#64: Madam Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: March 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #10
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #13
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #16
YouTube: “Madam Butterfly”
Lyrics: “Madam Butterfly”
Malcolm McLaren was born in Greater London in 1946. While still an art student, McLaren had the first public exhibition of his work in 1967, which was based on an environmental installation staged at the Kingly Street Art Gallery in central London. In October 1971, McLaren took over the back part of the retail premises at 439 King’s Road in Chelsea, West London. The store sold rock and roll records, refurbished 1950s radiograms and dead stock clothing as “In The Back Of Paradise Garage”. McLaren converted the entire ground floor into the store and renamed it Let It Rock. The store was patronised by teddy boys and McLaren’s designs (along with his girlfriend) also appeared in such theatrical and cinematic productions such as The Rocky Horror Show and That’ll Be The Day. In spring 1973 the store was renamed Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die and began selling original 1950s-inspired leather clothing. In August 1973, McLaren and co-designer Vivienne Westwood visited New York to participate in the National Boutique Fair, where they began an association with the New York Dolls, supplying them with stage wear and joining their group on tour in the UK and France.
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#13: Goodbye by Mary Hopkin
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Goodbye”
Lyrics: “Goodbye”
Mary Hopkin was born in May 1950 in Pontardawe, Wales. She took weekly singing lessons as a child and began her musical career as a folk singer with a local group called the Selby Set and Mary. She released an EP of Welsh-language songs for a local record label called Cambrian, based in her hometown, before signing to the Beatles’ Apple Records. The model Twiggy saw Hopkin winning the ITV television talent show Opportunity Knocks and recommended her to Paul McCartney. Her debut single, “Those Were the Days”, produced by McCartney, was released in the UK on August 30, 1968. Hopkin had competition from well-established star Sandie Shaw, whose own single version of the song was released that fall. But Shaw’s recording stalled at #51 on the UK chart. Meanwhile, Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days” became a number-one hit in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, USA, and West Germany. Hopkins smash hit also climbed to #2 in Argentina, Australia, Austria, and South Africa.
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#16: Lily The Pink by The Scaffold
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: April 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Lily The Pink”
Lyrics:
The Scaffold was a comedy-music-poetry trio from Liverpool, England. It consisted of Mike McGear (born Peter Michael McCartney in Liverpool in 1944), Roger McGough (born in 1937 in the Liverpool suburb of Litherland, England), and John Gorman (born in 1936 in the Liverpool suburb of Birkenhead, England). In the early 1960s, McGough worked as a French teacher and, with Gorman organised arts events. Gorman founded The Scaffold in 1964 after working as a telecommunications engineer, about the time he met Mike McGear. The members of the Scaffold were originally part of a performing revue group known as The Liverpool One Fat Lady All Electric Show. (“One Fat Lady” is the bingo term for 8 and the performers mostly lived in the Liverpool 8 district.)
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#96: Never Ending Story by Limahl
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: June 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Sweden’s Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austria Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on South Africa Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #2
YouTube: “Never Ending Story”
Lyrics: “Never Ending Story”
Christopher Hamill was born in 1958 in the suburbs of Manchester, England. He was an actor touring with the Palace Theatre Repertory Company. This included a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 1981 Hamill appeared in a minor role in the police-crime TV show The Gentle Touch. As well, Hamill was one of the actors in the “Stand and Deliver” music video with Adam and the Ants. He got a job as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. In 1982 he joined the band Kajagoogoo. Chris Hamill adopted his stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.
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#132: Love Resurrection by Alison Moyet
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: July-August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #11
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #82
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #10
YouTube: “Love Resurrection”
Lyrics: “Love Resurrection”
Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet was born in 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England. After leaving school at 16, she worked as a shop assistant and trained as a piano tuner. She was involved in a number of punk rock, pub rock and blues bands in the South East Essex area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Vandals, the Screamin’ Ab Dabs, the Vicars and the Little Roosters. At the age of 21, Moyet’s mainstream pop career began in 1982 with the formation of the synth-pop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke.
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#154: You Came by Kim Wilde
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
Peak Position on Denmark Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Portugal Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on France Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “You Came”
Lyrics: “You Came”
Kim Wilde was born in 1960 with the birth name Kim Smith. Her father, Reginald Smith, was a pop singer who took the stage name Marty Wilde. Kim Wilde’s first professional singing credit was as a backup singer to her brother Ricky Wilde’s 1972 song “I Am an Astronaut.” In 1981, at the age of 21 Kim Wilde became an international star with her hit single “Kids in America”. It topped the pop charts in Finland and South Africa, reached #2 in Ireland, Sweden and the UK, and the Top Ten in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and West Germany. Later in 1981, “Chequered Love” topped the pop chart in South Africa, reached #2 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany, and was also a Top Ten hit in Australia, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.
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#3: Wonderful To Be Young by Cliff Richard
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: December 1962
Peak Position in London ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Wonderful To Be Young”
Lyrics: “Wonderful To Be Young”
Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line”.
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#26: Don’t Want No Reds by the Monks
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJBK
Peak Month: June 1981
Peak Position in London ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Don’t Want No Reds”
Lyrics: N/A
The Monks is a band that formed in 1979. Richard Hudson was born in the Borough of London (in North London) in 1948. He learned to play guitar and sang. In 1967, he became the drummer for the psychedelic rock/soul/blues band Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera. Another member of the band was John Ford, who was born in the Borough of London (West London) in 1948. Ford learned to play ukulele from the age of 9, and soon added guitar to his repertoire. In 1964, Ford formed a band at age 16 named Jaymes Fenda and the Vulcans. The Vulcans released two singles that Ford wrote. In 1966, Ford joined the Soul/R&B band the Five Proud Walkers, who opened for blues and boogie-woogie pianist Champion Jack Dupree.
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#33: Brontosaurus by the Move
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: September 1970
Peak Position in London ~ #11
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Brontosaurus”
Lyrics: “Brontosaurus”
The Move were a British band that formed in 1965. The band consisted of Bev Bevan on drums (born in 1944 in Birmingham), Roy Wood on vocals, guitar, bass guitar, cello, saxophone, oboe, percussion and keyboards, (born in 1946 in Birmingham), Carl Wayne on lead vocals, sitar and bass guitar (born in Birmingham in 1943), Ace Kefford on bass guitar (born in 1946 in Birmingham), and Trevor Burton on guitar, bass guitar and vocals (born in 1949 in Birmingham). Bev Bevan learned to play drums and in 1956 he joined a rock band named Denny Laine & the Diplomats. In 1965 he moved on to join Carl Wayne & the Vikings, and in 1966 The Move.
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#1: Sixty Years On by Elton John
City: Lethbridge, AB
Radio Station: CHEC
Peak Month: February 1971
Peak Position in Lethbridge ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Sixty Years On”
Lyrics: “Sixty Years On”
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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