#189: No Regrets by Tom Cochrane

Peak Month: February 1992
18 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “No Regrets”
Lyrics: “No Regrets”

Tom Cochrane was born in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, in 1953. When he was eleven he got his first guitar. In his late teens and early twenties, he performed in coffee houses across Canada in the early 70’s. His debut album, Hang On To Your Resistance, was released in 1974. Then Tom Cochrane made his way to Los Angeles. In 1975, Cochrane got work composing theme music for the movie My Pleasure Is My Business. This was a film about Xavier Hollander, the call girl and adult film star who authored her own memoir, The Happy Hooker, in 1971. Unable to get subsequent work in Hollywood, Cochrane returned to Canada for drive a taxi and work on a cruise line. At a concert at the El Mocambo for Red Rider in 1978, Tom Cochrane met the band. Soon after Cochrane was invited to join Red Rider.

Continue reading →

#198: Echo Beach by Martha & the Muffins

Peak Month: June 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Echo Beach”
Lyrics: “Echo Beach”

Martha Johnson was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1950. Johnson worked in Toronto as a medical receptionist. She started her career playing the organ with cover band “Oh Those Pants”. She then was part of Toronto band the Doncasters in the early 1970s. Johnson joined David Millar, Mark and Tim Gane, and Carl Finkle to form the band Martha & the Muffins in 1977. Martha & the Muffins emerged from the early punk/new wave/art pop scene which was centered around various clubs along Toronto’s Queen Street West and the Ontario College of Art, where Millar and Mark Gane were students. Martha Johnson played keyboards, David Millar and Mark Gane played guitar. Gane’s brother, Tim, was the band’s drummer. And Carl Finkle played bass guitar. The band had their debut performance at the Ontario College of Art Hallowe’en party in October 1977. Some of the clubs they played at included the Beverly and the Rivoli. Regarding the name for the band, Mark Gane recalls “We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better.” They had wanted a name that was edgy, but not aggressive like the Sex Pistols.
Continue reading →

#1360: Take The Blindness by Joey Gregorash

Peak Month: December 1972
Peak Position ~ #16
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Take The Blindness”

Joey Gregorash was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His dad played the violin and young Joey took an interest in learning the instrument. In February 1964 Gregorash saw the Beatles perform on the The Ed Sullivan Show and was turned onto rock ‘n roll. He learned how to play the drums and formed a band called The Mongrels in 1965 with childhood friend John Nykon. Later Gregorash went solo and won a 1972 Juno Award in 1972 for Outstanding Performance-Male for his hit single “Down By the River”. For over a decade Gregorash pursued other interests until in 1987 his single, “Together (The New Wedding Song),” became a hit in Canada.

Continue reading →

#214: Sunny Goodge Street by Tom Northcott

Peak Month: August 1967
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #123
YouTube: “Sunny Goodge Street”
Lyrics: “Sunny Goodge Street”

Tom Northcott is a Vancouver folk-rock singer with hits on the local pop charts from the mid-60s into the early 70s. He became known to a Canadian audience by his regular appearances on CBC Television’s Let’s Go music program in 1964-68. He was nominated as best male vocalist for a Juno Award in 1971. Later he co-founded Mushroom Studios in Vancouver and produced records. His hits are played regularly on Canadian oldies music stations.

Continue reading →

#217: Aladdin by Bobby Curtola

Peak Month: October 1962
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube: “Aladdin”
Lyrics: “Aladdin”

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.

Continue reading →

Peak Month: April 1987
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Dirty Water”

Paul Hyde was born in 1955 in Yorkshire, England. He me Bob Rock, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1954, later when Rock was high school in Langford, British Columbia. Hyde introduced Rock to the new musical genre of punk rock, popular in England. They formed a garage band and Bob Rock got a job at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studios as a recording engineer. This enabled The Payola$ to record, in the late 70s, punk rock songs “Money for Hype” and “China Boys” on independent labels. They solds singles at their performances and through local record shops. This led to a contract with A&M Records.

Continue reading →

#225: Arms Of Mary by Chilliwack

Peak Month: August 1978
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Arms Of Mary”
Lyrics: “Arms Of Mary”

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.

Continue reading →

#1335: Two Girls In One by Pursuit Of Happiness

Peak Month: July 1990
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Two Girls In One”
Lyrics: “Two Girls In One”

Murray Kevin “Moe” Berg was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1959. He watched his father play in country bands while he grew up, and spent his time admiring guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck and Johnny Winter. From his late teens, Berg was in the Edmonton bands Troc ’59, The News, Modern Minds and Facecrime. The Pursuit of Happiness were launched in 1985 when he and Troc ’59 drummer Dave Gilby moved to Toronto. They soon met bassist Saskatoon native Johnny Sinclair and formed the band, adding Winnipeg-born sisters Tamara and Natasha Amabile as backing vocalists. Their debut single, “I’m an Adult Now”, quickly became a Top 30 hit across Canada in 1986, sparked by a low-budget video (made by Berg’s director friend Nelu Ghiran) which made it onto the Canadian music video channel MuchMusic. In the spring of 1987, “I’m An Adult Now” peaked at #14 on CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario.

Continue reading →

#234: Two For The Show by Trooper

Peak Month: August 1976
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Two For The Show”
Lyrics: “Two For The Show”

In 1967 Ra McGuire and Brian Smith played in a Vancouver band named Winter’s Green. The band recorded two songs, “Are You a Monkey” and “Jump in the River Blues” on the Rumble Records Label. “Are You A Monkey” later appeared on a rock collection: 1983’s “The History of Vancouver Rock and Roll, Vol. 3.” In the early seventies Winter’s Green changed their name to Applejack and added drummer Tommy Stewart and bassist Harry Kalensky to their lineup. Applejack became a very popular band in the Vancouver area, and began touring extensively in British Columbia. The band played a few original tunes such as “Raise A Little Hell”, and “Oh, Pretty Lady”, as well as Top 40 songs by artists such as Neil Young, and Chicago.

Continue reading →

#1364: I Will by Rock & Hyde

Peak Month: July 1987
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “I Will”

Paul Hyde was born in 1955 in Yorkshire, England. He me Bob Rock, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1954, later when Rock was high school in Langford, British Columbia. Hyde introduced Rock to the new musical genre of punk rock, popular in England. They formed a garage band and Bob Rock got a job at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studios as a recording engineer. This enabled The Payola$ to record, in the late 70s, punk rock songs “Money for Hype” and “China Boys” on independent labels. They solds singles at their performances and through local record shops. This led to a contract with A&M Records.

Continue reading →