#10: Hard Sun by Indio
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: September 1989
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hard Sun”
Lyrics: “Hard Sun”
Gordon Peterson was born in 1962 and grew up in Dundas, Ontario. He worked on his grandfather’s tobacco farm in Ontario from the age of fifteen. The name Indio came to him while recording the second half of the album Big Harvest in California with Larry Klein. One afternoon, he drove down to Mexico and the last town before he crossed the border was named Indio. At that point Peterson decided he didn’t want to use his own name on the album and decided to use Indio. Big Harvest took two months to record. It involved several high-profile artists including Hamiltonian guitar player, Bill Dillon, and Peter Gabriel’s guitarist, David Rhodes. Larry Klein played bass. New York singer Brenda Russell sang background vocals, as did Joni Mitchell. Other collaborators included Indian violinist L. Subramaniam. Big Harvest appeared on the RPM 100 Chart in 1989.
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#25: Twilight Woman by 49th Parallel
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: January 1969
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #24
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Twilight Woman”
Lyrics: “Twilight Woman”
Singer Dennis Abbott and guitar player Dan Lowe formed a band in the mid-60’s called The Real McCoys. The name was soon discarded in favor of The Shades of Blond. The band consisted of Abbott and Lowe, joined by Bob Carlson on guitar, Dave Petch on organ, Mick Woodhouse on bass guitar, and Terry Bare on drums. The Shades of Blond played covers of British Invasion hits. As well, they began to write some songs and experimented with a fuzz-guitar garage rock sound. This got them a contract to record on International Master Discovery Records, which put out an album featuring four of the new Calgary bands. By ’67 they’d changed their name to 49th Parallel, and had all but outgrown the local circuit. They played the prairies relentlessly for the next year or so, making over a dozen stops in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at The Temple Gardens alone.
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#29: Nothing Can Touch Me by the Original Caste
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #114
YouTube.com: “Nothing Can Touch Me”
Lyrics: “Nothing Can Touch Me”
The Original Caste were a band from Calgary, Alberta, that formed in 1966. The band’s leader was Bruce Innes. He was born in Calgary (AB) in 1943. He was playing professionally at the age of eleven, supported by his musical father who had lots of connections in the city. At the University of Montana, in Missoula (MT), Innes sang with the Big Sky Singers. After college, he accompanied civil rights activist, blues and folk singer Josh White on a tour that ended in New York City. Josh White had a promising career and had toured with Eleanor Roosevelt to Europe in 1950. But he returned home from the tour to be interrogated as a suspected communist, having made it on a “Red” list of subversives during the McCarthy hysteria. White was blacklisted and his career suffered. But by 1963-64, a new wind was blowing across America, and Bruce Innes was grateful to be able to accompany Josh White on guitar. They toured all the way to New York City.
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#6: Winter Games by David Foster
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: March 1988
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Winter Games”
Born in 1949 in Victoria, British Columbia, when he was 13-years-old, David Foster enrolled in the University of Washington music program. In 1965, he auditioned to lead the band in an Edmonton nightclub owned by jazz musician Tommy Banks. Banks mentored Foster in jazz, producing records, and the music business. After a year, he decided to move to Toronto to play with Ronnie Hawkins. In 1966, he joined a backup band for Chuck Berry. In the late 60’s, Foster was also in a backup band for Bo Diddley. In 1971 David Forster formed Skylark. The band had a modest hit in Vancouver in 1972 with “What Would I Do Without You“. And in 1973, Skylark had a Top Ten hit titled “Wildflower”.
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#31: Carry Me by the Stampeders
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: March 1971
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Carry Me”
Lyrics: “Carry Me”
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. The band released a number of non-album singles, “House of Shake” (1965), and the minor Top 30 hit on the RPM Canadian Singles chart “Morning Magic” (1967). The band moved to Toronto in 1966. But by 1968, the Stampeders had just three members, Rich Dodson, Ronnie King and Kim Berly. Between 1967 and 1976 The Stampeders charted 15 singles into the Canadian RPM Top 40.
