#218: Arc Of A Diver by Steve Winwood
Peak Month: July 1981
Peak Position #2
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Arc Of A Diver”
Lyrics: “Arc of a Diver”
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. In 1965 the band had a number-one hit in the UK with “Keep On Running“. The single climbed into the Top Ten in Vancouver (BC) in 1966. A follow up single, “Somebody Help Me”, also topped the UK Singles chart in 1966, and was covered by Vancouver band the Shockers in 1967. Spencer Davis Group had two more notable hits in both the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, finally making the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten with “Gimme Some Lovin'” (#7) and “I’m A Man” (#10) in 1967. “Gimme Some Lovin'” climbed to #1 in Vancouver, while “I’m A Man” peaked at #12. In each case, Stevie Winwood was the lead vocalist.
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#219: Goodbye Stranger by Supertramp
Peak Month: September 1979
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN’s chart
Peak Position #2 ~ CKLG
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Goodbye Stranger”
Lyrics: “Goodbye Stranger”
Richard “Rick” Davies was born in 1944 in Swindon, England. By the age of eight, it was clear his only real interest in school was music. At the age of 12 he became a snare drummer with the British Railways Staff Association Brass and Silver Jubilee Band. Davies recalls, “As a kid, I used to hear the drums marching along the street in England, in my home town, when there was some kind of parade, and it was the most fantastic sound to me. Then, eventually, I got some drums and I took lessons. I was serious about it… I figured if I could do that – I mean a real drummer, read music and play with big bands, rock bands, classical, Latin, and know what I was going to do – I would be in demand and my life was set… Eventually, I started fiddling with the keyboards, and that seemed to go over better than my drumming, for some reason. So you’ve gotta go with what people react to.”
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#223: Don’t Talk To Him by Cliff Richard
Peak Month: February 1964
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Don’t Talk To Him”
Lyrics: “Don’t Talk To Him”
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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#224: Cocaine/Tulsa Time by Eric Clapton
A-side: “Cocaine”
Peak Month: August 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Cocaine”
Lyrics: “Cocaine”
B-side: “Tulsa Time”
Peak Month: August 1980
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tulsa Time”
Lyrics: “Tulsa Time”
Eric Patrick Clapton was born in 1945 in a village in Surrey, England. When he was thirteen he was given a steel-stringed guitar for his birthday. By the age of sixteen, Clapton was busking in Surrey. By the age of 17, in 1962 Clapton joined an R&B band called the Roosters. Another guitarist, Tom McGuinness, later joined Manfred Mann. Clapton left in the summer of 1963 to join Casey Jones and the Engineers. Soon after he switched bands to join the Yardbirds. He contributed lead vocals on “Good Morning School Girl” and other blues-based tracks. The album, Five Live Yardbirds, included covers of “Smokestack Lightening” by Howlin’ Wolf, “Five Long Years” by Eddie Boyd, “Too Much Monkey Business” by Chuck Berry, and “I’m A Man” by Bo Diddley. Committed to a solid blues sound, Clapton was troubled by a growing commercial sound the band was showcasing. “For Your Love” hit the top of the charts in the UK and Canada and reached number six in the United States. This displeased Clapton, a blues purist whose vision extended beyond three-minute singles. Frustrated by the commercial approach, he abruptly left the band on March 25, 1965, the day “For Your Love” was released.
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#227: Cry by Godley and Crème
Peak Month: June 1985
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Cry”
Lyrics: “Cry”
Godley & Creme were a rock duo comprised of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. Kevin Michael Godley was born in 1945 in a suburb of Manchester, England. Raised in a Jewish family, he formed a group named Group 17, along with four other members of the Jewish Lads Brigade. Godley studied Art and Design at Stoke On Trent College of Art from 1966-68. In the late ’60s, Kevin Godley met Lol Creme at a wedding. Laurence Neil “Lol” Creme was born in 1947 in the same suburb of Prestwich as Kevin Godley. Creme was also raised in a Jewish family. The pair co-founded a band in 1970 named Hotlegs, who had a #2 hit in the UK titled “Neanderthal Man”. The band split in 1970 and morphed into 10cc.
