#1: Makin’ Love by Floyd Robinson

City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Makin’ Love”
Lyrics: “Makin’ Love”

Floyd Robinson was born in 1932 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 17. In 1954, he released a hillbilly song he wrote titled “G-I-R-L, Girls”. It contained the lyric “We can penetrate the ocean, we can fly around the world. But there just ain’t no answer for G-I-R-L girls.” This was followed later that year with “Love, Love, Love”. He wrote “Little Space Girl” (uncredited according to Wikipedia) which was a Top 20 for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner in early 1959. Robinson recorded “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” but it got little notice. Both “Little Space Girl” and “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” used the Chipmunk-like high-pitched squeaky vocals found in “The Chipmunk Song”. Robinson’s followup was “Makin’ Love”.

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#3: Get Down by Curtis Mayfield

City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube: “Get Down”
Lyrics: “Get Down”

Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago in 1942. Mayfield received his first guitar when he was ten, later recalling that he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it. At the age of 14 in 1956, he joined his high school friend Jerry Butler’s group The Roosters with brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks. He wrote and composed songs for this group who would become The Impressions two years later. Mayfield was with the Impressions when they backed Jerry Butler on the Top Ten hit in 1958 titled “For Your Precious Love”. At the age of 17 in 1960, Mayfield co-wrote “He Will Break Your Heart”. The song became a number-one R&B hit for Jerry Butler, and a #7 crossover pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 which also reached #5 in Montreal.

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