#12: Modern Love by David Bowie
Peak Month: November 1983
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
2 weeks Playlist Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube.com: “Modern Love”
Lyrics: “Modern Love”
David Robert Jones was born in 1947 in Brixton, a suburb in the southern part of London, UK. From an early age he demonstrated talent as a singer and especially through dance and movement. When he was nine years old his father brought home some 45’s by Elvis Presley, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Fats Domino and others. When David Jones heard Little Richard sing “Tutti Frutti” he later said in an interview that he “heard God.” Growing up, David learned to play the recorder, ukulele, piano and baritone saxophone. In 1962, at the age of 15 he formed a band named the Konrads. In 1964 he formed a band named David Jones and the King Bees. They appeared on the variety show Ready Steady Go! to sing their debut single, “Liza Jane”. Jones briefly moved on to join the Mannish Boys before being the front man for Davy Jones and The Lower Third. They released a single in 1965 titled “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving”. Due to the growing popularity of another English recording artist named Davy Jones (who went on to become lead singer for The Monkees), David Robert Jones decided to change his professional name to David Bowie. He chose his surname after a 19th Century American pioneer named James Bowie who invented the Bowie knife.
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#24: Lucky Lips by Cliff Richard
Peak Month: August 1963
Peak Position #1
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #62
YouTube.com: “Lucky Lips”
Lyrics: “Lucky Lips”
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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#27: Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles
Peak Month: January 1980
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube.com: “Video Killed The Radio Star”
Lyrics: “Video Killed The Radio Star”
Trevor Charles Horn was born in the outskirts of the city of Sunderland, in the town of Hetton-le-Hole, in the county of Tyne and Wear in northeast England. At age eight he learned to play the double bass. Subsequently, he learned to play guitar and sight-read and play the recorder. At times he played in his fathers’ band the Joe Clarke Big Band. At the age of 14 Trevor was in a band called the Outer Limits, named after the 1963 sci-fi television show The Outer Limits. After public school, he got work in a rubber factory, and later as a progress chaser in a plastic bag factory. In the latter job he was fired after three months. He soon got work in a band that played at a Top Rank Ballroom. He also performed songs he’d composed on guitar on BBC Radio Leicester. When he was twenty-one, Trevor Horn moved to London and playing in a band hired to re-record top 20 songs for BBC radio to fit the needle time restrictions at the time. Next, Horn got work for a year with Ray McVay’s big band. This included performances at the world ballroom dancing championship and the television show Come Dancing. As well, he was hired as a session musician for rock groups and to record advertising jingles.
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#31: Pinball Wizard by Elton John
Peak Month: May 1975
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Pinball Wizard”
Lyrics: “Pinball Wizard”
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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#34: Dreamer by Supertramp
Peak Month: November 1980
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube.com: “Dreamer”
Lyrics: “Dreamer”
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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#36: Forever Live And Die by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Peak Month: December 1986
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube.com: “Forever Live And Die”
Lyrics: “Forever Live And Die”
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) is a band that formed in 1978 in the Liverpool suburb of Wirral, UK. The bands’ co-founder, George Andrew “Andy” McCluskey, was born in 1959 in the town of Heswall on The Wirral peninsula. In primary school McCluskey met Paul Humphreys. The two teamed up in their teens to play in the bands Hitlerz Underpantz, VCL XI and the Id. The latter was a synth-pop band that also included future OMD member Malcolm Holmes. Paul David Humphreys was born in 1960 Merseyside. He was influenced by Kraftwerk and Brian Eno. Malcolm Holmes was born in a suburb of Merseyside in The Wirral in 1960. When the Id was founded in 1977, Holmes became the band’s drummer. He joined OMD in 1980. Martin Cooper was born in 1958 and joined OMD in 1980.
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#38: The Globe by Big Audio Dynamite
Peak Month: April 1992
18 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #72
YouTube.com: “The Globe”
Lyrics: “The Globe”
Michael Geoffrey Jones was born in London, UK, in 1955. Jones’ maternal grandmother Stella was born in 1899 to Jewish parents in Russia and escaped the Russian pogroms by migrating to the United Kingdom. Growing up, Jones learned to play guitar and in the early 70s was in a glam rock band called The Delinquents. He moved on to The London SS. When that band broke up, in 1976 Jones became an original bandmate with The Clash. In 1983 Jones was expelled from The Clash. Late that year he formed General Public which released a debut album, All the Rage in January 1984. Jones left the band and later that year formed Big Audio Dynamite as lead guitarist.
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#39: Spirit In The Sky by Doctor and the Medics
Peak Month: November 1986
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube.com: “Spirit In The Sky”
Lyrics: “Spirit In The Sky”
The Doctor and the Medics lead singer, Clive Jackson, was born in Liverpool in 1961. Richard Searle was born in 1963 in London and played guitar. The two founded Doctor and the Medics in 1981. Other bandmates included Steve “Vox” Ritchie, who was born in 1964 in Billericay, UK, and played drums with the band. Colette Anadin (aka Colette Appleby) and her sister Wendi, were known in the band as “The Anadin Brothers” to add gender ambiguity into the mix. In addition, Steve McGuire was the lead guitarist. In 1982 the band released “The Druids Are Here”. Doctor and the Medics blended psychedelia with Japanese Kabuki Theatre and make-up that resembled KISS. A 1985 single, “The Miracle of the Age”, stalled at #117 under the UK Singles Top 100 chart.
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#180: Emma by Hot Chocolate
Peak Month: May 1975
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position: #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #8
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
YouTube.com: “Emma”
Lyrics: “Emma”
Anthony Wilson was born in Trinidad in 1947. He learned to play bass guitar and at the age of 20 helped form Hot Chocolate. Patrick Olive was born in Grenada in 1947 and learned to play bass guitar and percussion in his youth. He was one of the original members of Hot Chocolate in 1968, and has stayed with the band to the present. Larry Ferguson was born in the Bahamas in 1948. He learned to play piano growing up, and became the keyboard player for Hot Chocolate in 1969. He remained with the band until 1986. Harvey Hinsley was born in 1948 in Northampton, UK. He joined Hot Chocolate on guitar in 1970. He remains with the band to this day. Anthony “Tony” Connor was born in 1947 in Romford, UK. He was part of a band called Audience in 1969. Connor joined Hot Chocolate in 1970, adding drums and percussion. He was born in 1947. Errol Brown was born in 1943 in Jamaica. In 1969 Brown revised the lyrics to “Give Peace A Chance” and sent it to Apple Records in London. John Lennon loved the version Brown sent and his group was named The Hot Chocolate Band, later shortened to Hot Chocolate.
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#48: Pass The Dutchie by Musical Youth
Peak Month: February 1983
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
Billboard Top 100 for 1983 ~ #91
YouTube.com: “Pass The Dutchie”
Lyrics: “Pass The Dutchie”
Dennis Michael Seaton was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1967. Kelvin Grant was born in 1971 in Birmingham. Michael Grant was born in Birmingham in 1969. Patrick Waite was born in Birmingham in 1969. Junior Waite was born in Birmingham in 1967. The Waites’ father, Frederick Waite Sr., had been a member of the Jamaican reggae group the Techniques. At the start of Musical Youth’s career, he sang lead with Junior. It was decided that it was more fitting that the lead singer be a similar age to the rest of the bandmates. An audition was held and Dennis Seaton was the only person who responded to the ad.
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