#18: Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Denmark Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Puerto Rico Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Sweden Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “Domino Dancing”
Lyrics: “Domino Dancing”
The Pet Shop Boys are a duo formed in 1981 by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. Tennant was born in 1954 in North Shields, Northumberland, England. He attended an all-boys’ Catholic school in Newcastle upon Tyne. He would later write several songs, including “It’s A Sin”, referencing his days at the Catholic school. He taught himself to play guitar and piano, and learned cello in school. In his teens, he played in a folk group named Dust. In the mid-70s, Neil Tennant worked as a production editor with Marvel (Comics) UK. He was responsible for anglicizing the dialogue to suit British spelling. He was offered a job at Smash Hits as news editor of the British teen pop magazine in 1982. He went on to edit The Smash Hits Yearbook from 1982 to 1985. Continue reading →
#49: Situation by Yazoo
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1982
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
Peak Position on Belgium Singles chart ~ #7
YouTube: “Situation”
Lyrics: “Situation”
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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#21: You Were On My Mind by Crispian St. Peters
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1967
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “You Were On My Mind”
Lyrics: “You Were On My Mind”
Robin Peter Smith was born in 1939 in Swanley, in Kent, UK, adjacent the the boundary of Greater London. At the age of fifteen, he learned the guitar and left school in 1954 to become an assistant cinema projectionist and also worked in a paper mill. In 1956, he gave his first live performance, as a member of The Hard Travellers. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as undertaking National Service, he was a member of The Country Gentlemen, Beat Formula Three, and Peter & The Wolves. While a member of Beat Formula Three in 1963, he was heard by David Nicholson, an EMI Record publicist who became his manager. Nicholson suggested he use a stage name, initially “Crispin Blacke” and subsequently Crispian St. Peters.
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#66: 19 by Paul Hardcastle
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
Peak Position on singles charts in Austria, Belgium,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany ~ #1
YouTube: “19”
Lyrics: “19”
Paul Hardcastle was born in 1957 in London, England. He told the Guardian in a 2012 interview, “All my life I wanted to be a motorbike racer, until I had a bad crash and ended up in hospital for four months. While I was bedridden I listened to the radio all the time, especially clubby stuff, and thought: “I can do that.” So I swapped my video camera for a friend’s synthesiser and did.” Hardcastle began his career in 1981 when he became the keyboard player for British soul band Direct Drive. In 1982, Hardcastle and lead vocalist Derek Green left the band to form a duo under the name First Light. They achieved some minor success in the UK chart, but during 1984 Hardcastle moved on to pursue a solo career.
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#25: Fox On The Run by Manfred Mann
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: February 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “Fox On The Run”
Lyrics: “Fox On The Run”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. (Mike Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1940, and had studied jazz growing up). They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. They added Paul Jones and Tom McGuiness to the band, the latter who was with Eric Clapton’s band The Roosters.
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#81: 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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#125: 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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#166: 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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