#872: She Knows by Bobby Darin
Peak Month: September 1967
7 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #105
YouTube.com: “She Knows”
Lyrics: “She Knows”
Walden Robert Cassotto was born in the Bronx in May, 1936. His mother, born in November 1917, was pregnant with him when she was only sixteen, giving birth to him when she was seventeen. In the 1930’s, being a pregnant teenager was very improper. So she gave birth and was introduced to her son as his older “sister.” In order for the deceit to be pulled off, young Robert was raised by his grandmother, Polly, who he understood was his mother. And he understood that his “mother” had given birth at a later stage in life. His “mother” was a showgirl in her earlier days and so not the “grandmother type.” So the ruse was successful. It was not until 1968, when he was 32 years of age, that he discovered that his older sister, Giovannina Cassotto, was actually his mother. In his childhood, Robert learned to play piano, drums and guitar. According to his biographies, Walden Robert Cassotto suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. Bobby’s real sister, Vivienne, said years later, “my earliest memory of Bobby as a child was about his rheumatic fever. We couldn’t walk on the floor because just walking across the floor would put him in agony. I remember Bobby crying and screaming and my father having to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, he was in so much pain. I remember being told all my life, “Bobby’s sickly. You have to be careful, and you have to protect him.” Between the ages of eight and thirteen, Bobby had four illnesses with rheumatic fever. Each one damaging his heart muscle more severely than the previous illness.
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#873: I Need Somebody by ? (Question Mark) And The Mysterians
Peak Month: December 1966
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “I Need Somebody”
Lyrics: “I Need Somebody”
Rudy Martinez was born in Texas and was a dancer on the Arthur Murray show. In the late 50’s and early 60’s Martinez performed at the county fairs and the Shriners’ shows. He recalls, “everybody liked the way I danced.” He and his buddies formed a band in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1962. They called themselves Question Mark and the Mysterians. The name, question mark, was rendered on their record labels as a ? The group’s name was inspired by a Japanese science fiction movie from 1957 titled The Mysterians. The films plot concerned aliens from the obliterated planet, Mysteriod, come to Earth in order to conquer it. The trailer for the movie warned “from behind the moon they come. But what do they want? The Mysterians tell the earthlings that they come in peace. However, the world leaders decide to declare war on the Mysterians, certain they have come to abduct the women. The movie’s trailer invited movie-goer’s to come and “join mankind’s most treacherous battle for survival.” ? and the Mysterians played their first concert at a Greek Orthodox Church in Saginaw. Rudy Martinez was compared to Mick Jagger in the local papers by 1965.
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#876: No by Bulldog
Peak Month: January 1973
8 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube.com: “No”
Lyrics: “No”
Dean Cornish was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943. In his childhood, he moved with his single mother to Rochester, New York. At the age of nine he learned to play the ukulele. By the age of eleven Cornish was playing guitar and country songs. In an interview with the National Association of Music Merchants in January 2016, Cornish remembers seeing Elvis Presley on the Tommy Dorsey Show and getting the guitar of his choice by the late 50’s and learning to play songs by Duane Eddy. By his teens he was playing guitar and harmonica in local Rochester bands. In 1962, when he was 19, Gene formed a band called the Gene Cornish Nobles who recorded a couple of singles. In 1964 Cornish joined Joey Dee and the Starliters who had charted a #1 hit in January 1962 called the “Peppermint Twist.” While playing with Joey Dee, Gene met up with Felix Cavaliere and another musician, a drummer named Dino Danelli. The three became the nucleus of what would become The Young Rascals.
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#878: That Greasy Kid Stuff by Janie Grant
Peak Month: June 1962
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube.com: “That Greasy Kid Stuff”
Lyrics: “That Greasy Kid Stuff”
Rose Marie Casilli was born in Patterson, New Jersey in 1945. A promotional piece for Janie Grant in Billboard Magazine from June 23, 1962, stated that her hobbies were “dancing, swimming and collecting records.” Billboard wrote, “she started singing when she was only 8, making her professional debut at a local dance revue. Gerry Granahan… was instrumental in capturing a recording contract for Miss Grant. He heard her singing at a party and brought her to Caprice where she auditioned for the company’s execs.” The Billboard article noted that she played guitar and wrote songs, including her Top 30 hit, “Triangle”, which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at #29. The person who “discovered” Janie Grant, Gerry Granahan, had a minor hit in 1958 called “No Chemise Please.” Granahan started a record label called Caprice. Janie Grant was 16 when her debut single – “Triangle” – made the Top Ten in Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tampa (FL), Vancouver (BC), Arkon and Columbus (OH), and Tucson and Phoenix (AZ).
