#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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#1: Next To Nowhere by M.G. and the Escorts
City: Bathurst, NB
Radio Station: CKBC
Peak Month: December 1967
Peak Position in Bathurst ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Next To Nowhere”
Pointe Claire, Quebec, was the town M.G. and The Escorts formed in 1965. Glen Stephen played bass, Mike Gautier was on rhythm guitar, Graham Powers was the lead vocalist, Glenn Grecco played lead guitar, and Bill Bryans was on drums. Billy Bryans was born in Pointe Claire, Quebec, in 1947. In an interview with garagehangover.com, Glen Stephen spoke about the lead up to the formation of M.G. and The Escorts. “I played in a couple of groups prior to M.G. and the Escorts. The first band was in high school in a group called the Crescents which focused on Buddy Holly songs. I later joined a group with Glenn Grecco and Billy Bryans in a group called the Strangers and the focus of the music was Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The Stratocaster was purchased in New York City in 1961 and it was coral red. I played rhythm guitar and we used a Danelectro reverb for the lead guitar. Glenn Grecco could imitate the Shadows guitar sound to the letter. We also played the Chet Akins style of finger picking as there were several people in the Pointe Claire area that played that style. I don’t remember the details of how the group formed into M.G. and the Escorts. Part of the group The Strangers joined with another part of a group with Graham Powers and Mike Gauthier.”
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#2: Flying On The Ground Is Wrong by the Guess Who
City: Bathurst, NB
Radio Station: CKBC
Peak Month: December 1967
Peak Position in Bathurst ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Flying On the Ground Is Wrong”
Lyrics: “Flying On the Ground Is Wrong”
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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#2: Ten Pound Note by Steel River
City: Antigonish, NS
Radio Station: CJFX
Peak Month: September 1970
Peak Position in Antigonish ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Ten Pound Note”
Lyrics: “Ten Pound Note”
Starting in 1965 as a part-time Toronto R&B club band called The Toronto Shotgun, Steel River became a full-time band in 1969. The lineup consisted of singer John Dudgeon, keyboardist Bob Forrester, bassist Rob Cockell, guitarist Tony Dunning, and drummers Ray Angrove and Dennis Watson. Greg Hambleton signed them to his then-label Tuesday Records. The band released an album titled Weighin’ Heavy. The band released a single titled “Ten Pound Note”.
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#6: Wasn’t That A Party by the Rovers
Peak Month: November-December 1980
Peak Position #1
19 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube.com: “Wasn’t That A Party”
Lyrics: “Wasn’t That A Party”
The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians that originated in Toronto, Canada. They formed in 1963 and were named after the traditional song “The Irish Rover” they are best known for their international television series, contributing to the popularization of Irish Music in North America, including for their breakthrough song in 1968 called “The Unicorn”. Founding members and brothers, George Millar and Will Millar, were both born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Will Millar was born in 1940, and George in 1947. The children grew up in a musical household as their father Bob played button-key accordion for several bands throughout the years. Their cousin Joe Millar, who also sang, took part in the family kitchen parties playing button-key accordion and harmonica. As children, George and Will performed with their sister, Sandra Beech as “The Millar Kids” in Ireland, before the family emigrated to Canada.
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#7: My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone) by Chilliwack
Peak Month: November 1981
22 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
2 weeks Top 20 Extras
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “My Girl”
Lyrics: “My Girl”
Bill Henderson was born in Vancouver in 1944. He learned guitar and became the guitarist for the Panarama Trio that performed at the Panarama Roof dance club on the 15th Floor of the Hotel Vancouver. He formed the psychedelic pop-rock Vancouver band, The Collectors, in 1966. The Vancouver rock band The Collectors, was formerly named The Classics who were a Vancouver group led by Howie Vickers in the mid-60s who often appeared on CFUN. The Classics were part of the regular line-up on Let’s Go, a show on CBC TV. Though the Classics released several singles the group needed room to grow and reformed as The Collectors. They would become one of the most innovative of Vancouver’s recording acts through the rest 60s. In the spring of 1966, Vickers was asked to put together a house band at the Torch Cabaret in Vancouver. Along with Claire Lawrence on horns, they recruited guitarist Terry Frewer, drummer Ross Turney and Brian Newcombe on bass. Within a couple of months, fellow Classics member Glenn Miller replaced Newcombe on bass and Bill Henderson, a student at UBC, replaced Frewer on guitars. With Vickers now handling vocals, their sound changed from doing covers of R&B tunes to psychedelic rock. This led them to gigs along the Canadian and US west coast. Their strongest fan base in America was in California.
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#10: Too Bad by Doug and the Slugs
Peak Month: March-April-May 1980
Peak Position #2
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Plus 3 weeks Playlist
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Too Bad”
Lyrics: “Too Bad”
Doug Bennett was born in Toronto in 1951. He worked as a graphic designer after his schooling and at the age of 22 moved to Vancouver in 1973. He got a job as a cartoonist and editor for the weekly alternative paper the Georgia Strait. He also played with a number of bands. By 1977 Bennett was in search of some new outlets for his creativity and was introduced to guitarist John Burton. Burton had been in a group called The Ugly Slugs. Bennett and Burton began performing locally and added bassist Dennis Henderson, drummer Ted Laturnus and and Drew Neville on keyboards. They became Doug and The Slugs.
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#11: Fortune Teller/Johnny Take Your Time by Bobby Curtola
A-side: “Fortune Teller”
Peak Month: March 1962
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
YouTube.com: “Fortune Teller”
Lyrics: “Fortune Teller”
B-side: “Johnny Take Your Time”
Peak Month: May 1962
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Johnny Take Your Time”
Bobby Curtola was born in Port Arthur, Ontario, in 1943. (The town would become amalgamated into the city of Thunder Bay in 1970). His cousin Susan Andrusco remembers “Bobby would always be singing at our family gatherings. The family loved him. And he loved being the centre of attention. He would sing Oh My Papa, and my grandpa would cry.” Oh My Papa was a number-one hit for Eddie Fisher in January 1954, when Bobby Curtola was still ten-years-old. In the fall of 1959, sixteen-year-old high school student Bobby Curtola went from pumping gas at his father’s garage in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the life of a teen idol. Within a year he went from playing in his basement band, Bobby and the Bobcats, to recording his first hit single in 1960, “Hand In Hand With You”, which charted in June ’60 in Ontario, but not in Vancouver.
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#13: Not Like Kissing You by the West End Girls
Peak Month: May-June 1991
Peak Position #1
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Not Like Kissing You”
Camille Henderson was born in Vancouver, BC, in 1970. From the age of ten she was a working actor in film, stage and TV. At the age of fifteen she starred in the Canadian film directed by Sandy Wilson titled My American Cousin. She played the role of Shirley, a preteen girl. Her father, Bill Henderson, was a member of the Vancouver Sixties band The Collectors. He continued with most of his bandmates as they morphed into Chilliwack in 1970.
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