#806: Money by The Lovin’ Spoonful
Peak Month: January 1968
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #5
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube.com link: “Money”
Lyrics: “Money”
Bass player Steve Boone (born on Long Island) and drummer Joe Butler (born on Long Island in 1941) had been playing in a band called The Kingsmen based on Long Island in the early 1960’s. By 1964 their band (not to be confused with the Kingsmen from Washington State who had a hit with “Louie Louie”) were one of the top rock and roll bands on Long Island. Their live sets included folk songs put to a rock beat, pop standards and some new hits showcasing the British Invasion. Steve’s brother, Skip Boone, and several three other bandmates filled out the group. In 1964 Joe and Skip chose to relocate to Manhattan. They focused on writing original material and blending a rock bass and drums with their jug band sound. Three other bandmates chose not to move, except Steve Boone, who joined Joe and Skip in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the nexus of the folk music scene.
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#839: No by Bulldog
Peak Month: January 1973
8 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube.com: “No”
Lyrics: “No”
Dean Cornish was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943. In his childhood, he moved with his single mother to Rochester, New York. At the age of nine he learned to play the ukulele. By the age of eleven Cornish was playing guitar and country songs. In an interview with the National Association of Music Merchants in January 2016, Cornish remembers seeing Elvis Presley on the Tommy Dorsey Show and getting the guitar of his choice by the late 50’s and learning to play songs by Duane Eddy. By his teens he was playing guitar and harmonica in local Rochester bands. In 1962, when he was 19, Gene formed a band called the Gene Cornish Nobles who recorded a couple of singles. In 1964 Cornish joined Joey Dee and the Starliters who had charted a #1 hit in January 1962 called the “Peppermint Twist.” While playing with Joey Dee, Gene met up with Felix Cavaliere and another musician, a drummer named Dino Danelli. The three became the nucleus of what would become The Young Rascals.
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#863: Can’t Make No Sense by Blue Northern
Peak Month: October 1980
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Can’t Make No Sense”
Blue Northern was a Vancouver band that got their start in 1977. The founding members were Garry Comeau on guitar and fiddle, Lee Roy Stephens on bass, steel and rhythm guitar player Jimmy Wilson and Brady Gustafson on drums. As they developed their sound the band wanted to broaden their audience appeal. It happened that one of the audience members who enjoyed Blue Northern in concert was Billy Cowsill. William “Bill” Joseph Cowsill, Jr., was born in the USA in 1948 and had moved to Vancouver in 1977. He had been the lead singer of The Cowsills, a family pop singing group from Newport, Rhode Island. The Cowsills had several hits between 1967 and 1969, including “The Rain, The Park & Other Things” and “Hair.” The Cowsills appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. They also were the spokespersons for the American Dairy Association. Billy Cowsill got used to appearing in two hundred concerts a year for several years. His addition to Blue Northern gave them a talking point for MCs who introduced them when performing in the late 70s and early 80s. Cowsill also brought his considerable experience in the music industry.
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#1026: Didn’t Want To Have To Do It by The Lovin’ Spoonful
Peak Month: June 1966
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Didn’t Want To Have To Do It”
Lyrics: “Didn’t Want To Have To Do It”
Bass player Steve Boone (born on Long Island) and drummer Joe Butler (born on Long Island in 1941) had been playing in a band called The Kingsmen based on Long Island in the early 1960’s. By 1964 their band (not to be confused with the Kingsmen from Washington State who had a hit with “Louie Louie”) were one of the top rock and roll bands on Long Island. Their live sets included folk songs put to a rock beat, pop standards and some new hits showcasing the British Invasion. Steve’s brother, Skip Boone, and several three other bandmates filled out the group. In 1964 Joe and Skip chose to relocate to Manhattan. They focused on writing original material and blending a rock bass and drums with their jug band sound. Three other bandmates chose not to move, except Steve Boone, who joined Joe and Skip in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the nexus of the folk music scene.
