#52: Freak-A-Zoid by Midnight Star
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: January 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #66
YouTube: “Freak-A-Zoid”
Lyrics: “Freak-A-Zoid”
Midnight Star was formed by Reggie Calloway in 1976. Calloway was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1955. After his parents divorced in 1963, Reggie Calloway worked from 1964 to 1970 at his Larson’s Flower Barn and Ice Cream Parlor which was operated by his mother in Cincinnati, Ohio. A natural athlete, Reggie also played trumpet. In 1975 Reggie and brothers Vincent and Gregory, along with friends John Jones and Ruben Jordan, formed the jazz-fusion group SunChild. They released their first single on their own label, Starbound Records. During the summer of 1975, SunChild served as the back-up band for Sonny Stitt. Subsequently, Midnight Star consisted of Reggie Calloway as frontman, Belinda Lipscomb on lead vocals, Melvin Gentry on guitar and vocals, Kenneth Gant on bass guitar and vocals, Bill Simmons on saxophone and keyboards, Bo Watson on keyboards and vocals, and Jeff Cooper on guitar and keyboards, were all students at Kentucky State University. They later added non-KSU students Vincent Calloway (Reggie’s younger brother) on trombone, and Bobby Lovelace on drums. Midnight Star was a nine-piece ensemble.
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#32: Love Blonde by Kim Wilde
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CFMB
Peak Month: September 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Love Blonde”
Lyrics: “Love Bonde”
Kim Wilde was born in 1960 with the birth name Kim Smith. Her father, Reginald Smith, was a pop singer who took the stage name Marty Wilde. Kim Wilde’s first professional singing credit was as a backup singer to her brother Ricky Wilde’s 1972 song “I Am an Astronaut.” In 1981, at the age of 21 Kim Wilde became an international star with her hit single “Kids in America”. It topped the pop charts in Finland and South Africa, reached #2 in Ireland, Sweden and the UK, and the Top Ten in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and West Germany. Later in 1981, “Chequered Love” topped the pop chart in South Africa, reached #2 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany, and was also a Top Ten hit in Australia, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.
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#59: Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “Two Tribes”
Lyrics: “Two Tribes”
William Johnson was born in 1960 in Liverpool, UK. Growing up, his nickname was Billy. In 1965 he wrote his first song on a glockenspiel. At the age of 13 he got the nickname Joyful Johnson and dyed his hair. He attended school with less frequency due to being bullied in response to his androgynous appearance. He was influenced by David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol and bought a guitar through the sale of cigarettes. At the age of 14 he took the name Holly Johnson in tribute to the actress Holly Woodlawn, a Puerto Rican transgendered actress and friend of Andy Warhol. In 1976 Holly Johnson became part of the Demi Monde in Liverpool’s hedonistic counter-culture. In 1977, Johnson became part of the punk/new wave band Big In Japan. After that band split in 1979, Johnson continued to pursue a musical career. In 1980 he was invited to join Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
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#60: Manhattan by G’race
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: June 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Manhattan”
Lyrics: “Manhattan”
The music group Grace was founded in 1968 by guitarist Henk van der Burgh and his two brothers Frans (singer and guitarist) and John (singer and keyboardist). Other band members at the time were Ronald Dobber on drums, and Guido Collard on bass guitar. In the early years the group often performed on North Holland stages as a cover band. In 1970, brothers John and Frans van der Burgh left the group. Their places were taken by singer and keyboard player Ed Kemperman and ex-Funfair member singer, saxophonist and guitar player Peter de Wijn. Grace made its debut on vinyl in 1975 with the single “I Hear Music”. But it was not a hit. A year later the second single, “Jamaica”, was released.
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#61: Desire by Roni Griffith
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1982
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Desire”
Lyrics: “Desire”
Roni Griffith was born in Bloomington, Indiana, likely in 1960. Wikipedia states she was “one of the original Coconuts in Kid Creole and the Coconuts.” She was is not among the personnel listed on any of the groups first three albums, but may be uncredited as a backing singer and dancer. With Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Griffith appeared on stage when the band was an opener for concerts headlined by the B-52s and Huey Lewis and the News. Finding success as a musician, in 1981 she appeared on SNL with Kid Creole and the Coconuts. That year Griffith decided to go solo, signing a record contract with Vanguard Records and producer, Bobby Orlando.In early 1981, she released the single “Mondo Man” which was a hit in Long Beach and a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Dance Club chart.
