#439: Fine State Of Affairs by Burton Cummings
Peak Month: July 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Lyrics: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, based rock ‘n roll band The Guess Who. He was with the band from 1965 to 1975. Cummings sang, wrote or co-wrote many hit songs. These include “American Woman”, “Clap For The Wolfman”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Laughing”, “No Time”, “Share The Land”, “Star Baby” and “These Eyes”. His solo career includes many hit singles, including “My Own Way To Rock” and “Fine State Of Affairs”. His first solo hit single was “Stand Tall”, in 1976, which was his biggest hit as a solo recording artist.
Continue reading →
#759: Remember (Walking In The Sand) by Aerosmith
Peak Month: February 1980
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #67
YouTube: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” ~ Aerosmith
YouTube: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” ~ Shangri-Las
Lyrics: “Remember (Walking In The Sand)”
Steven Victor Tallarico was born in 1948 in Manhattan, and known professionally as Steve Tyler. He grew up in the Bronx and then Yonkers. Growing up he learned to play drums, guitar, harmonica and keyboard. In 1964 he formed a band called the Strangers. By 1970 the band was remanded Chain Reaction. They played at a concert in New Hampshire and heard Jam Band on stage, which included Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton. Within a year the three decided to form a band. Anthony Joseph Pereira was born in 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and was known professionally as Joe Perry. Though he was left-handed, he learned to play guitar at the age of 10 right-handed. While at a college prep school, the Vermont Academy, Pereira was Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Kinks and The Yardbirds. Thomas William Hamilton was born in Colorado Springs (CO) in 1951. He learned to play guitar at the age of 12. Hamilton and Joe Perry formed the Jam Band late spring in 1970. The band morphed into Aerosmith.
Continue reading →
#440: No by Dodie Stevens
Peak Month: August 1960
13 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “No”
Lyrics: “No”
Geraldine Ann Pasquale was born in Chicago in 1946. She and her family moved to the San Gabriel Valley in California when she was three. She soon started taking singing and dancing lessons and was a singing prodigy by the age of four. In 1954, at the age of eight, she recorded her first song, “Merry-Go Merry-Go Round”. The song was performed on the Art Linkletter’s House Party TV show, and issued on Gold Star Records under the name Geri Pace. From 1951 to 1959 Geri Pace performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows. The USO is a nonprofit organization that provides live entertainment, such as comedians and musicians, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families.
Continue reading →
#441: Hole In My Shoe by Traffic
Peak Month: October 1967
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hole In My Shoe”
Lyrics: “Hole In My Shoe”
Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born in 1948 in suburban Birmingham, UK. Winwood began playing piano from the age of four, being raised in a musical family. He joined a boys choir and added drums and guitar to his repertoire. At age 14 he joined The Spencer Davis Group in 1963, with his older brother Muff. In 1965 the band had a number-one hit in the UK with “Keep On Running”. The single climbed into the Top Ten in Vancouver (BC) in 1966. A follow up single, “Somebody Help Me”, also topped the UK Singles chart in 1966, and was covered by Vancouver band the Shockers in 1967. Spencer Davis Group had two more notable hits in both the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, finally making the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten with “Gimme Some Lovin'” (#7) and “I’m A Man” (#10) in 1967. “Gimme Some Lovin'” climbed to #1 in Vancouver, while “I’m A Man” peaked at #12. In each case, Stevie Winwood was the lead vocalist.
Continue reading →
#442: Three Wheels On My Wagon by Dick Van Dyke
Peak Month: February 1961
7 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Three Wheels On My Wagon”
Lyrics: “Three Wheels On My Wagon”
Richard Wayne Van Dyke was born in 1925 in West Plains, Missouri, in south-central Missouri. His family moved to Danville, Illinois, and after high school Dick Van Dyke joined the United States Air Force in 1944. He was eventually assigned to be a radio announcer and entertained the troops, given he was “underweight.” After World War II Dick Van Dyke became a radio DJ in Danville. In 1947 he became part of a pantomime duo called The Merry Mutes. They toured Washington, Oregon and California and eventually brought the act to Atlanta.