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#1377: Lisa Listen To Me by Blood, Sweat & Tears
Peak Month: November 1971
6 weeks on CKVN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Lisa Listen To Me”
Lyrics: “Lisa Listen To Me”
In 1941 David Thomsett was born in Surrey, England. He immigrated with his family to Willowdale, a suburb of Toronto, when he was six years old. Living with an authoritarian father who physically beat him as a routine way of punishing his son, David left home and began to live on the streets at the age of 14. This led to a few years of petty crime, being in and out of juvenile detention centers, the Millbrook Reformatory and subsequently the Burwash Industrial Farm, an agricultural setting established in the 1910s to rehabilitate prison inmates, and next house Japanese-Canadians during World War II. While in jail a battered, old mail-order guitar was left to him by an outgoing inmate. It was then Clayton-Thomas discovered a talent for music that allowed him to believe in a different kind of life.
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#1132: On The Way Home by Buffalo Springfield
Peak Month: November 1968
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #82
YouTube.com: “On The Way Home”
Lyrics: “On The Way Home”
In 1966 a folk-rock band was formed in Los Angeles from a mix of Canadian and American musicians. It was called Buffalo Springfield. The band consisted of Stephen Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Dewey Martin (drums, vocals), Bruce Palmer (electric bass), Richie Furay (guitar, vocals), and Neil Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals). Like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield’s debut album blended musical strains of folk and country music with British invasion. However, their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, showcased their shift into psychedelic rock. The name of the group was inspired after the Buffalo-Springfield steamroller made by the Buffalo-Springfield Roadroller Company in Springfield, Ohio.
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#1362: Make It Up To Me In Love By Paul Anka and Odia Coates
Peak Month: November 1976
7 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Record World ~ #104
YouTube: “Make It Up To Me In Love”
Paul Anka was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1941. His father was Syrian-American and his mother was Canadian-Lebanese. At the age of 14, in the spring of 1956 he traveled to Los Angeles to record his first single “I Confess”. He was 16 years old when he had a number one hit with “Diana” in August 1957, a song he wrote about a girl in the church he attended. (Diana Ayoub, who inspired Anka to pen the song, died in December 2022). Next, he recorded a duet with Micki Marlo titled “What You’ve Done To Me”. On October 23, 1957, Paul Anka appeared in concert at the Georgia Auditorium in Vancouver. Others performing on the bill included Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Buddy Knox, Eddie Cochran and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. In early 1958 Paul Anka was back in the Top Ten with “You Are My Destiny”.
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#1253: Gone From Me by Eddie Carroll
Peak Month: March 1961
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Gone From Me”
Edward Eleniak was born in Smokey Lake, Alberta, in 1933. He moved to Hollywood in 1956 to pursue a career in the motion picture and television industry and landed a position with NBC as a writer and producer. As a “resident alien” he was drafted into the U.S. Army and performed with the Armed Forces Service Radio and the 6th Army Chorus. In 1959 he dropped his Ukranian surname and went by Eddie Carroll to advance his career. In 1960 Carroll released a comedy album, On Fraternity Row. In 1962 he co-wrote the song “How Is Julie?” with Barry DeVorzon which was recorded by The Lettermen. In 1960, DeVorzon had co-written “Dreamin'” by Johnny Burnette, and “Hey Little One” with Dorsey Burnette. He would later write “Nadia’s Theme”, an instrumental hit in 1976.
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#1256: Bluebird by Buffalo Springfield
Peak Month: August 1967
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart/5 weeks on CKLG
Peak Position #9 on CKLG
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #58
YouTube.com: “Bluebird”
Lyrics: “Bluebird”
In 1966 a folk-rock band was formed in Los Angeles from a mix of Canadian and American musicians. It was called Buffalo Springfield. The band consisted of Stephen Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Dewey Martin (drums, vocals), Bruce Palmer (electric bass), Richie Furay (guitar, vocals), and Neil Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals). Like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield’s debut album blended musical strains of folk and country music with British invasion. However, their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, showcased their shift into psychedelic rock.
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