#1: Makin’ Love by Floyd Robinson
City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Makin’ Love”
Lyrics: “Makin’ Love”
Floyd Robinson was born in 1932 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 17. In 1954, he released a hillbilly song he wrote titled “G-I-R-L, Girls”. It contained the lyric “We can penetrate the ocean, we can fly around the world. But there just ain’t no answer for G-I-R-L girls.” This was followed later that year with “Love, Love, Love”. He wrote “Little Space Girl” (uncredited according to Wikipedia) which was a Top 20 for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner in early 1959. Robinson recorded “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” but it got little notice. Both “Little Space Girl” and “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” used the Chipmunk-like high-pitched squeaky vocals found in “The Chipmunk Song”. Robinson’s followup was “Makin’ Love”.
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#3: Get Down by Curtis Mayfield
City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube: “Get Down”
Lyrics: “Get Down”
Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago in 1942. Mayfield received his first guitar when he was ten, later recalling that he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it. At the age of 14 in 1956, he joined his high school friend Jerry Butler’s group The Roosters with brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks. He wrote and composed songs for this group who would become The Impressions two years later. Mayfield was with the Impressions when they backed Jerry Butler on the Top Ten hit in 1958 titled “For Your Precious Love”. At the age of 17 in 1960, Mayfield co-wrote “He Will Break Your Heart”. The song became a number-one R&B hit for Jerry Butler, and a #7 crossover pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 which also reached #5 in Montreal.
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#38: Still by the Sunrays
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: May 1966
Peak Position in London ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #42
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #93
YouTube: “Still”
Lyrics: “Still”
Eddy Medora was born in Los Angeles in 1945. He writes about the backstory to the Sunrays. “We were called the Renegades. We were a garage band rehearsing in my parents home in Pacific Palisades. We were in 7th and 8th grade. I saw a band perform called the Riptides – they had a local hit called Machine Gun….After I saw the response from the crowd, I knew I wanted to start a band. We played all over West L.A. There were five of us – Marty, Darrol, Mike, Ricky, and myself. We were doing pretty well when Mike moved away. Darrol also left. In the first year of high school, I met Steve and Vince. These guys did not have a band. They were both good musicians. They asked if they could join our band. We auditioned them. After we heard them play, I knew they had all of our votes.”
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#3: You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester
City: Quebec City (Levis), PQ
Radio Station: CFLS
Peak Month: April 1979
Peak Position in Quebec City ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
Peak Position on Israeli Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #11
YouTube: “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
Lyrics: “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
Sylvester James Jr. was born in 1947 in Los Angeles. His father had numerous affairs and left Sylvester’s mother and children when he was a young child. He began singing at the age of three, and sang the Al Jolson 1922 hit, “My Buddy”, at a neighborhood child’s funeral a few years later. Biographer, Joshua Gamson in his book The fabulous Sylvester: the legend, the music, the seventies in San Francisco, describes a view of Sylvester as a boy. The women at his church described him as “feminine” and as “pretty as he could be, just like his mother. He wasn’t rough like the other boys. He was prim and proper. We were always hugging on him and kissing on him, because he was so cute.” Family members also described him as “his own kind of boy — ‘born funny'” — preferring the company of girls and women like his grandmother to that of other boys. “He stayed inside a lot, reading encyclopedias, listening to music, and playing his grandmother’s piano.” When Sylvester would turn down the boys’ invitations to play with them, they would say things like, “He act like a girl!” or “He’s going to be a girl.” But his mother would defend him, including his joy at dressing up in her and his grandmother’s clothes, saying that he was not a girl, just a different kind of boy, and a valued part of their family.
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#21: Caught Up In The Rapture by Anita Baker
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: January-February 1987
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube: “Caught Up In The Rapture”
Lyrics: “Caught Up In The Rapture”
Anita Baker was born in 1958 in Toledo, Ohio. She was raised by foster parents. By the age of sixteen she was singing in R&B nightclubs in Detroit. Baker joined Chapter 8 in 1975 and the group toured until they got a record deal in 1979. Chapter 8’s first album, Chapter 8, was released that year and featured the singles “Ready For Your Love”, a duet between Baker and bandmate Gerald Lyles, which cracked the Top 40 on the R&B charts. Chapter 8 was dropped by the label who were convinced that Baker, as the group’s lead singer, did not have “star potential.” Anita Baker returned to Detroit, working as a waitress and a receptionist until, in 1982, Otis Smith, a former associate of Ariola Records, convinced Baker to start a solo career under his Beverly Glen label.
