#94: Here Comes The Night by Nick Gilder
Peak Month: December 1978
18 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Survey
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube.com: “Here Comes The Night”
Lyrics: “Here Comes The Night”
In 1951 Nick Gilder was born in London, England. In his childhood he moved to Canada and grew up in Vancouver. In the summer of 1973, when he was 22 years old, vocalist Gilder and fellow former high school classmate and guitarist, Jim McCulloch, founded a band called Rasputin. John Booth on drums, Bud Marr on bass and Dan Gaudin on keyboards rounded our the band. Shortly afterward they took the name Sweeney Todd. Their name was inspired by the 1846-47 Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance credited to James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. The main antagonist of the story is Sweeney Todd, “the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. Todd is a barber who murders his customers and turns their bodies over to Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into meat pies and sells them at her pie shop. A Sweeney Todd stage play by Stephen Sondheim appeared on Broadway in 1979.
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#96: His Girl by the Guess Who?
Peak Month: August 1967
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “His Girl”
Lyrics: “His Girl”
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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#97: Gonna Find Me A Bluebird by Joyce Hahn
Peak Month: August 1957
24 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #84
YouTube.com: “Gonna Find Me A Bluebird”
Lyrics: “Gonna Find Me A Bluebird”
Joyce Hahn was born in 1929 in Eatonia, Saskatchewan. As a child, Hahn performed from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s with The Harmony Kids, a family troupe formed by her father, Harvey. The Harmony Kids also included her brothers Bob and Lloyd and sister Kay. headed eastward across Canada from frontier Saskatchewan to the bright lights of Broadway during the Great Depression. Their resourceful father Harvey had schooled them all in music and had built a customized trailer to transport the family across the country making pass-the-hat appearances along the way at clubs, barns and radio stations, where a youthful but enterprising Robert Hahn would often offer to write them a station ID for a small fee. The Harmony Kids ended up in New York, where they appeared on the popular radio network show, We the People. As their popularity grew, the war interceded and they headed back to Canada.
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#101: Make My Life A Little Bit Brighter by Chester
Peak Month: November 1973
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Make My Life A Little Bit Brighter”
Lyrics: “Make My Life A Little Bit Brighter”
Chester was a band from Toronto that formed in the early 70’s. They were comprised of Glenn Morrow on keyboard, guitar and vocals; Jim Mancel on lead vocals; Mike Argue on lead guitar and vocals, and Glen “Wedge” Monroe on drums, piano, and guitar. Morrow was born in 1946. An obituary with the City of Toronto states Morrow “started playing in bands around Toronto in his early teen years. Hammond B-3 organ and piano were his favorite instruments to perform on. An extremely talented keyboardist-arranger, he played with the Bluenotes, T.K’s., Tarot” and played organ with Canadian Rock Theatre in 1972. Jim Mancel released a single in 1970 titled “I Could Give You The World”.
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#110: Could You Ever Love Me Again by Gary and Dave
Peak Month: September 1973
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube.com: “Could You Ever Love Me Again”
Lyrics: “Could You Ever Love Me Again”
Gary and Dave was a duo that formed in 1969. Gary Weeks was born in 1950 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. David Lloyd George “Dave” Beckett was born in Newmarket, Ontario, in 1949. Weeks and Beckett had been friends since grade school in the early 1960s. They played in numerous bands until 1966, when the pair competed in a United Appeal concert and came in fourth out of five hundred acts. In 1969, they got a contract with Quality Records and released “Tender Woman”. It got little airplay. Still, they began to play the festival circuit, and became a top attraction at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan.
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#115: As The Years Go By by Mashmakhan
Peak Month: August 1970
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube.com: “As The Years Go By”
Lyrics: “As The Years Go By”
Mashmakhan was formed in 1969 in the southwestern Quebec town of L’Île-Perrot, by the Ottawa River near the St. Lawrence. In 1960, Pierre Sénécal, Brian Edwards (born 1943 in Saskatoon, SK), Jim Nuchter and Rayburn Blake first met in Montreal. Drummer Jim Nuchter failed to turn up for a booked performance. Drummer Jerry Mercer (born Newfoundland in 1939) was invited to replace Nuchter. Bass guitarist and vocalist Edwards quit shortly after. But the other three teenagers, Sénécal, Blake and Mercer continued to perform at local Montreal dance halls under names like the Phantoms, Ray Blake’s Combo, and the Dominoes. Sénécal played flute, organ and piano. Rayburn Blake was the lead guitarist.
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#121: Kid Is Hot Tonight by Loverboy
Peak Month: November 1980
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube.com: “Kid Is Hot Tonite”
Lyrics: “Kid Is Hot Tonite”
Loverboy is a band formed in 1979. It has been stated by Mike Reno that their name was chosen due to a dream by Paul Dean. He had come up with the name after spending the previous night with some of the bandmates, including Reno and their girlfriends, before going to the movies. The girlfriends were browsing through fashion magazines, where the guys in the band saw a Cover Girl advertisement. Cover Girl became Cover Boy, and then became Loverboy in Dean’s dream later that night. After being told by Dean about the dream the next morning, Reno agreed to try it out and it stuck. The group made its live debut opening for Kiss at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on November 19, 1979.
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#126: Star Baby by the Guess Who
Peak Month: September 1974
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube.com: “Star Baby”
Lyrics: “Star Baby”
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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#133: Doin’ It Right by the Powder Blues
Peak Month: March 1980
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
2 weeks Playlist
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Doin’ It Right”
Lyrics: “Doin’ It Right”
In 1978 Prism band member, Tom Lavin, left the group to form Powder Blues. Lavin had also recorded and been a member of Denise McCann’s backing band. Powder Blues was made up of Tom Lavin on guitar and vocals, Jack Lavin on bass, Mark Hasselbach on trumpet, Duris Maxwell on drums, Wayne Kozak, Gordon Bertram and David Woodward all on saxophone, Bill Hicks on drums and Will MacCalder on keyboards and vocals. Jack Lavin had been a member of Teen Angel. Willie MacCalder was formerly a member of Willie and The Walkers. Duris Maxwell was a former member of Skylark and Doucette. Gordie Bertram had been a member of Foreman Byrnes. Mark Hasselbach had been with Airbrush, a jazz band. David Woodward, born in Arlington, Virginia, had been a member of Toronto’s Downchild Blues Band since 1971.
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#144: Unless You Care/Can’t We Go Somewhere by Terry Black
A-side: “Unless You Care”
Peak Month: September 1964
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #99
YouTube: “Unless You Care”
Lyrics: “Unless You Care”
B-side: “Can’t We Go Somewhere”
Peak Month: September 1964
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Can’t We Go Somewhere”
Terrance Black was born in Vancouver in 1949. Local DJ, Red Robinson, has said about Terry Black: “Back in the British Invasion days, a young Vancouver singer took the city by storm. He was discovered by Buddy Clyde on Dance Party, a teen show on CHAN TV (now Global). Buddy was able to get the attention of the owner of Dunhill records, the same label that the Mamas and Papas recorded for as well as P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and others of the day.” Terry Black’s first single, “Sinner Man,” was a minor hit in Canada in 1964. His vocal style mimicked the sound of many male vocalists who were part of the British Invasion.
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