#21: Closer Together by The Box
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: June 1987
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Closer Together”
Lyrics: “Closer Together”
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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#42: Moonlight Party by the Del Tones
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: May 1959
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Moonlight Party”
Lyrics: N/A
The Del Tones were comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Raymond “Ray” Hutchinson, bass and guitar player Michel “Mike” Robitaille, pianist Joseph “Joey” Frechette and drummer Gilles Tailleur. Born in Montreal, in 1940, as a child, Ray Hutchinson had tuberculosis for twelve years. He got better and at the age of seventeen was writing and performing “Moonlight Party,” that became the Del Tones first hit. Two of the bandmates, guitarist and vocalist Ray Hutchinson, and bass player Mike Robitaille, were polio victims. They met at a school for handicapped children in Montreal.
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#12: Something To Sing About by the Raftsmen
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: December 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Something To Sing About” (Travellers version)
Lyrics: “Something To Sing About”
The Raftsmen was formed by Louis Leroux, Martin Overland and Marvin Burke. Overland had been the lead singer, guitarist, and music arranger for the 1950s Montreal trio The Strangers, along with his sister Arlene on claves and drummer Leon Segal. They began getting regular gigs at folk clubs in Montreal and Toronto in the early ’60s. They sang for NASA astronauts in Cap Canaveral, Florida, the Chicago Playboy Club and the Famous Grill of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. They also began to tour in Canada and the USA with Ian & Sylvia, The Travellers’ and Joan Baez. On the Raftsmen III album in 1967 the bio for Louis Leroux states “One day while practicing to be Attorney-General, in the local phone booth, with his wire-tapping kit and armed with his genuine replica oof a C.I.A. badge (Canadian version), he decided to call his U.N.C.L.E. As fortunes of the Cold War would have it, his A.N.T. answered “Hello? Napoleon?” In a fit of frustration he screamed back T.H.R.U.S.H.” You guessed it – all screamers get hit records.” This flavor of folk humor from the Sixties may be lost on some readers today.
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#30: L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me) by The Box
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1986
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”
Lyrics: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”
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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#81: 1-2-5 by the Haunted
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CFCF
Peak Month: May 1966
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “1-2-5”
Lyrics: “1-2-5”
Jurgen Heinz Peter was born in 1942 in Glabonz, Bohemia, in what is now part of the Czech Republic. When his family moved from war-torn Czechoslovakia to Montreal, one of his new friends in high school was Glen Holmes. Years later, Holmes recalled, “We did sensible (?) things like riding on his Ariel Motorcycle in mid winter and in his ’59 blue Ford Thunderbird convertible sometimes with the top down (in winter more sensible stuff). Somewhere in late 1962/early 1963 Jurgen and I decided that we wanted to form a band so we did.” Peter played guitar and Holmes played bass. In 1963 Jurgen Peter stood in for a local Montreal band named the Blue J’s. In 1963 Peter and Holme, formed The Haunted. Bob Burgess was the lead singer and Al Birmingham played lead guitar. But within the first year Glen Holmes left the band.
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#1: And She’s Mine by the Guess Who?
City: Medicine Hat, AB
Radio Station: CHAT
Peak Month: October 1966
Peak Position in Medicine Hat ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “And She’s Mine”
Lyrics: “And She’s Mine”
Randolph Charles Bachman was born in 1943 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When he was just three years old he entered the King of the Saddle singing contest on CKY radio, Manitoba’s first radio station that began in 1923. Bachman won the contest. When he turned five years he began to study the violin through the Royal Toronto Conservatory. Though he couldn’t read music, he was able to play anything once he heard it. He dropped out of high school and subsequently a business administration program in college. He co-founded a Winnipeg band called Al & The Silvertones with Chad Allan in 1960.
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#23: After The Heartache by Doug Lycett
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: June 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “After The Heartache”
Lyrics: N/A
Doug Lycett was born in Orono, Ontario. He headed a country-rockabilly band named Doug Lycett and the Kingston Monarchs. At this time of writing, little can be found online about the singer-songwriter.
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#4: Harvest Moon by Neil Young
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: February 1993
Peak Position in London ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles Chart ~ #36
Peak Position Canadian RPM chart ~ #5
YouTube: “Harvest Moon”
Lyrics: “Harvest Moon”
Neil Young was born in Toronto in 1945. His family moved to Omemee, Ontario, and he contracted polio in 1951, two years before the polio vaccine was introduced. He learned guitar and dropped out of high school. He played in the Winnipeg based band called The Squires, who toured parts of Manitoba and northern Ontario. They played instrumental covers of Cliff Richard’s backup band, The Shadows. Young moved to California in 1966 where he was a founding member of the Buffalo Springfield. In 1968 he released his self-titled debut studio album. And in 1969 he became the fourth member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
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#1: Falling Tears by the Eternals
City: Dryden, ON
Radio Station: CJCA
Peak Month: April 1968
Peak Position in Dryden: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Falling Tears”
The Eternals were formed in 1961 by brothers Ron & Ted Paley from Rosa, Manitoba, and brothers John & Harry Hildebrand from Steinbach, Manitoba. Ted Paley played drums and fiddle. Ron Paley played piano, organ, drums and saxophone. John Hildebrand played on bass guitar and lead guitar. While Harry Hildebrand played bass guitar, rhythm guitar and lead guitar. The group was sometimes billed as Ronny and The Eternals.
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#10: Tom Sawyer by Rush
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJBK
Peak Month: June 1981
Peak Position in London ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube: “Tom Sawyer”
Lyrics: “Tom Sawyer”
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto in 1968. The classic lineup was comprised of Geddy Lee (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart (drums, percussion). After Lee joined, the band went through a few line-up changes before arriving at its classic power trio line-up with the addition of drummer Neil Peart in July 1974.
Aleksandar Živojinović was born in Fernie, British Columbia, in 1953. His parents were Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia. His stage surname, Lifeson, is a rough translation of the Serbian to English (which can literally be translated ‘son of life”). Lifeson was in a band in 1968 named The Projection. Geddy Lee joined the band. Geddy Lee Weinrib was born in North York, Ontario, in 1953. His parents were Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland.
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