#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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#21: Learning To Fly by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1991
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #28
YouTube: “Learning To Fly”
Lyrics: “Learning To Fly”
Thomas Earl Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mom worked at a tax office. While still ten years old, Tom Petty met Elvis Presley on the film set for Follow That Dream. But it was seeing the Beatles on TV in February 1964, that gave Tom Petty his inspiration. He recalls, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.
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#25: Respectable by the Outsiders
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Respectable” – The Outsiders
YouTube: “Respectable” – The Isley Brothers (1959)
Lyrics: “Respectable”
Tom King was born in Cleveland in 1942. In 1957, at the age of 15, he formed Tom King & the Starfires. They released a single titled “Ring Of Love” which charted in the Top 30 in Cleveland in the summer of 1960. The Starfires released three more singles that got airplay but not much chart action. Tom King formed The Outsiders, a continuation of the Starfires, in 1965. Joining him were Sonny Geraci on lead vocals. Born Emmett Peter “Sonny” Geraci in 1946 in Cleveland, he was described in a WTAM 1100 radio obituary as “a street kid.” In 1964, Geraci became the lead singer of The Starfires prior to Tom King changing the name of the group to The Outsiders. Along with King and Geraci, Mert Madsen (born 1940 on the island of Samos in Denmark) had been an original with The Starfires, and provided continuity for The Outsiders on bass guitar and backing vocals. Madsen learned to play harmonica at the age of four and piano accordion at the age of ten. He moved with his parents from Denmark to America in 1957. He learned English from watching TV shows and movies. In 1958 he became a member of the Cleveland Heights Barbershop Chorus and Quartet.
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#34: 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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#37: 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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#35: 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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#43: 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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#44: 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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#45: 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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