#426: Close Your Eyes by Edward Bear
Peak Month: May 1973
10 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #37
YouTube: “Close Your Eyes”
Lyrics: “Close Your Eyes”
In the mid-60’s Larry Evoy and Paul Weldon were jamming in basements and experimenting with blues rock tunes. In 1966 bass player Craig Hemmings and drummer Dave Brown formed a band with Evoy and Weldon. They got guitarist Danny Marks to join them after he answered an ad. After a year they settled on the name The Edward Bear Revue. They got the name from A.A. Milne’s children’s book, Winnie The Pooh, whose central character has the proper name of Edward Bear. In time the band shortened their name to Edward Bear. The band originally was a blues and rock band and opened in 1968 for a Toronto concert with Led Zeppelin as the headliner.
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#427: Mr. Monday by the Original Caste
Peak Month: May 1970
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position ~ #3 CKVN
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #119
YouTube: “Mr. Monday”
Lyrics: “Mr. Monday”
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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#429: Devil You by the Stampeders
Peak Month: December 1971
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #61
YouTube: “Devil You”
Lyrics: “Devil You”
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. But after a temporary move to Toronto in 1966 the band was down to three members, Dodson, King and Berly by 1968. Between 1967 and 1976 The Stampeders charted 15 singles into the Canadian RPM Top 40.
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#1239: Boys Of Autumn by David Roberts
Peak Month: September 1982
8 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Boys Of Autumn”
Lyrics: “Boys Of Autumn”
David Roberts was born in Boston in 1958. His family moved to Toronto when he was young and he grew up in Canada. When he was 19 years old, in 1977, he was signed to WEA Records in Canada. In 1981 he provided backing vocals for an album by Lisa Dal Bello. In 1982 he released his debut album All Dressed Up. Roberts wrote all ten tracks for the album. On his Facebook page Roberts states that the album was recorded in Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. And that his session musicians included Jeff Pocaro, Steve Lukather and Mike Pocaro from Toto, recent winner of a 1980 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song – “After The Love Has Gone” by Earth, Wind & Fire: David Foster (writer and arranger), multi-instrumentalist and Grammy Award nominee in 1982 for Album of the Year (Breakin’ Away): Jay Graydon, Michael Boddicker – a studio musician whose electronic keyboards were featured on “Rock With You” and “Off The Wall” for Michael Jackson, percussionist Paulinho Da Costa who had recently been in the studio with George Benson on “Give Me The Night” and the Brothers Johnson hit “Stomp”, and Bill Champlin from the rock band Chicago.
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#432: Tokyo Rose by Idle Eyes
Peak Month: May 1985
14 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tokyo Rose”
Lyrics: “Tokyo Rose”
Tad Campbell was born in Vancouver (BC). After high school he found himself in Australia moonlighting for a band called the Daydream Islanders between shifts while working for a luxury liner that cruised around parts of the continent. In 1980 he replied to an ad looking for a guitarist, and ended up with the band playing for months at a resort in the Whitsunday Islands. A chambermaid at a hotel Campbell knew, Donna McConville, became the bands’ lead singer. Though they had other Australian musicians in the line-up, when Campbell and McConville decided to move to Vancouver, the other bandmates chose not to follow. Back in Vancouver the pair got a new lineup and called themselves Idle Eyes. But the lineup kept changing. Tad Campbell recalls that “their first tour was cancelled when the drummer backed out the day they were supposed to leave.” Part of the problem was that Idle Eyes was made up almost entirely of bandmates from New Zealand and Australia who had visa issues. Eventually, Donna McConville returned to Australia and became a backing singer for John Farnham.
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#433: In Your Soul by Corey Hart
Peak Month: July 1988
13 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “In Your Soul”
Lyrics: “In Your Soul”
Corey Hart was born in 1962 in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for his international Top Ten hits “Sunglasses at Night” (#7 Billboard Hot 100) and “Never Surrender” (#3 Billboard Hot 100). Hart is known as one of Canada’s most successful singer-songwriters. He’s sold over 16 million records worldwide. On the Billboard Hot 100 Hart scored 9 consecutive Top 40 Hits. Back in Canada he succeeded in charting 30 top 40 singles (including 11 Top 10 singles during his career). Hart is a Grammy Nominated, ASCAP & multiple Juno and ADISQ award winner. He has also written and produced several songs for fellow Quebec recording star Celine Dion.
