#168: Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson
City: Windsor, ON
Radio Station: CKLW
Peak Month: October 1957
Peak Position in Windsor ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #62
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #6 (1957) & #1 (1986)
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart (1986) ~ #1
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart (1987) ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart (1987) ~ #3
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart (1987) ~ #3
Peak Position on West German Singles chart (1987) #4
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart (1987) ~ #4
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart (1987) ~ #5
YouTube: “Reet Petite”
Lyrics: “Reet Petite”
Jackie Wilson was born in suburban Detroit in 1934. Wilson began singing as a youth, accompanying his mother, an experienced church-choir singer. In his early teens, Wilson joined the Ever Ready Gospel Singers. Wilson dropped out of high school at age 15, having been sentenced twice to detention in the Lansing Corrections system for juveniles. During his second stint in detention, Wilson learned to box and began competing in the Detroit amateur circuit at age 16. His record in the Golden Gloves was 2–8. After his mother forced him to quit boxing, Wilson got his girlfriend, Freda Hood, pregnant, and her father forced him to marry her. Wilson became a father at age 17.Continue reading →
#3: No Fair At All ~ Association
City: Thunder Bay, ON
Radio Station: CKPR
Peak Month: March 1967
Peak Position in Thunder Bay ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #51
YouTube: “No Fair At All”
Lyrics: “No Fair At All”
Terry Kirkman was born in Salina, Kansas, in 1939. He learned to play a number of brass instruments in his childhood and majored in music in Chaffey College in southern California. He met Frank Zappa in college in 1959, and the pair performed in coffeehouses through to 1961. As a salesman visiting Hawaii in 1962, Kirkman met Jules Alexander, who was in the United States Navy. They planned to meet again when Alexander would be discharged from his military duties. Kirkman moved to Los Angeles with Alexander in 1963. The pair founded a folk group they named the Inner Tubes. At one time The Inner Tubes included both Cass Elliot and David Crosby. The Inner Tubes slowly grew from a small group into a 13-piece band called the Men. In February 1965, when The Men disbanded, Kirkman and five other members formed their own band. To find a new name, they perused a dictionary and chose “the Association” after it was suggested by Kirkman’s fiancée.
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#1: Nice ‘N Easy by Frank Sinatra
City: Sudbury, ON
Radio Station: CKSO
Peak Month: September 1960
Peak Position in Sudbury ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #38
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #60
YouTube: “Nice ‘N Easy”
Lyrics: “Nice ‘N Easy”
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. Sinatra spent much time at his parents’ tavern in Hoboken, working on his homework and occasionally singing for spare change. After leaving school before graduating, Sinatra began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City. In New York, Sinatra found jobs singing for his supper or for cigarettes. He got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group called the 3 Flashes to let him join. Baritone Fred Tamburro stated that “Frank hung around us like we were gods or something”, admitting that they only took him on board because he owned a car and could chauffeur the group around. Sinatra soon learned they were auditioning for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show, and “begged” the group to let him in on the act. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and passed an audition from Edward Bowes to appear on the show. They each earned $12.50, and ended up attracting 40,000 votes to win first prize—a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the U.S. Sinatra quickly became the group’s lead singer, and, much to the jealousy of his fellow group members, garnered most of the attention from girls.
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#61: Desire by Roni Griffith
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1982
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Desire”
Lyrics: “Desire”
Roni Griffith was born in Bloomington, Indiana, likely in 1960. Wikipedia states she was “one of the original Coconuts in Kid Creole and the Coconuts.” She was is not among the personnel listed on any of the groups first three albums, but may be uncredited as a backing singer and dancer. With Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Griffith appeared on stage when the band was an opener for concerts headlined by the B-52s and Huey Lewis and the News. Finding success as a musician, in 1981 she appeared on SNL with Kid Creole and the Coconuts. That year Griffith decided to go solo, signing a record contract with Vanguard Records and producer, Bobby Orlando.In early 1981, she released the single “Mondo Man” which was a hit in Long Beach and a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Dance Club chart.
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#47: I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CFTR
Peak Month: September-October 1982
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube: “I Will Always Love You”
Lyrics: “I Will Always Love You”
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of twelve children, in Pitman Center, Tennessee. Parton said her family was “dirt poor”. Her father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, was just 35 by the time the she gave birth to her twelfth child. The family lived in a one-room cabin on Little Pigeon River. Her father “Lee” Parton Sr., was a sharecropper who also worked in construction and later started a small tobacco farm. Dolly Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. Parton made her first professional recording at age 13 when she recorded “Puppy Love” for Goldband Records. The lyrics were distinct from the Paul Anka hit single with the same title in the winter of 1959-60. After making musical connections while performing on The Cas Walker Show, Parton and her uncle, Bill Owens, managed to get a guest spot on the Grand Ole Opry on July 25, 1959. Jimmy C. Newman agreed to give up one of his regular Saturday night spots to allow Parton to perform. Parton was introduced by Johnny Cash before she performed a cover of George Jones’ “You Gotta Be My Baby” and received three encores.