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#879: Do Something To Me by Tommy James And The Shondells
Peak Month: November 1968
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube.com: “Do Something To Me”
Lyrics: “Do Something To Me”
Thomas Gregory Jackson was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1947. From infancy his mother recalled the only thing she could do to stop him from crying was to turn on the radio where he’d listen to the music. Living in South Bend, Indiana, when he was ten Tommy got his first guitar. When he was fourteen, he formed a rock ‘n roll band called the Tornadoes. They were the namesake of a popular instrumental group from the UK who had a #1 hit that year titled “Telstar“. The family moved to Niles, Michigan, and at the age of 17 Tommy was going by the stage name of Tommy James. He was the lead singer of The Shondells. In 1964, they recorded a B-side recorded in 1963 by The Raindrops called the “Hanky Panky”. The song was composed by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich of Brill Building fame. Tommy James’ version charted well in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. However, Snap Records had no national distribution, so the single failed to chart elsewhere.
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#880: Flippin’ To The A Side by Cats Can Fly
Peak Month: April 1986
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Flippin’ To The A Side”
Lyrics: “Flippin’ To The A Side”
The bandmates for Cats Can Fly were a Elia Junior high school band from North York, Ontario. When they formed in 1971, initially they went by the name of Ethos. Alan Frizell and Jim Longmuir both played guitar, Frank Miller played drums and the bass player was Peter Steele. Peter Alexander, of Canadianbands.com, writes that Ethos was “formed under the supervision of the School Board” under Laura Lapedus. Upon graduation, Ethos played in local bars as a house band. When they discovered an American band also went by the name of Ethos, they changed their name to Scamp. They went on tour as an opening act for Burton Cummings in the latter part of the 70’s. At the end of the decade they won the CFTR Talent Search. A record project with Nimbus 9 Records faltered in the early 80’s. They had a number of lineup changes by the time they renamed themselves Cats Can Fly. At this point the only original member of the band was Peter Steele, whose stage name was now Peter Alexander. The other band members were drummer Eddie Zeeman, bass player David Ashley and guitar player James Mitchell. Peter Alexander, who had originally been the bass player for Ethos, was now playing keyboards.
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#882: Yessiree-Yessiree by Ray Whitley
Peak Month: April 1962
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
“Yessiree-Yessiree”
Ray Whitley was born in Columbus, Georgia, in November, 1943. In 1958, at the age of fourteen, Ray Whitley formed his own band. He soon caught the attention of Producer Felton Jarvis who introduced Ray to Bill Lowery. Whitley was offered work as a staff songwriter for Bill Lowery’s publishing company, Lowery Music Publishers of Atlanta, Georgia. When he was 17 years old, Ray Whitley recorded his first record, “I Wasn’t Sure”. Deejays weren’t sure about the single and gave it a pass. His second attempt, “Yessiree – Yessiree”, got airplay in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver (BC).
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#883: Love Finds A Way by Lorne Greene
Peak Month: November 1963
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Love Finds A Way”
Lyon Himan Green was born in 1915 in Ottawa. His parents were Russian Jews who emigrated from White Russia (present daddy Belarus) in 1913. It was a time when Russian Jews experienced pogroms, large-scale anti-Jewish riots, at the hands of the cossacks. Green’s father owned a shoe repair store and made orthotics. Young Lyon Himan Green worked as a shoeshine boy outside his father’s shop by the age of eleven, making 15 cents for each pair of shoes he shined. Lyon was called Chaim at home and he learned to speak Yiddish. Though he began studying chemical engineering, he switched to languages and drama. Green also worked at the campus radio station. Green was hired out of university to work at the CBC as as an announcer. By 1939 he gave newscasts on national radio and was dubbed the Voice of Canada. In 1941 Greene was the narrator for Churchill’s Island, a National Film Board depiction of the defense of Great Britain. The film won the first Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.
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#884: Tapioca Tundra by The Monkees
Peak Month: April 1968
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #34
YouTube.com: “Tapioca Tundra”
Lyrics: “Tapioca Tundra”
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 the San Antonio College talent award, performing folk songs and writing his own songs. By 1963, he had moved to Los Angeles, with the intent of getting into the movie business. He also was hosting a hootenanny at the Troubador in West Hollywood, as the “hootmaster.” Nesmith released a 45 single titled “Wandering'”, which he penned. 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 late 1967.
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#885: 5-4-3-2-1 by Manfred Mann
Peak Month: November 1964
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
CFUN Twin Pick October 24, 1964
YouTube.com: “5-4-3-2-1”
Lyrics: “5-4-3-2-1”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1942, and had studied jazz growing up. They got a record contract in 1963.
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