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#11: The Windmills Of Your Mind by Dusty Springfield
City: Pointe Claire, PQ
Radio Station: CFOX
Peak Month: July 1969
Peak Position in Pointe Claire ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
Peak Position on Philippine Singles chart ~ #34
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #40
YouTube: “The Windmills Of Your Mind”
Lyrics: “The Windmills Of Your Mind”
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was born in West Hampstead in north London, in 1939. Along with her oldest brother, Dion, she recorded her first tape of a song they sang while still children. Her dad was an unhappy accountant who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but never became one. While Mary’s mother, according to the Karen Bartlett autobiography, Dusty: An Intimate Portrait, “was continuously drunk and sat all day in cinemas.”As she grew up, Mary went to school at a Roman Catholic Convent. At the age of 18 she became a member of a female group named the Lana Sisters. The group sang backup to pop singer Al Saxton who had several Top 30 hits in the late 50’s in the UK, including a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen” and “You’re The Top Cha.” While Saxton enjoyed his moments of fame, Mary teamed up with her brother, Dion, and a friend of theirs named Tim Field. By the end of 1959 she had taken the stage name of Dusty Springfield. The trio, now known as The Springfields, got a record deal with Philips Records in 1961.
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#12: Casanova (You’re Playing Days Are Over) by Ruby Andrews
City: Pointe Claire, PQ
Radio Station: CFOX
Peak Month: October 1967
Peak Position in Pointe Claire ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #51
YouTube: “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)”
Lyrics: “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)”
Ruby Stackhouse was born in 1947 in rural western Mississippi. She moved with her family to Chicago in 1953. Near the end of high school, Ruby started singing with a vocal group called the Vondells. She made her debut on the Kelmac label, recording with the Vondells although the record was released as by Ruby Stackhouse. She was signed to the Zodiac label and released “Let’s Get A Groove Going On”, credited to Ruby Andrews. This was followed by “I Just Can’t Get Enough”. Her third release for the Zodiac label was her biggest seller, “Casonova [sic] (Your Playing Days Are Over)”.
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#241: Gloria’s Theme by Adam Wade
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: December 1960
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #9
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #49
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube: “Gloria’s Theme”
Lyrics: “Gloria’s Theme”
Patrick Henry “Adam” Wade was born in 1935 in Pittsburgh (PA). After high school he worked as a lab assistant with Dr. Jonas Salk on a polio research team. Wade began to pursue a recording career, signing with Coed Records in 1959. His first single release was “Tell Her for Me” which climbed to #66 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album, And Then Came Adam, was released late that year. The liner notes exclaim:
From the world of science to the glittering world of entertainment, from test tubes to records, from guinea-pigs to real live audiences – this is the unorthodox and exciting saga of Adam Wade thus far. Although he has been a member of the entertainment fraternity for no more than a few months, his achievements in such a short space of time have given us an indiction that Adam is a talent to be reckoned with – one who will be a leading personality in popular music for many years to come.
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#3: Love Me To Pieces by Jill Corey
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CKOY
Peak Months: July-August and October 1957
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
YouTube: “Love Me To Pieces”
Lyrics: “Love Me To Pieces”
Jill Corey (born Norma Jean Speranza) was born in 1935 in Avonmore, Pennsylvania. Her father was a coal miner in this western Pennsylvanian coal mining town. Her mother died when she was four-years-old. She began singing as an imitator of Carmen Miranda at family gatherings, on amateur shows in grade school, and contralto in the local church choir. At the age of 13, she began to develop her own style. She won first prize at a talent contest sponsored by the Lions Club, which entitled her to sing a song on WAVL in Apollo, Pennsylvania. This got her an offer to have her own program. By the age of 14 she was working seven nights a week, earning $5-$6 a night, with a local orchestra led by Johnny Murphy. From 1950 to 1956 she was a regular on the television variety program Robert Q’s Matinee. By the age of 17 she was a local celebrity talent.
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#1451: Purple Haze by Dion
Peak Month: February 1969
Peak Position ~ #16
5 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #63
YouTube: “Purple Haze”
Lyrics: “Purple Haze”
Dion Francis DiMucci was born in the Bronx, NY, in 1939. His parents named him Dion in honor of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplents who captured the interest of millions around the world after the five infants were born in May 1934. Dion’s dad, Pasquale DiMucci, was a vaudeville performer and Dion accompanied him to see his dad on stage. As a child he was given an $8 dollar guitar by his uncle while he lived on 183rd Street. Dion’s childhood was set in the midst of conflict between his parents. In an interview with New York Magazine in 2007, Dion remembers “…There was a lot of unresolved conflict in my house… My pop, Pasquale, couldn’t make the $36-a-month rent on our apartment at 183rd and Crotona Avenue.” He was a dreamer, a failed vaudevillian, and sometimes Catskills puppeteer. He’d talk big and lift weights he’d made from oilcans, while Frances, Mrs. DiMucci, took two buses and the subway downtown to work in the garment district on a sewing machine. “When they’d start yelling, I’d go out on the stoop with my $8 Gibson and try to resolve things that way.”
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