-titled debut release was a Top 40-charting album. It was certified gold and was nominated for a Grammy.
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