#1075: Town Called Malice by The Jam

Peak Month: July 1982
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Town Called Malice”
Lyrics: “Town Called Malice”

John William “Paul” Weller Jr. was born on 25 May 1958 in Woking, Surrey, England. His love of music began with The Beatles, then The Who and Small Faces. By the time Weller was eleven and moving up to Sheerwater County Secondary school, music was the biggest part of his life, and he had started playing the guitar. Weller’s musical vocation was confirmed after seeing Status Quo in concert in 1972. He formed the first incarnation of The Jam in the same year, playing bass guitar with his best friends Steve Brookes (lead guitar) and Dave Waller (rhythm guitar). Paul Weller’s father, acting as their manager, began booking the band into local working men’s clubs. Joined by Rick Buckler on drums, and with Woking-born Bruce Foxton soon replacing Dave Waller on rhythm guitar, the four-piece band began to forge a local reputation, playing a mixture of Beatles covers and a number of compositions written by Weller and Brookes. Brookes left the band in 1976, and Weller and Foxton decided they would swap guitar roles, with Weller now the guitarist.

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#1208: Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife ~ Glen Campbell/Wayne Newton

Peak Month: August 1968
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32 (Campbell)/#60 (Newton)
YouTube.com: “Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife” Glen Campbell
YouTube.com: “Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife” Wayne Newton
Lyrics: “Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife”

Glen Travis Campbell was born in 1936 in the village of Billstown, Arkansas. His dad was a sharecropper. He moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and at the age of 18 joined his uncle’s band, Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys. Campbell also had guest spots on a local KOB children’s TV show, K Circle B Time. In 1958, Campbell formed the Western Wranglers. In 1960 he moved to LA and joined The Champs of “Tequila” fame. Campbell also became a session musician in a group that would become known as The Wrecking Crew. During this time Glen Campbell played on recordings for Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, The Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and others. He recorded his first single in 1961 titled “Turn Around Look At Me“. In the mid-60’s Campbell appeared as a regular on Shindig! and Hollywood Jamboree. He also was a studio musician for The Beach Boys 1966 album, Pet Sounds, and for four months was a member of The Beach Boys and went on tour with them when Brian Wilson was ill. That same year Campbell was part of a backing band for Rick Nelson on a tour of the Far East.

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#1076: Love Changes Everything by Honeymoon Suite

Peak Month: June 1988
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #91
YouTube.com: “Love Changes Everything”
Lyrics: “Love Changes Everything”

In 1981 John Richard DeGiuli, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, formed the Honeymoon Suite. He was a guitarist and lead vocalist and went with the stage name, Johnnie Dee. After several years of line-up changes, he played alongside lead guitarist Derry Grehan and drummer Dave Bretts. In 1983 the band won a contest on Toronto’s FM station Q107 for playing a song Grehan wrote titled “New Girl Now”. The band expanded to include keyboardist, Ray Coburn, and Gary Lalonde on bass. A debut album followed that included their debut single and several other marginal hits. A second album, The Big Prize, included their first Top 20 single in Canada, called “Feel It Again”. Another single, “What Does It Take” was featured on the soundtrack for the John Cusack film One Crazy Summer. And in 1986, Honeymoon Suite had their song, “Those Were the Days,” appear in the Charlie Sheen and Randy Quaid action-horror movie, The Wraith. The following year, Honeymoon Suite recorded the title song for the Mel Gibson movie, Lethal Weapon, which was played during the final credits.

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In 1939 Neil Sedaka was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brighton Beach beside Coney Island. His paternal grandparents immigrated to America from Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, in 1910. His fathers side of the family there were Sephardi Jews and his mother’s side Ashkenazi Jews from Russian and Polish background. Sedaka is a cousin of the late singer Eydie Gorme. When Neil was eight years old he listened to a show on the radio called The Make-Believe Ballroom that opened his world to appreciation for music. Within a year Neil had began learning classical piano at the age of nine at the Julliard School of Music. His progress was impressive and Arthur Rubinstein voted Neil as one of the best New York High School pianists after he turned 16 years old.

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#1081: The Blizzard by Jim Reeves

Peak Month: April 1961
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #62
YouTube.com: “The Blizzard”
Lyrics: “The Blizzard”

James Travis Reeves was born in 1923 at home on a farm between Galloway and Deadwood, in East Texas. The youngest of eight children, Reeves was known as Travis during his upbringing. His dad died when he was ten months old. When he was five years old he learned to play on a guitar he borrowed from an older brother. When he turned nine he bought his own guitar and learned more about guitar picking from an oilfield cook. He won an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas and studied speech and drama. His studies helped him deal with a stammer. However, out of necessity, he left his studies during his first semester for work in the Houston shipyards. In time he began to play in a semi-professional baseball league, prior to joining the roster of a farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1944 Reeves was a pitcher for the farm team. In his third year in the minor leagues, Reeves severed his sciatic nerve while pitching. This put an end to his athletic career. Reeves next turned his attention to radio and got a job at a station in Henderson, Texas.

