#47: I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CFTR
Peak Month: September-October 1982
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube: “I Will Always Love You”
Lyrics: “I Will Always Love You”
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of twelve children, in Pitman Center, Tennessee. Parton said her family was “dirt poor”. Her father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, was just 35 by the time the she gave birth to her twelfth child. The family lived in a one-room cabin on Little Pigeon River. Her father “Lee” Parton Sr., was a sharecropper who also worked in construction and later started a small tobacco farm. Dolly Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. Parton made her first professional recording at age 13 when she recorded “Puppy Love” for Goldband Records. The lyrics were distinct from the Paul Anka hit single with the same title in the winter of 1959-60. After making musical connections while performing on The Cas Walker Show, Parton and her uncle, Bill Owens, managed to get a guest spot on the Grand Ole Opry on July 25, 1959. Jimmy C. Newman agreed to give up one of his regular Saturday night spots to allow Parton to perform. Parton was introduced by Johnny Cash before she performed a cover of George Jones’ “You Gotta Be My Baby” and received three encores.
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#4: Strange Way by Firefall
City: Smithers, BC
Radio Station: CFBV
Peak Month: January 1979
Peak Position in Smithers ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Strange Way”
Lyrics: “Strange Way”
Firefall was a soft rock band from Boulder, Colorado. They were founded by Rick Roberts and formed in 1974. Roberts was born in 1949 in Clearwater, Florida. He was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and on their self-titled 1971 album and 1972 album Last of the Red Hot Burritos. Roberts dissolved the Flying Burrito Brothers in 1973. Concurrently, Roberts released two solo albums in 1972 and 1973. He got the name for the band from the Yosemite Firefall, a summertime event in which burning embers were pushed from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park to the valley 3,000 feet below. Roberts co-founder was Jock Bartley, who was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1950. His family moved to Colorado Springs in 1959. Later, he began guitar lessons there (notably with jazz legend Johnny Smith), and later became deeply involved in the music scene when he moved to Boulder. When the pair met in 1973, Bartley was in a band with Gram Parsons called Fallen Angels.
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#49: Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl by the Barbarians
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1965
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube: “Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl”
Lyrics: “Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl”
The Barbarians were a band from Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The drummer was Victor “Moulty” Moulton, born in Provincetown (MA) in 1945. Jerry Causi was the lead vocalist and had recently left the United States Coast Guard. Guitarist Ron Enos (born 1943) joined in 1964, but left the band before they found their fifteen minutes of fame. He was replaced by Geoffrey “Jeff” Morris in 1965. Guitar player Bruce Benson (born in 1946 in Provincetown) was the third original continuing member of the Barbarians. In the summer of 1964, Bruce Benson had a job at Howard Johnson’s tin Provincetown. Benson recalls, “I helped man the soda fountain, all the 3D burgers and ice cream you could eat.” Victor Moulton worked in the kitchen washing dishes. Benson and Moulton became friends and go to Victor’s Restaurant down Bradford Street from Howard Johnson’s.
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#31: Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square) by Tony Bennett
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: October 1956
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”
Lyrics: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in New York City in 1926. His parents were grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (nee Suraci), and he was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. Both parents had come from the Calabria region in southern Italy. With a father who was ailing and unable to work, Anthony and his brother and sister grew up with their parents in poverty. Anthony had an uncle in vaudeville who inspired him as a young child to consider entertaining as a career. By age 10 Anthony was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around Queens. Though he had an aptitude to study painting and music, he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. Anthony mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a nightclub in Paramus, New Jersey.
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#10: Radar Love by Golden Earring
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August-September 1974
Peak Position Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Radar Love”
Lyrics: “Radar Love”
Golden Earring is a Dutch band formed in 1961 in The Hague. Founder George Kooymans was born in The Hague in 1948. Together with Rinus Gerritsen, they originally formed a duo called The Tornados. But changed their name to The Golden Earrings when they learnt of The Tornados, the UK instrumental group who had just had a hit with “Telstar”. The name The Golden Earrings was taken from an instrumental called “Golden Earrings” performed by the British group the Hunters, for whom they served as opening and closing act. Gerritsen was also born in The Hague, in 1946, and learned to play bass guitar. The duo added more musicians to expand to a pop-rock band. The Golden Earrings had a Top Ten Dutch pop hit with their debut single “Please Go”, recorded in 1965. In 1966, “That Day” reached #2 on the Dutch pop singles chart. These singles had some echoes of The Beatles sound in the mid-60s.
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#2: Linda Lu by Ray Sharpe
City: Saint Jerome, PQ
Radio Station: CKJL
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position Saint Jerome ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #27
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
YouTube: “Linda Lu”
Lyrics: “Linda Lu”
Ray Sharpe was born in 1938 in Fort Worth (TX). He learned guitar, influenced by Chuck Berry recordings. In 1956, he formed his own trio named Ray Sharpe and the Blues Whalers, with piano player Raydell Reese and drummer Cornelius Bell. They became popular playing rock and roll in Fort Worth clubs. Early in 1958, Artie Glenn (the writer of “Crying in the Chapel” which became a number-one R&B hit for the Orioles in 1953) gave Ray the opportunity to record two demos, both self-penned songs. Glenn sent copies of the demo to various people, including Lee Hazlewood and Lester Sill. They invited Sharpe to come to Phoenix for a session on April 2, 1958. His recording career started when Lee Hazelwood produced his single, “That’s the Way I Feel” / “Oh, My Baby’s Gone” on the Hamilton label. Both Duane Eddy and legendary session musician and rhythm guitarist Al Casey were in the studio with Ray Sharpe for his debut recording.
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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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#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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#205: Night Life by Rusty Draper
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #57
YouTube: “Night Life”
Lyrics: “Night Life”
Farrell Haliday “Rusty” Draper was born in 1923 in Kirksville (MO). Nicknamed “Rusty” for his red hair, he began performing on his uncle’s radio show in Tulsa (OK) in the mid-1930s. Draper moved on to work at radio stations in Des Moines (IA) —sometimes filling in for sports announcer Ronald Reagan —and in Illinois before moving to San Francisco. He began to sing in local clubs, becoming resident singer at the Rumpus Room in San Francisco. By the early 1950s, he had begun appearing on national TV shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show and Ozark Jubilee.
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#1: Let’s Spend The Night Together by Rolling Stones
City: Kitchener, ON
Radio Station: CHYM
Peak Month: February 1967
Peak Position in Kitchener ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube: “Let’s Spend The Night Together”
Lyrics: “Let’s Spend The Night Together”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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