#2: Nineteen Days by the Dave Clark Five
City: Saguenay, PQ
Radio Station: CKRS
Peak Month: November 1966
Peak Position in Saguenay ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Nineteen Days”
Lyrics: “Nineteen Days”
The Dave Clark Five were formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London, England. Dave Clark played drums and contributed background vocals, alongside a frequently changing line-up. Clark and guitarist Rick Huxley both participated in the 1958 line-up. Clark and his bandmates eventually split with the lead vocalist, Stan Saxon, and reconstituted themselves as a standalone concern in January 1962, making their home in the South Grove Youth Club in Tottenham. After a little more evolution, a lasting ensemble was settled, with Clark on drums, Huxley moving to bass, Lenny Davidson on lead guitar, Denis Payton on saxophone (and harmonica and rhythm guitar), and Mike Smith on keyboards and lead vocals. Davidson’s previous bands were the Off Beats and the Impalas.
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#21: Do You Love Me by the Dave Clark Five
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: June 1964
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Do You Love Me”
Lyrics: “Do You Love Me”
The Dave Clark Five were formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London, England. Dave Clark played drums and contributed background vocals, alongside a frequently changing line-up. Clark and guitarist Rick Huxley both participated in the 1958 line-up. Clark and his bandmates eventually split with the lead vocalist, Stan Saxon, and reconstituted themselves as a standalone concern in January 1962, making their home in the South Grove Youth Club in Tottenham. After a little more evolution, a lasting ensemble was settled, with Clark on drums, Huxley moving to bass, Lenny Davidson on lead guitar, Denis Payton on saxophone (and harmonica and rhythm guitar), and Mike Smith on keyboards and lead vocals. Davidson’s previous bands were the Off Beats and the Impalas.
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#3: Industrial Disease by Dire Straits
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: December 1982
Peak Position in Regina ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #75
YouTube: “Industrial Disease”
Lyrics: “Industrial Disease”
Dire Straits is a band that formed in 1977 comprised of Mark and David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers. Mark Freuder Knopfler was born in 1949 in Glasgow, Scotland. His Jewish-Hungarian father fled Hungary in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II. He learned to play guitar when he was a child and appeared on a local TV station in 1965 as part of a duo. Mark was influenced by Django Reinhardt, Hank Marvin of The Shadows, B.B. King, Chet Atkins and others. He studied journalism and kept his hand in music playing in the Duolian String Pickers and the Café Racers. Younger brother, David, was born in 1952. He was playing guitar, drum and piano by age eleven. At the age of 14 David Knopfler was playing in folk clubs. He went into social work and was living in London in the mid-70’s and sharing a flat with a promising guitarist named John Illsley. John Edward Illsley was born in Leister, England, in 1949. By the 1970’s Illsley was involved with a timber firm, studying sociology and opening a record shop. David Knopfler was impressed with Illsley’s talent and introduced him to Mark. Mark, David and John began jamming together, and Mark invited Illsley to join his band the Café Racers.
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#119: Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: October 1961
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #11
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Johnny Remember Me”
Lyrics: “Johnny Remember Me”
John Leyton was born in 1936 in the seaside town of Frinton-on-Sea in Essex, England. He served in the Royal Army Service Corps. He studied drama, paying his way through drama school with bit-part roles in films and on television. In 1958 these included bit parts in The Square Peg, Doctor at Sea, and The Devil’s Disciple. In 1959, he appeared as a prisoner in an uncredited role in the British war film Danger Within. Next, he has a minor part as a recruit in the 1959 British comedy film I’m All Right Jack. He also had small roles in The Captain’s Table (where he plays a bystander watching a beauty contest), and film about P.O.W.s in Italy who plan to escape from prison, titled Breakout. Leyton also appeared for one episode of the British TV series The Invisible Man. His first major acting role was his portrayal of Ginger in a 1960 Granada TV adaptation of Biggles. This earned him a large following of young female fans and led to the formation of a John Leyton fan club. Following the success of Biggles, Leyton was persuaded by his manager to audition as a singer for record producer Joe Meek.
