#1286: Ridin’ the Wind ~ The Tornados
Peak Month: January 1963
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Ridin’ The Wind”
In 1937 Clemente Anselmo Arturo “Clem” Cattini was born in North London. At first he worked at his father’s Italian restaurant. He then joined Johnny Kidd & the Pirates playing on their hit “Shakin’ All Over”. Then he became producer Joe Meek’s in-house drummer, backing artists such as John Leyton and Don Charles, before helping found the Tornados in 1961, and playing on their international No. 1 hit “Telstar”. Over recording history in the United Kingdom, Cattini has been the drummer on hundreds of recordings by artists as diverse as Cliff Richard, The Kinks, The Yardbirds and Lou Reed. Cattini has been a session drummer on 44 different singles that reached #1 in the UK. Other members of The Tornados original line-up were Heinz Burt on bass guitar, George Bellamy on rhythm guitar, Alan Caddy on lead guitar and Roger La Vern on keyboards. They were the band that toured with UK teen idol Billy Fury.
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#1344: Lazy Sunday by the Small Faces
Peak Month: June 1968
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #114
YouTube.com: “Lazy Sunday”
Lyrics: “Lazy Sunday”
In 1947 Steve Marriott was born in London, UK. By the age of 12 Marriott had formed several bands and writing songs influenced by Buddy Holly. In 1960 he was cast as the Artful Dodger in the new musical Oliver! at a theatre in London’s West End. In 1963-64 his band, Steve Marriott and The Moments, were a back-up band to headliners The Nashville Teens, The Animals, Georgie Fame and others at concerts in London. Marriott played guitar and was his bands’ lead vocalist. After the group disbanded in July 1964 Marriott met bass player Ronnie Lane and drummer Kenney Jones at a club when they were playing with their band, the Outcasts. They added Jimmy Winston on keyboards and began releasing singles, including Sha-la-la-la-lee,” which went to #3 in the UK in 1966. The Small Faces were part of the British mod subculture, sharp-dressed and absorbed with looks and fashion. The word faces signaled as much, and small was a reference to all of them being no taller than 5’6″.
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#1300: Sie Liebt Dich by The Beatles
Peak Month: July 1964
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #97
Youtube.com: “Sie Liebt Dich”
Lyrics: “Sie Liebt Dich”
In his book, The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated, Bill Harry writes about the background to the song “She Loves You.” In June 1963, The Beatles were on a tour of the UK with Gerry and the Pacemakers and Roy Orbison. While they were on the tour bus, Paul McCartney and John Lennon got the idea for “She Loves You”. It was in their hotel room after their June 26th concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle upon Tyne they made expanded on the lyrics and the melody for “She Loves You”. According to Kenneth Womack in his book, Long And Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, “She Loves You” was finished the following day at Paul McCartney’s Forthlin Road home in Liverpool.
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#1307: Under My Thumb by The Rolling Stones
Peak Month: September 1966
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Under My Thumb”
Lyrics: “Under My Thumb”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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#1322: Sweet Black Angel by The Rolling Stones
Peak Month: May 1972
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Sweet Black Angel”
Lyrics: “Sweet Black Angel”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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#1335: Sweetheart by Marianne Faithfull
Peak Month: December 1981
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Sweetheart”
Lyrics: “Sweetheart”
Marianne Faithfull’s story has been well documented, not least in her insightful 1994 autobiography Faithfull. Born in December, 1946, in Hampstead, a borough of Greater London, Faithfull’s career as the crown princess of swinging London was launched with “As Tears Go By”. At the time she was 16 years old. Her 1964 hit single was the first song ever written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Two folk albums, two pop albums and a singles collection followed. Marianne Faithfull also embarked on a parallel career as an actress, both on film in Girl On A Motorcycle (1968) and on stage in Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1967) and Hamlet (1969) By the end of the Sixties personal problems halted Marianne’s career and her drug addiction took over.
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#1337: I Will by Billy Fury
Peak Month: July 1964
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I Will”
“I Will” lyrics
Billy Fury was born Ronald Wycherley on April 17, 1940, in Dingle, England. An impromptu audition in a Birkenhead dressing room of the Essoldo Theatre in 1958 resulted in Wycherley joining Larry Parnes’ management stable. The entrepreneur provided the suitably enigmatic stage name, and added Billy Fury to the bill of a current package tour. Fury enjoyed a UK Top 20 hit with his debut single, “Maybe Tomorrow”, in 1959. His first Top Ten hit was an Everly Brothers sound-alike tune, “Colette”, that peaked at #9 in 1959. The following year he completed The Sound Of Fury, which consisted entirely of the artist’s own songs. Some of these were credited to Billy Fury and others to Fury’s pseudonym, Wilbur Wilberforce. Arguably Britain’s finest example of the rockabilly genre, it owed much of its authenticity to the support from guitarist Joe Brown, while the Four Jays provided backing vocals.
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