#7: Ball Of Confusion by Love and Rockets
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: November-December 1985
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Ball Of Confusion”
Lyrics: “Ball Of Confusion”
Love And Rockets is a band formed in 1985. They named themselves after a comic book series that began in 1981. The lead singer was Daniel Ash, who was born in 1957 in Northampton, England. He started playing guitar at the age of 15. He played in several cover bands, and met future Love and Rockets bandmates David “David J” Haskins and Kevin Dompe. As a child, Kevin Dompe banged on flowerpots, and kitchen pots and pans before getting bongo drums. In 1978, Ash, David J and Kevin Dompe (now billed as Kevin Haskins), formed gothic band Bauhaus. They had a an Indie #8 hit in the UK titled “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. Bauhaus had two more Top Ten Indie hits in the UK in 1980 titled “Terror Couple Kill Colonel” and “Telegram Sam”. Bauhaus disbanded after the summer of 1983.
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#9: Violetta by Ray Adams
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: June 1962
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Violetta”
Lyrics: “Violetta”
Ragnar Asbjørnsen was born in 1931 in Norway. In the late 1950s he was part of the vocal group named The Cavaliers. The group released “Eselsangen” in 1958, and In 1958, he was part of a recording duo called Ruth & Ragnar, releasing a single titled “Når Tusen Stjerner Tenner Lys”. The following year they released the single “Den Gamle Tango (Cocktail Tango)”. Additionally, he released a duet with Alf Blyverkets Kvartett titled “Ungkarsdilemma”. Asbjørnsen released “Jeg Håper, Jeg Ønsker, Jeg Drømmer” in 1959. In 1960, he released a solo single titled “Roser Vil Jeg Alltid Gi Deg”. He changed his name to Ray Adams and recorded his first single, “Ding Dong Girl Bonny Belle”, in 1960. In 1961, he released a single titled “Dagen Er Din”.
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#11: Mamma Mia by ABBA
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1976
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube: “Mamma Mia”
Lyrics: “Mamma Mia”
ABBA is a pop band from Sweden. Agneta Fältskog was born in 1950 in the lakeside city of Jönköping in southern Sweden. Fältskog wrote her first song at the age of six, which she named “Två små troll” (“Two Small Trolls”). In 1958, she began taking piano lessons, and also sang in a local church choir. In early 1960, Fältskog formed a musical trio, the Cambers. At age 15 she left school to pursue a career in music. She considers Connie Francis, Lesley Gore, Aretha Franklin and Marianne Faithfull as her prime influences on her musical style. Fältskog worked on reception for a car firm while performing with the Bernt Enghardt band. In 1967 she wrote “Jag var så kär” (“I Was So in Love”), after a dating relationship ended. The single topped the Swedish pop charts in early 1968. That year she met Björn Ulvaeus, a member of the Hootenanny Singers. Ulvaeus was born in the western coast city of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1945. In the early Sixties, Ulvaeus joined the Hootenanny Singers. They had a #5 hit in Sweden in 1964 with “Gabrielle”, based on the Russian folksong “May Here Always Be Sunshine”. The folk group had many Top Ten hits in Sweden into the early 70s, including a cover of “Green, Green Grass of Home” (“En sång en gång för längese’n”).
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#12: Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: April 1990
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #28
YouTube: “Personal Jesus”
Lyrics: “Personal Jesus”
Depeche Mode is a band formed in Essex, UK, in 1980. Andrew “Andy” Fletcher was born in Nottingham, England, in 1961. His family moved to Basildon, Essex, when he was two-years-old. In 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. In 1980, they formed the band Composition of Sound, and added Martin Gore, and later that year David Gahan. Vincent “Vince” Clarke was born in 1960 in Greater London. He learned violin and piano when he was a child. Martin Gore was born in 1961 in London. He learned to play keyboards through the 1970s. After graduating in 1979, he took a position working as a bank cashier.
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#13: Little Deuce Coupe by the Beach Boys
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: September 1963
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Little Deuce Coupe”
Lyrics: “Little Deuce Coupe”
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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#14: Nova Heart by the Spoons
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1982
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Nova Heart”
Lyrics: “Nova Heart”
The Spoons were a band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario. After several lineup changes they released their debut album, Stick Figure Neighbourhood. But they had to wait until 1982 with the release of their second album, Arias & Symphonies to get national attention. By that time the band consisted of Spoons co-founders Gordon Deppe (on lead vocals and guitar) and Sandy Horne on bass and vocals. The Spoons second drummer, Derrick Ross, joined the band in late 1979. The keyboard player, Rob Preuss, was the band’s second keyboard player after Brett Wickens departed.