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#34: Recipe For Love by Dew Line
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: January 1969
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Recipe For Love”
Lyrics: N/A
The Dew Line were a band from Calgary, Alberta. They were active in the late 1960s. Francis Munoz was the drummer and lead vocalist. Al Gibson played bass guitar and sang backing vocals. Pat Murphy played organ and piano. Allan Watts and Dwayne Wells both played lead guitar.
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#35: Higher & Higher by Canada Goose
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Higher & Higher”
Lyrics: “Higher & Higher”
In 1962 a pop group formed in Ottawa named the Esquires. They consisted of Gary Comeau on guitar, Don Norman on lead vocals, Clint Hierliny on bass guitar, Paul Huot on rhythm guitar and Ritchie Patterson on drums. In the fall they released a single titled “Atlantis” which cracked the Top Ten in Ottawa, and also charted in cities in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. They released a half dozen singles between 1963 and 1966. The Esquires released an album of covers titled Introducing the Esquires. Their most successful was “So Many Other Boys”, which peaked at #2 in Montreal and #3 in Ottawa in December 1964. The band split up and went on to a variety of musical projects.
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#53: Living On Video by Trans-X
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CFCN
Peak Month: June 1986
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #61
YouTube.com: “Living On Video”
Lyrics: “Living On Video”
Pascal Languirand is the creator of Trans X. He was born in Paris, France, to Canadian parents in 1955, and moved back with them to Canada. In an interview with Manuel Montes and Jorge Munnshe, he related that though “he was brought up in Canada, he often travelled to Mexico. The reason for this was that he used to accompany his father, a writer, who felt fascinated by this country and found there the necessary inspiration to write his books. Pascal told us that because of this, at age four he had already learnt some Spanish while playing with Mexican children his age.” When he turned 18, he studied at McGill University in Montreal. He focus was electronic music and communications. He also studied cinematography at Concordia University, also in Montreal. He recalls, “Above all, I loved experimenting. I used to do so with tape, especially with my four-track recorder, with the electric guitar, something like Pink Floyd, playing with echo, the bass. Therefore, I based my work on the manipulation of sounds. My university studies, in actual fact, did not have any real usefulness for me. I preferred to experiment on my own.”
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#12: Tillicum by Syrinx
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: April 1971
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Canadian RPM Pop Singles chart ~ #38
YouTube: “Tillicum”
John Mills-Cockell was born in Toronto in 1943. He studied music at the University of Toronto from 1963 to 1967, and piano and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto from 1964 to 1968, where he also taught electronic music. He undertook graduate studies at the University of Toronto’s Electronic Music Studio in 1967 and 1968. In 1967, Mills-Cockell was involved as a musician with the University of Toronto’s Perception ’67 Arts Festival. It was there he met Alan Ginsberg. After a stint in the avant-garde mixed media project “Intersystems” in 1968, and forays into the rock forum the following year with the Kensington Market in Toronto, and the lesser-known Hydro Electric Streetcar Hydro Electric Streetcar in Vancouver. In late 1969 he co-founded Syrinx with Doug Pringle.
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#52: City Lights by The Churls
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: March 1969
Peak Position in Calgary ~#8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “City Lights”
Lyrics: “City Lights”
The Churls formed 1967 in Toronto. They fell into the garage rock (sixties garage rock) and psychedelic rock genre at the time. Robert O’ Neill was the lead vocalist, Sam Hurrie and Hal Ames were on guitar, John Barr played bass guitar, and Brad Fowles was the bands’ drummer. By the summer of 1967, the Churls were one of the hottest bands on the Yorkville scene. In the winter of 1967, they signed a record contract with Glotzer and Katz Management, the same people who managed Blood Sweat & Tears. The Churls were encouraged to perform in the USA. They spent much of early 1968 playing in New York as the houseband at both Cafe a Go-Go and The Scene. The Churls performed in medieval attire. It was at these Manhattan venues that the Churles notably received encouragement from John Lennon and Paul McCartney and jammed onstage with Jimi Hendrix.
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