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#229: Sleeping Satellite by Tasmin Archer
Peak Month: June 1993
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
1 week Playlist
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube: “Sleeping Satellite”
Lyrics: “Sleeping Satellite”
Tasmin Archer was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1963. After she graduated from school, she worked as a sewing machine operator. Subsequently, she learned to type and became a clerk at Leeds Magistrates’ Court. Into the 80s she joined a band called Dignity. Later, she was part of a group called The Archers. In 1990 she signed a record contract with EMI.
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#242: Little Arrows by Leapy Lee
Peak Month: November 1968
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
2 weeks Hit Bound
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Little Arrows”
Lyrics: “Little Arrows”
Graham Pulleyblank was born in Eastborne, East Sussex, England, in 1939. He began to sing in his teens and in the early 1960s took the stage name Leapy Lee. This was due to his first being nicknamed Leapy at school as “I was always a leaper.”At the age of 22 he released a single titled “It’s All Happening”. However, the song was a commercial failure. Four years later he released a cover of the Elvis Presley tune “King Of The Whole Wide World.”
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#245: Woodstock by Matthews’ Southern Comfort
Peak Month: March 1971
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Woodstock”
Lyrics: “Woodstock”
Ian Matthews MacDonald was born in 1946 in Barton-upon-Humber, England. He quit school at age 16 and worked as an apprentice sign-writer for a local painting and decorating firm. Excited by the pop music explosion in Britain in the early 60s, he was part of several bands in Lincolnshire. MacDonald moved to London in 1965, and got work at Ravel’s shoe shop on Carnaby Street. In 1966, he formed a surf-rock trio named The Pyramid. He changed his name to Ian Matthews (his mother’s maiden name) to avoid confusion with Ian MacDonald of King Crimson. In late 1967, Matthews was invited to join the folk-rock band Fairport Convention before they recorded their debut self-titled album, Fairport Convention. A second album, What We Did on Our Holidays, was released in January 1969. But early during the recording of a third album, Unhalfbricking, a rupture was caused when Matthews had not been invited to attend a recording session. Subsequently, he left Fairport Convention, contributing vocals to only “Percy’s Song”. Pursuing his own career, Ian Matthews formed Matthews Southern Comfort.
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#246: Break It Down Again by Tears For Fears
Peak Month: July 1993
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Break It Down Again”
Lyrics: “Break It Down Again”
Raoul Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1961. His parents legally changed his first name to Roland Orzabal within a few weeks of his birth. His father had a nervous breakdown early in Roland’s childhood. Later, his father ran an entertainment business, with his mother a dancer in the troupe. Orzabal met Curt Smith when they were in their teens, and both living in Smith’s birthplace of Bath, England. Smith learned to play guitar in his teens. In 1979 Orzabal and Smith became part of a new wave band called Neon. They released a couple of records and were session musicians for recordings by new wave band Naked Eyes. Smith and Orzabal were also part of a new wave band called Graduate who had a Top Ten hit in Spain in 1980 titled “Elvis Should Play Ska”. A grueling tour of Germany temporarily caused the duo to question the viability of a life as pop stars.
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#250: I Am The Walrus by the Beatles
Peak Month: December 1967
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
1 week Preview
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #56
YouTube: “I Am The Walrus”
Lyrics: “I Am TheWalrus”
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool in 1942. He attended the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and met fellow classmates George Harrison on a school bus. When Paul was 14 his mom died from a blockage in one of her blood vessels. In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. Other original members of the Quarrymen, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Pete Shotton left the band when their set changed from skiffle to rock ‘n roll. John Duff Lowe, a friend of Paul’s from the Liverpool Institute, who had joined the Quarrymen in early 1958 left the band at the end of school. This left Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as remaining trio. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident.
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