#117: I’m Confessin’ by Frank Ifield
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: October 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #33
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #58
YouTube: “I’m Confessin’”
Lyrics: “I’m Confessin’”
Frank Ifield was born in Coventry, England, in 1937. His parents were Australians, and the family moved back to Australia in 1948 aboard the RMS Orion. The family settled 30 miles outside of Sydney. It was a rural district and young Frank listened to hillbilly music while milking the family’s cow. He was given a guitar in 1949 by his grandmother and was self-taught. Ifield also taught himself to yodel, by imitating country stars. At the age of 13, he performed his version of Bill Showmet’s “Did You See My Daddy Over There?” and appeared on local radio station 2GB’s talent quest, Amateur Hour. This track was issued as his first single, in 1953. By November of that year, he appeared regularly on Brisbane radio station 4BK’s Youth Parade, playing guitar and singing.
Continue reading →
#191: Everybody Knows Matilda by Duke Baxter
Peak Month: September 1969
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
2 weeks Hit Bound
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #52
YouTube: “Everybody Knows Matilda”
Lyrics: “Everybody Knows Matilda”
Who was Duke Baxter? According to Rate Your Music, he was born in the UK, and moved to Canada in his early childhood. West Coast Fog writer, Erik Bluhm writes that Duke Baxter was a “Canadian, he was in L.A. by ’66 and working with the Rob Roys on their great “Do You Girl?” 45 for Accent… He’s also the guy behind a group called Revelation.” Bluhm contacted Duke Baxter (born James Blake), who remembers Revelation being a tight, inventive group. “We played some concerts at the Hollywood Palladium with the Seeds and the Grateful Dead; UC Irvine with Canned Heat and the Buffalo Springfield (January 26, 1967 at Campus Hall)… The band got signed with MGM Records and worked with the very successful TV theme producer Mike Post who was a protégé of Jimmy Bowen of the Dean Martin hit fame.”
Continue reading →
#243: More Than A Woman by the Bee Gees
Peak Month: May 1978
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart ~ LP cut
YouTube: “More Than A Woman”
Lyrics: “More Than A Woman”
Barry Alan Crompton Gibb was born in 1946 on the Isle of Man. Maurice Ernest Gibb and Robin Hugh Gibb were twins born on December 22, 1949, also on the Isle of Man. In 1955 Barry, who had learned to play guitar, convinced his younger twin brothers to form a skiffle band as vocalists, that he named The Rattlesnakes. Barry also got his young neighbors, Paul Frost (drums) and Kenny Horrocks (bass) to join. The Rattlesnakes played songs by Tommy Steele, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. In 1958, during a performance the Gibb brothers sang as a trio for the first time, performing the Chordettes Top Ten hit “Lollipop”. But The Rattlesnakes had to disband in the summer of ’58 when Gibbs parents announced that the family was moving to Australia.
Continue reading →
#492: Words by the Bee Gees
Peak Month: March 1968
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube.com: “Words”
Lyrics: “Words”
Barry Alan Crompton Gibb was born in 1946 on the Isle of Man. Maurice Ernest Gibb and Robin Hugh Gibb were twins born on December 22, 1949, also on the Isle of Man. In 1955 Barry, who had learned to play guitar, convinced his younger twin brothers to form a skiffle band as vocalists, that he named The Rattlesnakes. Barry also got his young neighbors, Paul Frost (drums) and Kenny Horrocks (bass) to join. The Rattlesnakes played songs by Tommy Steele, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. In 1958, during a performance the Gibb brothers sang as a trio for the first time, performing the Chordettes Top Ten hit “Lollipop”. But The Rattlesnakes had to disband in the summer of ’58 when Gibbs parents announced that the family was moving to Australia.
Continue reading →