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#17: She Sells Sanctuary by the Cult
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: March 1986
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ “also getting airplay”
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “She Sells Sanctuary”
Lyrics: “She Sells Sanctuary”
The Cult is a band formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, in 1983. The band was fronted by Ian Astbury, who was born in Heswall, Cheshire, UK, in 1962. He lived in Hamilton (ON) from 1973 to 1979. In 1981, Astbury formed Southern Death Cult, a punk band. In 1983, Astbury formed Death Cult. He was joined on guitar by William “Billy” Duffy, who was born in 1961 in Manchester, UK. On bass guitar was Jamie Stewart, who was born in Middlesex, UK, in 1964. Before joining Death Cult, Stewart was part of a gothic-post-punk band called Ritual. Before appearing in January 1984 on a Channel 4 variety show called The Tube, Astbury changed the band’s name again to The Cult. They released their debut album, Dreamtime, in 1984, including a new drummer named Nigel Preston (born Birmingham, 1963). Several singles from Dreamtime cracked the Top 100 of the UK Singles chart.
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#18: Copperhead Road by Steve Earle
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: February 1989
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ no Hot 100
YouTube: “Copperhead Road”
Lyrics: “Copperhead Road”
Stephen Fain Earle was born in 1955 in Ft. Monroe, Virginia. His father was an air traffic controller and the family moved to San Antonio, Texas, when Earle was a child. Earle began learning the guitar at the age of 11 and entered a school talent contest at age 13. He ran away from home at age 14 to search for his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Earle was “rebellious” as a young man and dropped out of school at the age of 16. He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, also a musician. While in Houston Earle finally met Van Zandt. Earle was opposed to the Vietnam war as he recalled in 2012: “The anti-war movement was a very personal thing for me. I didn’t finish high school, so I wasn’t a candidate for a student deferment. I was fucking going.” The end of the Selective Service Act and the draft lottery in 1973 prevented him from being drafted, but several of his friends were drafted, which he credits as the origin of his politicization. Earle also noted that when he was a young man, his girlfriend was able to get an abortion despite the fact that abortion was illegal. Her father was a doctor at the local hospital in San Antonio while several other girls he knew at the time were not able to get abortions; they lacked access to those with the necessary power to arrange an abortion, which he credits as the origin of his pro-choice views.
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#19: Wild World by Cat Stevens
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: April 1971
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Wild World”
Lyrics: “Wild World”
Steven Demetre Georgiou was born in 1948 in the West End of London, UK. His father was a Greek Cypriot and his mother was Swedish and they ran a restaurant. Young Steven learned the piano as a child and added mastery of guitar by the age of fifteen. After public school, in 1965 he studied for a year at Hammersmith School of Art, hoping to become a cartoonist. Concurrently, he began to perform in public billed as Steve Adams. That year he got a publishing contract and wrote “The First Cut Is The Deepest”. Georgiou hunched his name might not catch on with record buyers, so he decided on the stage name of Cat Stevens. A girlfriend had told him he had eyes like a cat, plus he thought the general public could relate to cats. In 1966, at the age of 18, Cat Stevens had a #2 single on the UK Singles chart titled “Matthew And Son”. This was followed by a song concerning workplace violence called “I’m Gonna Get Me A Gun” which also made the Top Ten in the UK. In 1967 a song he wrote, “Here Comes My Baby”, became an international hit for The Tremeloes.
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#20: Instant Replay by Dan Hartman
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: February 1979
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
YouTube: “Instant Replay”
Lyrics: “Instant Replay”
Daniel Earl Hartman was born in West Hanover Township (PA) in 1950. He was a child prodigy who studied classical piano. Hartman joined his first band the Legends, at the age of 13 in 1964 at the request of his older brother David who asked him to play keyboards. Initially, the Legends were a soul band who morphed to a psychedelic rock band. Into the early 70s, Hartman left the Legends and joined the Edgar Winter Group. He sang on the pop hit “Free Ride” and played bass guitar on the number-one 1973 hit “Frankenstein”. Between 1974 and 1980, Hartman was a musician on three albums for Johnny Winter. In 1976, Dan Hartman released a promotional album titled Who Is Dan Hartman and Why Is Everyone Saying Wonderful Things About Him?
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