#47: Romantic Traffic by the Spoons
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: January 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Romantic Traffic”
Lyrics: “Romantic Traffic”
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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#48: We Live For Love by Pat Benatar
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: June 1980
Peak Position in Regina ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “We Live For Love”
Lyrics: “We Live For Love”
Patricia Mae Andrzejewski was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. She was raised near the city of Babylon, Long Island. Her dad was a sheet-metal worker and her mom was a beautician. At the age of eight she began to take voice lessons. After high school, she spent a year to study health education, but dropped out to marry high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar, who was drafted into the United States Army. She was 19. While her husband was stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia, she worked as a bank teller near Richmond (VA). She quit her job and formed the Pat Benatar Band. Dennis Benatar was discharged from the Army and the couple moved to New York in May 1975 so Benatar could pursue a singing career. She performed at an amateur night at the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in Manhattan. Later in 1975, Pat Benatar got a part in Harry Chapin’s rock musical The Zinger showing at a theatre in Huntington Station, Long Island.
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#53: Mommy and Daddy by the Monkees
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: October 1969
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #109
YouTube: “Mommy And Daddy”
Lyrics: “Mommy And Daddy”
Robert Michael Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942 in Houston, TX. His mother, Bette invented liquid paper and would later leave the $20 million estate to him. Affectionately nicknamed “Nez,” he learned to play saxophone as a young child and joined the United States Air Force years later. After two years in the Air Force, he left to pursue a career in folk music. In 1962 Nesmith won a talent contest at San Antonio College. He left Texas and moved to Los Angeles, with the intent of getting into the movie business. He became the “hoot master” at a regular hootenanny at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In 1963 Nesmith released a 45 of a song he wrote called “Wanderin’”. In 1964 Nesmith wrote “Different Drum”, which was a #13 hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in Vancouver in 1967.
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#55: Catch 22 by Nick Gilder
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: May 1981
Peak Position in Regina ~ #13
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Catch 22”
Lyrics: “Catch 22”
Nick Gilder was born in London, England, in 1951. In his childhood he moved to Canada and grew up in Vancouver. In the summer of 1973, when he was 22 years old, vocalist Gilder and fellow former high school classmate and guitarist, Jim McCulloch, founded a band called Rasputin. John Booth on drums, Bud Marr on bass and Dan Gaudin on keyboards rounded out the band. Shortly afterward they took the name Sweeney Todd. Their name was inspired by the 1846-47 Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance credited to James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. The main antagonist of the story is Sweeney Todd, “the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. Todd is a barber who murders his customers and turns their bodies over to Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into meat pies and sells them at her pie shop. A Sweeney Todd stage play by Stephen Sondheim appeared on Broadway in 1979.
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#57: Listen To The Radio by Pukka Orchestra
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: May 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Listen To The Radio”
Lyrics: “Listen To The Radio”
The Pukka Orchestra was formed in Toronto in 1979. The core of the band consisted of vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Graeme Williamson (born in Glasgow, Scotland) and guitarists/co-songwriters Neil Chapman and Tony Duggan-Smith. The band’s name is derived from the Hindi word pukka, which means “Genuine”, “Authentic”, “First Class”. The name was coined by Duggan-Smith’s extremely British grandfather who had been the harbourmaster of Calcutta and had later worked for Marconi. When Duggan-Smith told him he was playing music for a living his grandfather replied, “That’s all very nice Tony, but don’t bother with any mediocre bands, get yourself into a Pukka Orchestra”. The band made frequent use of numerous guest musicians, jokingly commenting “Are you in the Pukka Orchestra? Why not, everyone else is.”
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#58: Walk Away by The Box
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: May 1984
Peak Position in Regina ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Walk Away”
Lyrics: “Walk Away”
The Box was formed in 1981 by former Men Without Hats keyboard player Jean-Marc Pisapia. He was born in 1957 in Montreal and learned to play piano at the age of four. He studied architecture at the University of Montreal. After a summer tour with Men Without Hats in 1981, Jean-Marc formed Checkpoint Charlie, inviting guitarist Guy Florent and bass guitarist Jean-Pierre Brie to join him. In 1983, the band added Jean-Marc’s brother, Guy Pisapia, on keyboards. This enabled Jean-Marc to give his attention primarily to lead vocals. At this time the band changed their name to The Box. In 1984 The Box released a self-titled album with a debut single titled “Walk Away”.
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#76: Act Of An Innocent by Parachute Club
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ New on LG73 (Hit Bound)
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Act Of An Innocent”
Lyrics: “Act Of An Innocent”
Lorraine Christine Segato was born in 1956 in Hamilton (ON). She was the lead vocalist in the Toronto band Mama Quilla II, which formed in 1977. The seven-piece all-female band performed at Toronto’s first Bi-National Lesbian Conference in 1979, sponsored by the Lesbian Organization of Toronto (LOOT). The songwriter for Mama Quilla II was Susan Sturman. Billy Bryans also occasionally performed for the band on percussion. Interested in forming their own band to showcase songs that they were writing, Lorraine Segato and Billy Bryans formed a band named V. This soon morphed into the Parachute Club in 1982 when they invited Mama Quilla II member Laurie Conger to join them.
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#12: Shake Yourself Down by the Checkerlads
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CKCK
Peak Month: October 1966
Peak Position in Regina ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Runners Up (October 29/66)
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Shake Yourself Down”
The Checkerlads were a band from Regina, Saskatchewan. According to Discogs.com, they were formed in 1963 by Arnie Sanns on lead vocals and bass guitar, Bob Stevens on rhythm guitar, Larry Reich on lead guitar, and backing vocals, and drummer Harvey Frasz. They later added organist Bob Edwards. (However, the Psychedelicized.com website states that in addition to Reich and Frasz, the other members were Arnold Rippliner, Robert Frei, and Robert Bucholtz. Yet, Psychedelicized.com links to an article on Canuckistanmusic.com, which states the lineup of the Checkerlads consisted of Sanns, Stevens, Reich and Franz). Canuckistan states “it was not until they decided to add Bob Edwards on organ that things started to take off for the group. They toured many of the US centres, ending up in Hollywood, where (manager Joe) Vargo managed to score the Lads some recording time at Gary Paxton’s LA studio.”
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