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#436: Taos New Mexico by R. Dean Taylor
Peak Month: May 1972
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #83
YouTube: “Taos New Mexico”
Lyrics: “Taos New Mexico”
Richard Dean Taylor was born in Toronto in 1939. At the age of 12 in 1951, he made his debut singing performance at open-air Country & Western shows in Greater Toronto. In 1960 he recorded his first single release titled “At The High School Dance”, and also formed a band. Taylor toured around south-central Ontario and into Upstate New York and Michigan. In 1962 he went to New York City, recorded and released “I’ll Remember”. It was a Top 30 hit on CHUM-AM in Toronto. In 1963 R. Dean Taylor auditioned to be a writer for a new record label called Motown. He was hired to work at Motown and released a Beatlemania-themed song titled “My Ladybug (Stay Away From That Beatle)”. However, the label chose not to release the single.
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#439: Fine State Of Affairs by Burton Cummings
Peak Month: July 1980
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Lyrics: “Fine State Of Affairs”
Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, based rock ‘n roll band The Guess Who. He was with the band from 1965 to 1975. Cummings sang, wrote or co-wrote many hit songs. These include “American Woman”, “Clap For The Wolfman”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Laughing”, “No Time”, “Share The Land”, “Star Baby” and “These Eyes”. His solo career includes many hit singles, including “My Own Way To Rock” and “Fine State Of Affairs”. His first solo hit single was “Stand Tall”, in 1976, which was his biggest hit as a solo recording artist.
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#1017: Wheels Of Life by Gino Vannelli
Peak Month: May 1979
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #78
YouTube: “Wheels Of Life”
Lyrics: “Wheels Of Life”
Gino Vannelli was born in Montreal in 1952. During his childhood he was exposed to jazz music and cabaret. His father was a cabaret singer and his mother had a good ear for music. Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Ed Thigpen were among the drummers that inspired young Gino. At the age of eleven, Gino was one of a group of elementary school-age drummers trying to audition for a Montreal band named The Cobras. He arrived home from school later than usual to announce he had been picked to be the new drummer for the band after impressing them with his rendition of “Wipeout”. In 1964, five years prior to the Jackson 5’s debut hit “I Want You Back” on Motown, Gino Vannelli happened to join a band in Montreal called the Jacksonville Five. And that Montreal band happened to tailor itself to Motown-sound-alike tunes when The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Mary Wells were all topping the charts. By 1966, Gino Vannelli became the lead singer of the Jacksonville Five when he replaced the current lead singer who couldn’t hit the high notes on Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”. He was fourteen.
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#456: Letting Go by Straight Lines
Peak Month: January 1982
12 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Letting Go”
Lyrics: “Letting Go”
David Walter Sinclair grew up in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood. From the age of twelve he became a guitar player in a series of high school bands. While still in high school in 1965 he was part of a band called Little Judas and the Sinners. Sinclair recalls that the school principal refused to allow the band to continue with that name as it was considered sacrilegious. So, they shortened their name to the Sinners. The Sinners were winners in a “Battle of the Bands” contest in Vancouver that year. In 1966, Sinclair was part of a band called the Blue Knights, who also went on to win a “Battle of the Bands” contest. The Blue Knights performed at venues like Afterthought on 4th Avenue. Years later, Sinclair’s wife Christine said “He started playing in clubs when he was really, really young, like when he shouldn’t have been there — the old strip clubs and stuff in the Downtown Eastside.” In addition, Sinclair was a backing vocalist on both the CBC variety shows Let’s Go and Where It’s At. In 1968-69 he toured as an opening act for the Poppy Family. From 1970 to 1976 David Sinclair was a member of the Vancouver rock/jazz/r&b band Sunshyne. In 1973 he released his first solo album, Take My Hand. Later in 1976, when Sunshyne morphed into Prism, David Sinclair played as a session musician on their first three albums. But he didn’t join Prism.
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