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#97: Border Song by Elton John
City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CHED
Peak Month: September 1970
Peak Position in Edmonton ~ #14
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube: “Border Song”
Lyrics: “Border Song”
Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in 1947. When he was three years old he astounded his family when he was able to play The Skater’s Waltz by Émile Waldteufel by ear at the piano. When he was eleven years old he won a scholarship as a Junior Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Music. Between the ages of 11 and 15 he attended the Academy on Saturday mornings. In 1962, by the age of 15, he was performing with his group, The Corvettes, at the Northwood Hills Hotel (now the Northwood Hills Public House) in a northern borough of London. While he was playing with a band called Bluesology in the mid-60s he adopted the stage name Elton John. His stage name, which became his legal name in 1967, was taken from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean, and their lead singer, Long John Baldry.
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#60: Russians by Sting
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: March 1986
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #8
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #11
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #11
Peak Position in UK Singles chart ~ #12
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #13
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Russians”
Lyrics: “Russians”
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born in Wallsend on Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, England, in 1951. His mother was a hairdresser and his father was a milkman and engineer. When he was ten-years-old, young Sumner got introduced to Spanish guitar, when a family friend left it at the Sumner residence. After high school he was variously a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer. He went to college and from 1974-76 was a public school teacher. Sumner performed jazz in the evening, weekends and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. He gained his nickname, “Sting,” due to his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought Sumner looked like a bee which prompted the name “Sting.” According to Sting, in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, “they thought I looked like a wasp, and they’d joke. They called me Sting. They thought it was hilarious…That became my name.”
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#23: Pretty Flamingo by Manfred Mann
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: August 1966
Peak Position in Regina ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Rhodesian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Pretty Flamingo”
Lyrics: “Pretty Flamingo”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. (Mike Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1940, and had studied jazz growing up). They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. They added Paul Jones and Tom McGuiness to the band, the latter who was with Eric Clapton’s band The Roosters.
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#26: Tenderness by General Public
City: Regina, SK
Radio Station: CJME
Peak Month: January-February 1985
Peak Position in Regina ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “Tenderness”
Lyrics: “Tenderness”
General Public was a new wave band formed in 1983 in Birmingham, UK. It was co-founded by Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger. Wakeling was born in Birmingham in 1956. He learned how to play guitar and formed a second-wave ska band in Birmingham in 1978 called The Beat. They successfully covered Smokey Robinson & The Miracles 1970 hit “Tears of A Clown” which reached #6 on the UK singles chart in 1979. In 1980, “Hands Off…She’s Mine” topped the pop chart in Ireland. This was followed by “Mirror In the Bathroom” which was a Top Ten hit in both Ireland and the UK. In 1983, The Beat covered Andy Williams 1963 hit “Can’t Get Used To Losing You”. It became a Top Ten hit in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
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#8: I Don’t Need No Doctor by Humble Pie
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
YouTube: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
Lyrics: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
Humble Pie was a band formed in Moreton, Essex, England, in 1969. The co-founders of the band were Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott. Frampton was born in 1950 in Beckenham, Kent. By the age of 12, Frampton played in a band called the Little Ravens. Both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at BromleyTechnical School, where Frampton’s father was Bowie’s art teacher. The Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie’s band, George and the Dragons. Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs. At the age of 14, Peter was playing with a band called the Trubeats followed by a band called the Preachers, who later became Moon’s Train, produced and managed by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. Frampton became a successful child singer, and in 1966 he became a member of the Herd. He was the lead guitarist and singer, scoring several British pop hits. Frampton was named “The Face of 1968” by teen magazine Rave.
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#32: Gimme Some Lovin’ by Traffic
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68
YouTube: “Gimme Some Lovin’”
Lyrics: “Gimme Some Lovin’”
Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born in 1948 in suburban Birmingham, UK. Winwood began playing piano from the age of four, being raised in a musical family. He joined a boys choir and added drums and guitar to his repertoire. At age 14 he joined The Spencer Davis Group in 1963, with his older brother Muff. Both Stevie and Muff were playing at the Golden Eagle club as the Muff Woody Jazz Band, when Spencer Davis heard them and immediately approached them about forming a new band, the Spencer Davis Group.
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