#153: Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz
Peak Month: May 1993
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
Lyrics: “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
Leonard Albert Kravitz was born in 1964 in New York City. His mother was African-American and Bahamian, and a Christian. His father was descended from Russia Jews. Kravitz began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three. He decided that he wanted to be a musician at the age of five. He began playing the drums and soon added guitar. Kravitz’ father was a jazz promotor, and Duke Ellington played Happy Birthday for Lenny on his fifth birthday. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1974 when his mother, Roxie Roker, got cast as Helen Willis in the TV sitcom The Jeffersons.
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#154: She’s So Cold by the Rolling Stones
Peak Month: December 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #26
YouTube: “She’s So Cold”
Lyrics: “She’s So Cold”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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#155: Contact by Platinum Blonde
Peak Month: November 1987
13 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Contact”
Lyrics: “Contact”
Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards. But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You”, a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.
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#156: Shy Guy by the Crystalettes
Peak Month: October 1962
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Shy Guy”
The Crystalettes initially recorded under the name The Dispoto Sisters. They grew up in Reseda, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The sisters began singing at a very young age, and performed in the Wee Voice group in 1957. At the time Patty (born 1950) was 7, Diana (born 1947) was 10, and Tina (born 1945) was 12. They took part in numbers of choral events while, including at Whitney High School in Los Angeles. They performed with Martha Tilton and many others. They recorded their first single in 1959 on the Verve label, credited to The Dispoto Sisters. It was a two-sided Christmas disc: “Whistling Neath’ The Mistletoe/ Will Clause”. A local paper ran a photo with the byline “Pleasing Voices: The three young daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Dispoto are well on the way to a career as a trio. Patty, 9, Diane, 13, and Tina, 14.”
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#157: Hey Little Girl by Del Shannon
Peak Month: November-December 1961
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “Hey Little Girl”
Lyrics: “Hey Little Girl”
Charles Weedon Westover was born on December 30, 1934. He was known professionally as Del Shannon. Westover was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He learned ukulele and guitar and listened to country music. He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called The Cool Flames. When his service ended, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan. There he worked as a carpet salesman and as a truck driver in a furniture factory. He found part-time work as a rhythm guitarist in singer Doug DeMott’s group called Moonlight Ramblers, working at the Hi-Lo Club. Ann Arbor deejay Ollie McLaughlin heard the band. In July 1960, Westover signed to become a recording artist and composer on the Bigtop label. Westover changed his name to Del Shannon. It was a combination of Shannon Kavanagh (a wannabe wrestler who patronized the Hi-Lo Club) with Del, derived from the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, which Westover’s carpet store boss drove.
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#158: 99 by Toto
Peak Month: November-December 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “99”
Lyrics: “99”
Born in 1954 in Los Angeles, David Paich is the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and singer of the band Toto. He co-wrote “Lowdown” with Boz Scaggs, numbers of hits for Toto including “Hold The Line”, “99”, “Rosanna” and “Africa”, and 1978 disco hit “Got To Be Real” for Cheryl Lynn. In 1977, Paich produced the No. 1 R&B hit “Break It to Me Gently” for Aretha Franklin. In 1978 he founded Toto.
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#159: Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me) by Rod Stewart
Peak Month: December 1982
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me)”
Lyrics: “Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me)”
Roderick David Stewart was born in London, England, in 1945. In 1956 he got introduced to rock ‘n roll when he saw Bill Haley and His Comets in concert, and heard Little Richard’s “The Girl Can’t Help It”. He was given a guitar by his dad in 1959, and he learned to play the Kingston Trio’s “A Worried Man”. He quit school at age 15 and worked as a newspaper boy. He auditioned with Joe Meek in 1961, but didn’t get a record deal. By 1963 he was part of an R&B band called The Dimensions. In 1965 he teamed up with Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger to form a blues band called Steampacket. This lasted another year. Eventually, Stewart became part of the Jeff Beck Group in 1967. When that band broke up in the fall of ’68, Rod Stewart got invited to join the reformed Small Faces, who were now just called Faces.
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#160: Storm Clouds by Buddy Knox
Peak Month: August 1960
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Storm Clouds”
Buddy Wayne Knox was born in 1933, in Happy, Texas, a small farm town in the Texas Panhandle a half hour south of Amarillo. During his youth he learned to play the guitar. He was the first artist of the rock era to write and perform his own number one hit song, “Party Doll“. The song earned Knox a gold record in 1957 and was certified a million seller. Knox was one of the innovators of the southwestern style of rockabilly that became known as “Tex-Mex” music.
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#1342: True Love by Richard Chamberlain
Peak Month: July 1963
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube: “True Love”
Lyrics: “True Love”
George Richard Chamberlain was born in 1934 in Beverly Hills, California. After high school graduation in 1952, he studied acting at a college in Pomona. But, he was drafted in December 1952, and sent to fight in the Korean War. He rose to the rank of sergeant. In 1959, Richard Chamberlain appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The following year, he made a guest appearance in the crime-drama series Rescue 8, about the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Other guest appearances in TV shows in the early ’60s include Gunsmoke, the crime series Bourbon Street Beat, Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff, The Deputy starring Henry Fonda, and another western titled Whispering Smith. In 1960, Chamberlain starred opposite Richard Falk in The Secret of the Purple Reef. In 1961, Chamberlain starred with Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens, and Duane Eddy in the western A Thunder of Drums.
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#161: It’s All In The Game by Cliff Richard
Peak Month: November 1963
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “It’s All In The Game”
Lyrics: “It’s All In The Game”
Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line”.
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