#17: 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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#18: 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 (B. 1943) 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 (b. 1945 in Calgary) joined the band on keyboards.
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#19: 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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#21: 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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#35: Higher & Higher by Canada Goose
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Higher & Higher”
Lyrics: “Higher & Higher”
In 1962 a pop group formed in Ottawa named the Esquires. They consisted of Gary Comeau on guitar, Don Norman on lead vocals, Clint Hierliny on bass guitar, Paul Huot on rhythm guitar and Ritchie Patterson on drums. In the fall they released a single titled “Atlantis” which cracked the Top Ten in Ottawa, and also charted in cities in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. They released a half dozen singles between 1963 and 1966. The Esquires released an album of covers titled Introducing the Esquires. Their most successful was “So Many Other Boys”, which peaked at #2 in Montreal and #3 in Ottawa in December 1964. The band split up and went on to a variety of musical projects.
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#48: My Name Is Mud by Eddie Rambeau
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month: August 1965
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #112
YouTube.com: “My Name Is Mud”
Lyrics: N/A
Eddie Rambeau was born Edward Cletus Fluri, in 1943. His birthplace was Hazelton, Pennsylvania. He is an singer, songwriter, actor and author. Rambeau sang at record hops in Hazelton where he impressed deejays with his talent. One of the deejays, Jim Ward, set up an audition for Rambeau at Swan Records. He was signed to the label and released his first single, “Skin Divin’”, under his new name, Eddie Rambeau, on graduation day in June 1961. The song made the Top 20 in several radio markets in Idaho and Massachusetts.
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#53: Living On Video by Trans-X
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: June 1986
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #61
YouTube.com: “Living On Video”
Lyrics: “Living On Video”
Pascal Languirand is the creator of Trans X. He was born in Paris, France, to Canadian parents in 1955, and moved back with them to Canada. In an interview with Manuel Montes and Jorge Munnshe, he related that though “he was brought up in Canada, he often travelled to Mexico. The reason for this was that he used to accompany his father, a writer, who felt fascinated by this country and found there the necessary inspiration to write his books. Pascal told us that because of this, at age four he had already learnt some Spanish while playing with Mexican children his age.” When he turned 18, he studied at McGill University in Montreal. He focus was electronic music and communications. He also studied cinematography at Concordia University, also in Montreal. He recalls, “Above all, I loved experimenting. I used to do so with tape, especially with my four-track recorder, with the electric guitar, something like Pink Floyd, playing with echo, the bass. Therefore, I based my work on the manipulation of sounds. My university studies, in actual fact, did not have any real usefulness for me. I preferred to experiment on my own.”
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#52: City Lights by The Churls
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: March 1969
Peak Position in Calgary ~#8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “City Lights”
Lyrics: “City Lights”
The Churls formed 1967 in Toronto. They fell into the garage rock (sixties garage rock) and psychedelic rock genre at the time. Robert O’ Neill was the lead vocalist, Sam Hurrie and Hal Ames were on guitar, John Barr played bass guitar, and Brad Fowles was the bands’ drummer. By the summer of 1967, the Churls were one of the hottest bands on the Yorkville scene. In the winter of 1967, they signed a record contract with Glotzer and Katz Management, the same people who managed Blood Sweat & Tears. The Churls were encouraged to perform in the USA. They spent much of early 1968 playing in New York as the houseband at both Cafe a Go-Go and The Scene. The Churls performed in medieval attire. It was at these Manhattan venues that the Churles notably received encouragement from John Lennon and Paul McCartney and jammed onstage with Jimi Hendrix.
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#47: When I’m Sixty-Four by the Beatles
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: July 1967
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “When I’m Sixty-Four”
Lyrics: “When I’m Sixty-Four”
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool in 1942. He attended the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and met fellow classmates George Harrison on a school bus. When Paul was 14 his mom died from a blockage in one of her blood vessels. In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. Other original members of the Quarrymen, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Pete Shotton left the band when their set changed from skiffle to rock ‘n roll. John Duff Lowe, a friend of Paul’s from the Liverpool Institute, who had joined the Quarrymen in early 1958 left the band at the end of school. This left Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as remaining trio. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident.
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#54: Oh Yeah by Yello
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: October 1987
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #51
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Singles ~ #49
YouTube.com: “Oh Yeah”
Lyrics: “Oh Yeah”
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band formed in Zurich in 1979. Boris Blank was born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1952. Before he joined Yello he was a truck driver. As a child he was very interested in music, but had no formal training. He never learned to read musical notation but always was interested in producing new sounds and samples. Blank began experimenting with tape loops and echo effects as a teenager. He recorded water sounds from a bucket of water and played sounds on a homemade bamboo flute. It was in this period he met Carlos Perón, who was born in Zurich in 1952. The third member to join the band was Deiter Meier. Born in 1945 in Zurich, Meier studied law in university, but never completed his degree. He went into banking and became a professional gambler. Blank and Perón approached Meier when they realized they needed a singer, as Blank’s vocals were better suited to backing vocals. The band’s name, Yello, was chosen as a neologism based on a comment made by Meier, “a yelled Hello”
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