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#1082: Right Before Your Eyes by Ian Thomas Band

Peak Month: March 1977
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Right Before Your Eyes”
Lyrics: “Right Before Your Eyes”

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. By 1969 he was in a folk group called Tranquility Base which began to tour across Canada. They had a #3 hit in Hamilton in 1970 called “If You’re Looking”. This led to an album, but further success eluded them. Thomas became a producer at the CBC. By 1973 he got his own record deal with GRT Records and released “Painted Ladies”. The song climbed to #9 in Vancouver and #34 on the Billboard Hot 100. His self-titled album went Gold. Thomas won the 1974 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist and toured with April Wine. He got exposure on a number of TV variety shows in Canada which included both his musical and comedic talents.Continue reading →

#1084: A Symphony For Susan by The Arbors

Peak Month: December 1966
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #51
YouTube.com: “A Symphony For Susan”
Lyrics: “A Symphony For Susan”

Identical twins, Ed and Fred Farran, met Scott Herrick when they were part of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club. The three successfully had auditioned to each be one of thirty members of the ‘Glee Club from among over 300 applicants. They graduated from the University of Michigan in 1961 and added Scott’s brother, Tom, to become a quartet. In the summer of 1961 they moved to New York City and sold their blood, for research purposes, for rent money while they followed their dream of becoming a professional recording act. In a November 1974 issue of The Michigan Alumnus (Volume 81, No. 3) the journal featured an article titled “Three Former Glee Club Members in Vocal Group Called ‘The Arbors.'” The article mentioned how over their twelve year career, at the time, the quartet had appeared in TV commercials for United Airlines, Texaco, Bay Gasoline, Sears, Seven-Up, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mcdonald’s and Jolly Green Giant.
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#1086: Abergavenny by Shannon

Peak Month: August 1969
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube.com: “Abergavenny”
Lyrics: “Abergavenny”

Reginald Leonard Smith was born in Blackheath, London, UK, in 1939. At the age of 15 he left school and became a messenger boy in the city of London for a firm of brokers in Rood Lane, Eastcheap. Reginald formed a group with some of his local friends called Reg Smith and the Hound Dogs. This led to a series of local gigs in the South of England. At the age of 18 he took the pseudonym, Reg Patterson prior to performing at London’s Condor Club in 1957. While on stage he was noticed by impresario Larry Parnes. The recording acts that Parnes was manager for were all given stage names like Billy Fury, Duffy Power and Dickie Pride. He gave Reginal Leonard Smith a new name in 1957: Marty Wilde. The “Marty” came from the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1955, Marty, starring Earnest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. “Wilde,” like Fury and Power, was a surname intended to convey that the singer was edgy and charismatic.

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#1087: Here Comes The Boy by Tracey Dey

Peak Month: January 1964
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #93
YouTube.com: “Here Comes The Boy”
Lyrics: “Here Comes The Boy”

Nora Ferrari was born in 1943 in Yonkers, New York. After completing high school, at the age of 19, while taking classes at Fordham University Ferrari made a demo tape of a song. Producer, Bob Crewe, became aware of her demo tape and signed her to his production company, Genius Inc. In the summer of 1962 Crewe had produced a song for a new pop group named The Four Seasons called “Sherry“. The song climbed the national charts in the USA for five weeks (as well as three weeks in Vancouver). Crewe got the idea for an answer song and had co-written “Jerry (I’m Your Sherry)“. The song was released on the Vee Jay, the same label the Four Seasons were with, billing the singer not as Nora Ferrari but as Tracey Dey. It appeared on a record survey in Phoenix, Arizona, the second week of October 1962, when “Sherry” was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for its fifth and final week. “Jerry (I’m Your Sherry)” got airplay in New York City, made the Top 30 on CHUM in Toronto and #8 in Fresno, California. Though the song was only a regional hit, Bob Crewe was encouraged and Tracey Dey became part of what was dubbed the “girl group” sound for both female solo and female group singers in the early to mid-60’s.

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#1363: Monday Morning Choo Choo by The Stampeders

Peak Month: March 1972
7 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Record World ~ #107
YouTube.com: “Monday Morning Choo Choo”
Lyrics: “Monday Morning Choo Choo”

The Stampeders are a rock trio from Calgary named after that city’s football team, The Calgary Stampeders. Although, it could be argued that the yearly Calgary Stampede was also an inspiration for their name. During the band’s most successful chart run from 1968 to 1976, it was made up of guitarist Rich Dodson, bass player Ronnie King (born Cornelius Van Sprang) and drummer Kim Berly (born Kim Meyer). All three provided vocals. Originally, the band was a group of five formed in 1964 called The Rebounds. The Rebounds had five members: Rich Dodson, Len Roemer, Brendan Lyttle, Kim Berly, and Race Holiday. They renamed themselves The Stampeders in 1965 and Len Roemer was replaced with Ronnie King and Van Louis, making them a band of six for a few years. But after a temporary move to Toronto in 1966 the band was down to three members, Dodson, King and Berly by 1968. Between 1967 and 1976 The Stampeders charted 15 singles into the Canadian RPM Top 40.

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