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#67: Storm Before The Calm by Luba
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: April 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Storm Before The Calm”
Lyrics: “Storm Before The Calm”
Lubomyra Kowalchyk was born in 1958 in Montreal, Quebec. During her teens she travelled across Canada performing traditional Ukrainian folk songs at weddings and festivals. Growing up she studied piano, guitar, flute and voice. She was a fine-arts student when she formed a band called Zorya in 1973, releasing an album. In 1977 she released her second album titled. Lubomyra. In 1978 she formed a band named Luba with herself as the lead vocalist. Then, when her father died in 1979, she wrote what would become her signature song, “Everytime I See Your Picture”, as a tribute to him.
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#164: Big In Japan by Alphaville
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #66
YouTube: “Big In Japan”
Lyrics: “Big In Japan”
Alphaville is a band from West Germany. Marian Gold (born Hartwig Schierbaum) was born in Herford, West Germany in 1954. Gold was part of the Berlin art collective the Nelson Community, where he formed the band Chinchilla Green in the late 1970s, which also included future Alphaville bandmate Bernhard Lloyd. When Gold, Lloyd and Mertens formed a band in 1982, they originally named it Forever Young, but soon changed the name to Alphaville. Bernhard Lloyd (born Bernhard Gössling) was born in the nearby town of Enger in 1960. Before he joined the band, he did not play keyboards – instead, he was previously a club DJ. Frank Mertens (born Frank Sorgatz) was born 1961, also in Enger, West Germany.
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#204: Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy by Alma Faye Brooks
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: July 1977
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy”
Lyrics: N/A
Alma Faye Brooks was born in Tyler, Texas, in 1953. In 1965, she moved with her family to Montreal. She sang at the Union United Church, a black-Canadian congregation. In 1977, she released “Stop! I Don’t Need No Sympathy”, a cover of a song previously performed in 1973 by Washington DC R&B singer Lynn Roman.
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#69: Whose Side Are You On by Matt Bianco
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: May 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Whose Side Are You On”
Lyrics: “Whose Side Are You On”
You may think Matt Bianco is the name of a guy. But in fact this is a British sophist-pop, jazz-funk, and Latin-flavored music group. The group’s name suggests that Matt Bianco is a person, often assumed to be an alias for the main member and front man Mark Reilly. According to Reilly, “when we were forming the band, we loved the spy movie theme tunes from the fifties and sixties with lots of bongos, quite jazzy and slightly kitsch. So Matt Bianco was a character invented that would fit into that genre, a made up spy, a secret agent. We thought it was hilarious. We loved spy TV themes and film scores. We were really into that 60s spy movie image.” Reilly adds, “ever since then people who don’t know the band ask ‘So, who’s Matt?'” Mark Reilly was born in 1960 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. In 1981, Reilly joined Blue Rondo à la Turk which was a floating collective of jazz and salsa oriented musicians. In this band Reilly met keyboard player Danny White, and bass guitarist Kito Poncioni. White was born in 1959 in Letchwork, England. Poncioni was born in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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#76: What Is Life by George Harrison
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKVL
Peak Month: April 1971
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
YouTube: “What Is Life”
Lyrics: “What Is Life”
George Harrison was born in Liverpool in 1943. Harrison remembers cycling past a home in his neighborhood that was playing “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley. The encounter with the song got him hooked on rock ‘n roll. He subsequently was influenced by Little Richard and Buddy Holly. Harrison’s father bought him his first guitar in 1956 when Harrison was 13 years old. After Paul McCartney joined John Lennon’s group, the Quarymen, McCartney suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. They changed their name to the Silver Beatles and then the Beatles in the spring of 1960. They group headed to Hamburg, Germany, on August 17, 1960, for a three-and-a-half month stint. In early 1961 the Beatles returned for more engagements in Germany. On June 22, 1961, Bert Kaempfertproduced “My Bonnie”, “Ain’t She Sweet” and eight other songs. Later in 1961, “My Bonnie” climbed to #4 on the Hamburg pop charts and #32 on the German pop charts.
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