#1461: These Are The Words by The Unforscene

Peak Month: May 1967
3 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #46
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “These Are The Words”

Terry Robotham lived in the Vancouver area. As he tells it online, “I was writing songs since i was 13 and a friend called Dan Yard was in a band called The Mods that i was giving songs to, so they could perform originals. They went down to LA to shop some demo tapes and the result was that there was interest in the songs more than in the band. So the singer, Dan Yard and myself… ended up with the contract, originally with Momentum Records that was a small independent label owned by Don Perry. Don later did quite well in movie soundtrack production. We released a few songs under that label then he handed us over to a friend of his called Mike Curb, who had started Sidewalk Records.”
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#1463: Man In The Street by Gillian Russell

Peak Month: January 1967
7 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #26
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Man In The Street”

Gillian, Brian and John Russell were siblings who grew up in Vancouver and later Penticton, British Columbia. Their parents were musical. Gillian recalls, “We grew up in a very musical family. Our father played the piano, our mother had a lovely soprano voice.” In 1961, while they were in high school, they formed The Russell Trio. All three sang and the brothers both played guitar. They performed at Penticton High School and Teen Town. CFUN 1410-AM had a house band in the mid-’60’s named the CFUN Classics. The lead guitar player on the CFUN Classics was Brian Russell. His sister, Gillian, was a featured singer on the local Vancouver CBC late afternoon variety show Let’s Go. On the show’s debut on July 17, 1964, Gillian Russell sang a Doris Day hit from 1958 titled “Everybody Loves A Lover”.
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#1464: Baby’s Gone by Terry Black

Peak Month: November 1966
7 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #23
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Baby’s Gone”

Terrance Black was born in Vancouver in 1949. Local DJ, Red Robinson, has said about Terry Black: “Back in the British Invasion days, a young Vancouver singer took the city by storm. He was discovered by Buddy Clyde on Dance Party, a teen show on CHAN TV (now Global). Buddy was able to get the attention of the owner of Dunhill records, the same label that the Mamas and Papas recorded for as well as P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and others of the day.” Terry Black’s first single, “Sinner Man,” was a minor hit in Canada in 1964. His vocal style mimicked the sound of many male vocalists who were part of the British Invasion. While he was fifteen years old, Black had a #2 hit in Vancouver with “Unless You Care”. His single was kept out of the #1 spot in September ’64 by Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman”. “Unless You Care” was written and produced by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Two of the studio musicians on the single were Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, who both went on to have recording careers. The song was a major hit in Canada and also cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at #99. In Canada, Black was awarded the Male Vocalist of the Year award at the Maple Music Awards in 1964.

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Peak Month: December 1966
6 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #19
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I Symbolize You”

In the early 60’s three high school friends from Clarkson, Ontario, formed a band called The Beachcombers. They were guitar player Graeme Box, piano player Noel Campbell and drummer Ron Gunther. In 1963 Graeme Box met Bill Dureen while attending an art school. Dureen played keyboards and the foursome soon billed themselves as The Nighthawks. Sometime in 1964 Noel Campbell left the band, but his younger brother Brad was added on bass, while Dureen took over piano/keyboards. The band changed their name again to The Shamokins. In 1965 the band wanted to try to make a record. Graeme Box’s father, Keith Box, introduced the band to Dave Marden, the former leader of Jack London and The Sparrows. The Sparrows latter became known as Steppenwolf. Marden became the band’s manager and, together with Keith Box, named them The Last Words. As Dave Marden was known in the music business, he arranged for The Last Words to get gigs at clubs in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville.
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Peak Month: March 1967
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Ship Of Dreams”

In 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team won the Stanley Cup in the National Hockey League (NHL). One of their star players was Eddie Shack. He joined the Maple Leafs in 1961 as a left-winger. He scored the winning goal in the deciding game for Toronto in 1963 against the Detroit Red Wings. In the seven seasons Shack played for the Maple Leafs, his best was in the 1965-66 season where he scored 26 goals. This inspired a band named Douglas Rankine and the Secrets to record “Clear The Track, Here Comes Shack”. The song was a novelty record about Eddie Shacks playing hockey. The song became a #1 hit on CHUM-AM in Toronto for two weeks starting February 28, 1966. Douglas Rankine and the Secrets kept being asked to play the novelty tune. In order to get a chance to play different material the band decided to change their name to The Quiet Jungle.

