#36: 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.
Continue reading →
#39: 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.”
Continue reading →
#41: 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.
Continue reading →
#43: 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.
Continue reading →
#44: 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.
Continue reading →
#203: 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.
Continue reading →
#54: 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.
Continue reading →
#57: Walking On Broken Glass by Annie Lennox
Peak Month: November 1992
19 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube.com: “Walking On Broken Glass”
Lyrics: “Walking On Broken Glass”
Ann Lennox was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1954. Lennox recalls, “When I was very young, we had a salmon pink Dansette record player. Someone gave me birthday money and the first record I think I bought was Mary Poppins followed by Procul Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale“. Both records are magical and transporting. I used to visit my grandparents in the countryside and would always go into the recesses of a cupboard to pull out a box full of old 78 rpm records which I’d play over and over again, especially the Vilja song from The Merry Widow, which I was obsessed with. My dad blew my mind when I was six years old because he built his own Gramophone. He had the albums for every Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and he switched his homebuilt record player on and you heard this crackling sound and then ‘Boom!’ I remember walking to school singing “I Enjoy Being A Girl”. To buy a vinyl album, you had to record player and you have to have speakers, and this is a great thing because that means people are going to listen to your music not on a cell phone, but they’re going to listen to it out of a sound system, which is what we all did when we were growing up. The important thing about vinyl releases is that people buy them and actually put them on the turntable and listen to a side, because we chose the tracks to be played in a particular order, and that was really important.”
Continue reading →
#59: The Voice by the Moody Blues
Peak Month: September 1981
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube.com: “The Voice”
Lyrics: “The Voice”
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 →
#70: Ain’t Love A Bitch by Rod Stewart
Peak Month: June 1979
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “Ain’t Love A Bitch”
Lyrics: “Ain’t Love A Bitch”
Roderick David Stewart was born in London, England, in 1945. In 1956 he got introduced to rock ‘n roll when he saw Bill Haley and His Comets in concert, and heard Little Richard’s “The Girl Can’t Help It”. He was given a guitar by his dad in 1959, and he learned to play the Kingston Trio’s “A Worried Man”. He quit school at age 15 and worked as a newspaper boy. He auditioned with Joe Meek in 1961, but didn’t get a record deal. By 1963 he was part of an R&B band called The Dimensions. In 1965 he teamed up with Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger to form a blues band called Steampacket. This lasted another year. Eventually, Stewart became part of the Jeff Beck Group in 1967. When that band broke up in the fall of ’68, Rod Stewart got invited to join the reformed Small Faces, who were now just called Faces.
Continue reading →