Continue reading →
#981: Jeremy by Pearl Jam
Peak Month: November 1992
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #79
YouTube: “Jeremy”
Lyrics: “Jeremy”
Jeffrey Allen Ament was born in 1963 and grew up in a village in northern Montana. He began to play guitar in his teens. In the early 80s he had a band called Deranged Diction. They moved from Montana to Seattle. In 1984 Ament was asked to join the Seattle grunge band Green River. In 1988 he formed a band called Mother Love Bone. The band was recording their debut album in 1990, but the lead singer died of a heroin overdose, and the band split up. In 1990, Ament cofounded grunge band Temple Of The Dog, featuring Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell. Concurrently, Jeff Ament cofounded Pearl Jam. The “Jam” came from attending a Neil Young concert where the musician had extended “jams” of different songs on stage.
Continue reading →
#509: Holiday by Nazareth
Peak Month: March-April 1980
12 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #87
YouTube: “Holiday”
Lyrics: “Holiday”
William “Dan” McCafferty was born in 1946 in Dunfermline, near Fife, Scotland. His musical influences include Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Otis Redding. He learned to play the bagpipes and the talkbox in his teens, as well as becoming a singer. He formed a band in 1961 called the Shadettes. By 1963 McCafferty was performing professionally full time before audiences. Manuel “Manny” Charlton was born in 1941 in La Línea de la Concepción on the Bay of Gibraltar in Spain. In his youth he learned to play guitar. Charlton was in the Mark 5 and the Red Hawks before joining the Shadettes. Pete Agnew was born in Dunfermline in 1946. He learned to play rhythm guitar and bass guitar in his youth. Agnew joined the Shadettes in 1961. Darrell Antony Sweet was born in 1947 in the South Coast of England in Bournemouth. He was a piper in his youth and also learned to play drums.
Continue reading →
#548: All Those Lies by Glenn Frey
Peak Month: February 1983
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
YouTube: “All Those Lies”
Lyrics: “All Those Lies”
Glenn Lewis Frey was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948. He was raised in the suburb of Royal Oak and learned to play piano from the age of five. He later learned to play guitar. Frey was a member of a number of bands: the Subterraneans, the Four Of Us, the Mushrooms and the Heavy Metal Kids. At the age of 19 Frey played acoustic guitar and backing vocals for the 1968-69 Bob Seger System Top 20 hit single “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”. In 1969 Glenn Frey moved to Los Angeles and became part of a band named Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther. The band folded by the end of 1970. That year Frey met drummer Don Henley. The pair were both hired as part of a backing band for Linda Ronstadt. While touring with Ronstadt, Frey and Henley decided to form a band the soon named the Eagles.
Continue reading →
#576: In Your Letter by REO Speedwagon
Peak Month: October 1981
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “In Your Letter”
Lyrics: “In Your Letter”
Neal Allan Doughty was born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1946. Growing up he learned to play piano, organ and keyboards. He attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, in 1966. At the start of the school year he met Alan Gratzer. Alan Franklin Gratzer was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1948. He learned to play drums when he was given a toy drum set at the age of seven. He was in several rock bands during high school before moving to Champaign for university. Gary Dean Richrath was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1949. He learned to play saxophone and then switched to guitar, adding slide guitar to his resume. He joined REO Speedwagon in 1970. Kevin Patrick Cronin was born in 1951 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. He learned to play piano and guitar. He joined the band in 1972-73, and was invited back in 1976. Bruce William Hall was born in Champaign in 1953. He learned to play bass guitar in his teens and joined REO Speedwagon in 1977. These five musicians became the core of REO Speedwagon. But along the way there were ten other bandmates that came and went between 1967 and 1977.
Continue reading →
#1016: Wheels Of Life by Gino Vannelli
Peak Month: May 1979
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #78
YouTube: “Wheels Of Life”
Lyrics: “Wheels Of Life”
Gino Vannelli was born in Montreal in 1952. During his childhood he was exposed to jazz music and cabaret. His father was a cabaret singer and his mother had a good ear for music. Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Ed Thigpen were among the drummers that inspired young Gino. At the age of eleven, Gino was one of a group of elementary school-age drummers trying to audition for a Montreal band named The Cobras. He arrived home from school later than usual to announce he had been picked to be the new drummer for the band after impressing them with his rendition of “Wipeout”. In 1964, five years prior to the Jackson 5’s debut hit “I Want You Back” on Motown, Gino Vannelli happened to join a band in Montreal called the Jacksonville Five. And that Montreal band happened to tailor itself to Motown-sound-alike tunes when The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Mary Wells were all topping the charts. By 1966, Gino Vannelli became the lead singer of the Jacksonville Five when he replaced the current lead singer who couldn’t hit the high notes on Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”. He was fourteen.
Continue reading →
