#26: If You’re Lookin’ by Tranquility Base
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: April 1970
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “If You’re Lookin’”
Lyrics: “If You’re Lookin’”
Originally formed in 1968 as Nora’s Truck Stop, the band was re-named to Tranquillity Base by RCA’s VP George Harrison when they signed with the company in late 1969. Prior to the formation of Nora’s Truck Stop, Ian Thomas, Nora Hutchinson and guitarist Oliver MacLeod, were a folk trio named Ian, Oliver and Nora. In 1950, Ian Thomas was born in Hamilton, Ontario. Once he began to play piano at the age of six Thomas fell in love with the world of music. He later learned the guitar. He co-founded Nora’s Truck Stop in 1968. Nancy Ward was born in Alberta. She had many musical talents and became a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She shared the stage with Gordon Lightfoot, Liona Boyd and Sylvia Tyson. Nora Hutchinson was the ‘Nora’ who inspired the original name for the group, Nora’s Truck Stop. Discogs.com states that Richard Yuen was a member of the band. Though he is not mentioned in the Canuckistanmusic.com website, that states Ian Thomas, Nancy Ward and Nora Hutchinson were joined by Oliver MacLeod and Bob Doidge. In promotional photos of Tranquility Base there are two women and three men.
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#29: Younger Girl by the Critters
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1966
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube: “Younger Girl”
Lyrics: “Younger Girl”
In 1964 there was a group in Plainfield, New Jersey called the Vibratones. The lineup was comprised of Jimmy Ryan on lead guitar, Ken Gorka on bass guitar, Jack Decker on drums, Chris Darway on keyboards, and Bob Podstawski on saxophone. One night a local singer-songwriter named Don Ciccone came by to hear the group. His dad owned Bill Williams Auto Sales, and the Ciccone family lived in a 56-room mansion in Plainfield. Don Ciccone learned to play both guitar and bass guitar. The Vibratones were impressed with Ciccone being both a musician and a singer-songwriter. They asked him to join their group. Ciccone suggested they change their name to the Critters, a riff off of the British Invasion band the Animals who had a number-one hit with “House Of The Rising Sun”.
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#27: Better Watch Out by McKenna Mendelson Mainline
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1969
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Better Watch Out”
Lyrics: N/A
Toronto-born, Mike McKenna (1946) and Joe Mendelson (1944), grew up fans of the blues, and both emulated their idols early in life while learning to play guitar. McKenna was with Luke & The Apostles from 1963 to 1967. That band played with Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead at Nathan Philips Square on July 23, 1967. Briefly, McKenna was a member of The Ugly Ducklings. McKenna placed a newspaper ad seeking musicians to form a new band. Joe Mendelson, then a student at the University of Toronto, responded. After McKenna and Mendelson teamed up, they hired former Paupers bassist Dennis Gerrard and former drummer with The Spastics, Tony Nolasco (born 1950 in Sudbury, Ontario).
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#37: Hands Up by Sway
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: February 1988
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #24
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hands Up”
Lyrics: “Hands Up”
Sharon Lee Williams, Vivienne Williams & Colina Philips formed Sway around 1987. Sharon Lee Williams website states, “She grew up in Montreal as a foster child. During her turbulent adolescent years she looked to acting as her means of escape.” She studied piano with Daisy Sweeney, Oscar Perterson’s sister. Sharon Lee Williams released her first single in 1971 titled “Loving & Laughing”. From 1975 to 1980, she fronted the Montreal funk/soul band Basic Black and Pearl. In 1976, Williams was a member of the Hollywood Vampires, named by Alice Cooper for the musicians working on his album Alice Cooper Goes To Hell. And in 1985, Williams teamed up with Shawne Jackson to record “Images (Theme from “Yuppies” The Musical)”. She was also one of the members of the Northern Lights ensemble who came together in 1985 to record the chart-topping famine relief single “Tears Are Not Enough”.
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#38: To Love Somebody by the Bee Gees
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1967
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “To Love Somebody”
Lyrics: “To Love Somebody”
Barry Alan Crompton Gibb was born in 1946 on the Isle of Man. Maurice Ernest Gibb and Robin Hugh Gibb were twins born on December 22, 1949, also on the Isle of Man. In 1955 Barry, who had learned to play guitar, convinced his younger twin brothers to form a skiffle band as vocalists, that he named The Rattlesnakes. Barry also got his young neighbors, Paul Frost (drums) and Kenny Horrocks (bass) to join. The Rattlesnakes played songs by Tommy Steele, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. In 1958, during a performance the Gibb brothers sang as a trio for the first time, performing the Chordettes Top Ten hit “Lollipop”. But The Rattlesnakes had to disband in the summer of ’58 when Gibbs parents announced that the family was moving to Australia.
