#6: We’re Doing Fine by Billy J. Krammer and the Dakotas
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “We’re Doing Fine”
Lyrics: N/A
William “Billy” Howard Ashton was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England, in 1943. He sang in a children’s choir and learned to play guitar. Out of high school he apprenticed as an engineer with British Railways, while playing rhythm guitar on the side. He formed a band and only ended up lead vocalist when his guitar was stolen after a gig. Billy was the highest-ranking non-professional artist in a popularity contest sponsored by the local music newspaper Merseybeat. His manager got him connected to Brian Epstein, the manager of The Beatles. Epstein took over Billy’s management, and got his a contract with George Martin, who was producing The Beatles’ recordings.
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#2: La La La by Gerry and the Pacemakers
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #90
YouTube: “La La La”
Lyrics: “La La La”
In September 1942, Gerry Marsden was born in Liverpool, UK. His interest in music began at an early age. During World War II Marsden recalls standing on top of an air raid shelter singing “Ragtime Cowboy Joe”. Passers by applauded. Gerry and Fred Marsden’s father was a railway clerk who entertained the neighbours by playing the ukulele. With the vogue for skiffle music in the mid-’50s, he took the skin off one of his instruments, put it over a tin of Quality Street and said to Freddie, “There’s your first snare drum, son.” Gerry sang in a church choir by the age of twelve. In 1957 the brothers appeared in the show Dublin To Dingle at the Pavilion Theatre in Lodge Lane. Studies meant little to either of them. Freddie left school and worked for a candle-maker earning £4 a week, and Gerry’s job was as a delivery boy for the railways. Their parents did not mind and encouraged their musical ambitions. Marsden formed the group in the late ’50s, calling themselves, The Mars-Bars, a nod to the Mars Bar candy bar and the first syllable of Marsden’s surname. The band consisted of Marsden as frontman and guitarist, Fred Marsden on drums, Les Chadwick on bass, and Arthur Mack on piano. The latter left in ’61 to be replaced by Les McGuire (who also played saxophone).
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#14: Don’t Push Me by Hedgehoppers Anonymous
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #4
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #123
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #28
YouTube: “Don’t Push Me”
Lyrics: “Don’t Push Me”
Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a British band founded in 1963. The members were Mick Tinsley (born 1940 in Portsmouth, England), John Stewart (born in Kincardineshire, Scotland, in 1941), Ray Honeybull (born in 1941 in County Durham, England), and Leslie Dash. The rhythm guitarist with the group was Tony Cockayne. Tinsley was with the Electrons before forming the band in 1963. In 1963 they took the name The Trendsetters and settled on Hedgehoppers in 1964. The bandmates were Royal Air Force personnel at the RAF base in Wittering, England. “Hedgehoppers” was RAF slang for low flying aircraft. Jonathan King took over management of the band in 1965 and added “Anonymous” to their name.
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#1: Go Now by the Moody Blues
City: Chatham, ON
Radio Station: CFCO
Peak Month: April 1965
Peak Position in Chatham ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
YouTube.com: “Go Now”
Lyrics: “Go Now”
Born in 1941 in wartime England, Ray Thomas picked up harmonica at the age of nine. He was in the Birmingham Youth Choir and in October 1958 he joined a skiffle group called The Saints and Sinners. The band split up in June 1959. The Saints and Sinners helped Ray discover how well his vocals were received by audiences. Next, he formed El Riot and the Rebels, featuring Ray Thomas as El Riot dressed in a green satin Mexican toreador outfit. The band won a number of competitions in the Birmingham area. It was here that Ray became known for making an entrance onstage by sliding to center stage on his knees. On one occasion Thomas sent a row of potted tulips flying into the audience. El Riot and the Rebels appeared several times on a local variety show called Lunchbox. They made their debut on Lunchbox on November 14, 1962, and played “Guitar Tango” and “I Remember You”. Mike Pinder joined El Riot and the Rebels on keyboards. On April 15, 1963, El Riot and the Rebels performed at The Riverside Dancing Club in Tenbury Wells as the opening act for The Beatles. Pinder went off to serve in the British Army. When he returned, Thomas and Pinder left El Riot and the Rebels and formed a new band called the Krew Kats.Continue reading →
#8: When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around by the Police
City: Sherbrooke, PQ
Radio Station: CKTS
Peak Month: May 1981
Peak Position in Sherbrooke ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube: “When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
Lyrics: “When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
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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#1: Substitute by The Who
City: Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, PQ
Radio Station: CHRS
Peak Month: August 1970
Peak Position in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #2 (1966)
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #5 (1966)
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #13 (1966)
YouTube: “Substitute”
Lyrics: “Substitute”
The Who are an English band who emerged in 1964 with singer Roger Daltry, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. The band enjoyed popular singles, such as “I Can See For Miles”, “Pinball Wizard” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. In Vancouver the band had eleven Top Ten hits, while in the UK they charted fourteen singles into the Top Ten. But in America, between 1965 and 1982, the Who only charted one single – “I Can See For Miles” – into the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100. The band were innovators of new genres in rock n’ roll with their rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia. The Who early on were known for outlandish antics on stage. At the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone, England, in June, 1964, Peter Townshend destroyed his guitar on stage and smashed it into other instruments. The Who stand alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as among the most influential rock bands from Britain. They had their first Top Ten single in the UK and in Vancouver in 1965 titled “I Can’t Explain”, which peaked at #8 in the UK and #2 in Vancouver.
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#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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