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#1467: Got To Get You Into My Life by Stitch In Tyme

Peak Month: January 1967
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
6 weeks on Vancouver’s C-FUNTASTIC FIFTY chart
Peak Position #28
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Got To Get You Into My Life”
Lyrics: “Got To Get You Into My Life”

Bruce Wheaton was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1946. He formed a band at his Amherst high school  in 1962. His band was named The Continentals, and his first song performed on stage was the Chuck Berry tune “Rock ‘n Roll Music”. Wheaton joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed at Camp Borden, west of Barrie, Ontario. In 1964, while with the RCAF Bruce Wheaton formed a band called The Vibrasonics. Wheaton played lead guitar and was the lead vocalist. The following year Wheaton was transferred to a Canadian Forces detachment in Downsview, a suburb of Toronto. It was there he formed his third band named Chester & The Unknowns. The band appeared on a local Toronto CTV station variety show called A Go Go ’66 during the 1965-66 season. Wheaton later joined a band called the Purple Hearts in 1966. But, by the end of the year he was invited by two of his former Continental bandmates, bass player Donnie Morris and drummer Pinky Dauvin, to join The Stitch in Tyme.

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#1471: Somebody Help Me by The Shockers

Peak Month: July 1967
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Somebody Help Me” at minute 5:24
Lyrics: “Somebody Help Me”

The Shockers were a local Vancouver band that started in 1965. They all attended Gladstone Secondary High School in Vancouver’s east side. It was located north of Kingsway, east of Victoria Drive, south of Trout Lake Park and west of Nanaimo Street. Fellow Grade 11 students, David Jonsson recalls, “Only one of us (Mike Wilson) could actually play an instrument (guitar). Keith Foreman had a good voice and a sufficient strut of ego and so became the vocalist. I was deemed, “a good dancer” which meant I should become the drummer. Sounded like a great idea to me. Roy Kessler started on rhythm guitar and eventually switched to bass, at which he really excelled. Jean Laloge was our first bass player. He changed his name to Carter (his mom’s maiden name) many years later and moved to England where he became Elton John’s road manager for a number of years. Graham Kinnear was our original organist and was replaced by a real live Englishman who showed up at our school in Grade 12. Ed Coppard played both guitar and keys at first but eventually stuck with organ and piano. Most were born around 1948.

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#1469: Let’s Run Away by The Staccatos

Peak Month: November 1966
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Let’s Run Away”

In 1963 the Staccatos, an Ottawa group was formed. It included lead singer and local disc jockey Dean Hagopian. Other bandmates were Vern Craig on guitar, Brian Rading on bass and Rick Bell on drums and backing vocals. Immediately, they began to get a regular gig as the house band at the Chaudiere Club in Alymer, Quebec. Hagopian left the band in 1964 and Les Emmerson (born in 1944) stepped in as lead vocalist. Rick Bell also took turns as lead vocalist on some of their emerging set when performing in concert. At the time Vern Craig recalls, “it was the British Invasion at the time. Nobody wanted to talk to anybody about a group unless they were from Jolly Old England.”

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#1470: The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Townsmen

Peak Month: October 1966
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” lyrics

In the early ’60’s there was a local Ottawa band doing the dance club circuit named the Darnells. They included vocalist Frank Morrison, guitarist Dave Milliken and bassist Wayne Leslie. Meanwhile, another band named the Esquires included a drummer named Paul Huot and guitarist named Andre Legault. Andy Legault learned how to play guitar in his cousins’ basement. Hot and Legault were itching for something bigger. They talked with Morrision, Milliken and Leslie and the five became a band. They eventually settled naming themselves The Townsmen. In the summer of 1965 the Townsmen were regular performers At the Pineland Dance Pavillion in Ottawa.

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Peak Month: March 1967
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN ALL CANADIAN TOP TEN chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Canada”
Lyrics: “Canada”

Robert Stead Gimby was born in Cabri, Saskatchewan, in 1918. After a fire burned down his father’s hardware store, the family moved to Chilliwack, British Columbia. While in Chilliwack he learned to play the trumpet and joined the Town Band, which was a hit at local dances. In 1941, he became a member of Canadian band leader Mart Kenny’s touring orchestra. The Winnipeg Free Press referred to Gimby as “The Wizard of the Trumpet.” Gimby also was a member of Mart Kenney’s Western Gentlemen which was based in Vancouver and toured western Canada. In 1944 Bobby Gimby moved to Toronto where he formed his own band. Simpsons was the sponsor of his band and he became very popular at teen dances in “Hogtown.” He made some recordings and in 1945 became a member of the Happy Gang, a popular CBC radio show with over two million listeners daily. During its run, the population of Canada between 1937 and 1959 increased from 11 million to 15 million.

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