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#39: Secret by OMD
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: March 1986
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #63
YouTube: “Secret”
Lyrics: “Secret”
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) is a band that formed in 1978 in the Liverpool suburb of Wirral, UK. The bands’ co-founder, George Andrew “Andy” McCluskey, was born in 1959 in the town of Heswall on The Wirral peninsula. In primary school McCluskey met Paul Humphreys. The two teamed up in their teens to play in the bands Hitlerz Underpantz, VCL XI and the Id. The latter was a synth-pop band that also included future OMD member Malcolm Holmes. Paul David Humphreys was born in 1960 Merseyside. He was influenced by Kraftwerk and Brian Eno. Malcolm Holmes was born in a suburb of Merseyside in The Wirral in 1960. When the Id was founded in 1977, Holmes became the band’s drummer. He joined OMD in 1980. Martin Cooper was born in 1958 and joined OMD in 1980.
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#45: Peter Gunn by Art of Noise
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1986
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #50
YouTube: “Peter Gunn”
Gary Michael Langan was born in 1956 in Surrey, England. When he turned 18, he began working as an assistant engineer at Sarm East Studios in London. He worked on Queen’s albums A Night At the Opera (1975), A Day At the Races (1976), and News of the World (1977), Yes’s album 90125 (1983), and ABC’s Beauty Stab (1982), and later 1234 for Propaganda. Some of the hit singles he engineered include “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “You’re My Best Friend” and “We Are The Champions” for Queen, “Video Killed The Radio Star” for The Buggles, “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love” for ABC, “Owner Of a Lonely Heart” for Yes, and “Double Dutch” for Malcolm McLaren. In 1983 he co-founded The Art of Noise.
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#46: Crying by Roy Orbison with k.d. Lang
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: February 1988
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #35
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Crying”
Lyrics: “Crying”
Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas in 1936. When he turned six his dad gave him a guitar. Both his dad, Orbie Lee, and uncle Charlie Orbison, taught him how to play. Though his family moved to Forth Worth for work at a munitions factory, Roy was sent to live with his grandmother due to a polio outbreak in 1944. That year he wrote his first song “A Vow of Love”. The next year he won a contest on Vernon radio station KVWC and was offered his own radio show on Saturdays. After the war his family reunited and moved to Wink, Texas, where Roy formed his first band, in 1949, called The Wink Westerners.
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#57: If You’re Thinking What I’m Thinking by Dino, Desi & Billy
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: June 1967
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #128
YouTube: “If You’re Thinkin’ What I’m Thinkin‘”
Lyrics: N/A
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV is the son of Des Arnaz and Lucille Ball. His birth in 1953 was one of the most publicized in television history. His parents were the stars of the television sitcom I Love Lucy, and Ball’s pregnancy was part of the storyline, which was considered daring then. The same day Lucy gave birth to Desi Jr., the fictional Lucy Ricardo gave birth to “Little Ricky.” As a testament to how interested the American public was in Lucy’s TV baby, Arnaz appeared on the cover on the very first issue of TV Guide with a title that read: “Lucy’s $50,000,000 baby.” The reason he was given this title was because revenue from certain tie-in commitments were expected to top that mark. In 1964 Desi became the drummer for the pop trio Dino, Desi and Billy. “Dino” was Dean Paul Martin, the son of pop singer Dean Martin “Billy” was Billy Hinsche, brother-in-law of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
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#51: Another Nail In My Heart by Squeeze
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1980
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Another Nail In My Heart”
Lyrics: “Another Nail In My Heart”
Squeeze was a new wave-synth pop band from the UK. Christopher Henry Difford was born in South East London in 1954. Glenn Martin Tilbrook was born in London in 1957. Julian Miles “Jools” Holland was born in South East London in 1958. The trio formed Squeeze in 1974 in London. After a year Squeeze settled on Gilson Lavis as the bands drummer. David Leslie Gilson Lavis was born in 1951 and Bedford, England. Before he joined Squeeze in 1975 he toured with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Skeeter Davis and Dolly Parton. In 1978 Squeeze released their debut self-titled album which included their UK Top 20 hit “Take Me I’m Yours”.
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