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#4: Strange Way by Firefall
City: Smithers, BC
Radio Station: CFBV
Peak Month: January 1979
Peak Position in Smithers ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Strange Way”
Lyrics: “Strange Way”
Firefall was a soft rock band from Boulder, Colorado. They were founded by Rick Roberts and formed in 1974. Roberts was born in 1949 in Clearwater, Florida. He was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and on their self-titled 1971 album and 1972 album Last of the Red Hot Burritos. Roberts dissolved the Flying Burrito Brothers in 1973. Concurrently, Roberts released two solo albums in 1972 and 1973. He got the name for the band from the Yosemite Firefall, a summertime event in which burning embers were pushed from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park to the valley 3,000 feet below. Roberts co-founder was Jock Bartley, who was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1950. His family moved to Colorado Springs in 1959. Later, he began guitar lessons there (notably with jazz legend Johnny Smith), and later became deeply involved in the music scene when he moved to Boulder. When the pair met in 1973, Bartley was in a band with Gram Parsons called Fallen Angels.
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#24: Outside The Gates Of Heaven by Lou Christie
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #45
YouTube: “Outside The Gates Of Heaven”
Lyrics: “Outside The Gates Of Heaven”
Lou Christie was born in 1943 with the birth name Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco. He was born in Glenwillard, a suburb of Pittsburgh. His first public performance was a first-grade Christmas pageant, in which he sang “Away in a Manger.” While in high school, he studied music and voice, served as student conductor of the choir and sang solos at holiday concerts. His teacher, Frank Cummings, wanted him to pursue a career in classical music, but Sacco wanted to cut a record to get on American Bandstand. At age 15 he met and befriended Twyla Herbert, a classically trained musician 20 years his senior, who became his regular songwriting partner. Lugee Sacco performed with several vocal groups and between 1959 and 1962 released several records on small Pittsburgh labels, achieving a local hit with “The Jury” by Lugee & The Lions (a group consisting of Sacco, Twyla Herbert’s daughter Shirley, and two others) released on the Robbee label. After graduating from high school in 1961, Sacco traveled to New York City and worked as a session vocalist.
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#5: Superman by Celi Bee and the Buzzy Bunch
City: Sept-Iles, PQ
Radio Station: CKCN
Peak Month: June 1977
Peak Position in Sept-Iles ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
YouTube: “Superman”
Lyrics: “Superman”
Celida Ines Camacho was born in 1950 in Brooklyn, New York, of Puerto Rican parents. She spent part of her childhood back in Puerto Rico. There she met Pepe Luis Soto in Puerto Rico in the 1960s and they began making music together. Not only did they make music together, they made love and were married around 1968. They also formed the duo Celinés y Pepe Luis, releasing several singles and performing around Puerto Rico. In 1972, Celida won a festival called Festival De La Voz y La Cancion, with the song, “Yo Quiero Un Pincel. She was initially popular in Spain, and Puerto Rico where her single, “Half A Love”, became successful.
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#134: Rhapsody In The Rain by Lou Christie
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CFCF
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Cash Box Top 100 Singles ~ #20
YouTube: “Rhapsody In The Rain”
Lyrics: “Rhapsody In The Rain”
Lou Christie was born in 1943 with the birth name Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco. He was born in Glenwillard, a suburb of Pittsburgh. His first public performance was a first-grade Christmas pageant, in which he sang “Away in a Manger.” While in high school, he studied music and voice, served as student conductor of the choir and sang solos at holiday concerts. His teacher, Frank Cummings, wanted him to pursue a career in classical music, but Sacco wanted to cut a record to get on American Bandstand. At age 15 he met and befriended Twyla Herbert, a classically trained musician 20 years his senior, who became his regular songwriting partner. Lugee Sacco performed with several vocal groups and between 1959 and 1962 released several records on small Pittsburgh labels, achieving a local hit with “The Jury” by Lugee & The Lions (a group consisting of Sacco, Twyla Herbert’s daughter Shirley, and two others) released on the Robbee label. After graduating from high school in 1961, Sacco traveled to New York City and worked as a session vocalist.
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#153: When You’re Young And In Love by the Marvelettes
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: July 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “When You’re Young And In Love”
Lyrics: “When You’re Young And In Love”
The Marvelettes were a girl group formed in Inkster, Michigan, in 1960. Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgianna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, Georgia Dobbins, were classmates at Inkster High School. Gladys Horton was born in 1945 in Gainesville (FL). Horton never knew her biological parents throughout her life, and lived with several foster families after being put up for adoption at nine months old. By the time of her high school years at Inkster High School, Horton had taken a strong interest in singing, joining the high school glee club. At age 14, she formed a group called the Del–Rhythmetts with three friends, recording under a small record label called JVB Records. Katherine Anderson was born in Inkster in 1944. While Anderson was not able to afford records growing up, she performed in gospel groups and the high school. She co-founded with Horton the girl group which was initially called the Casinyets. Georgianna Tillman was born in 1944 in Inkster.
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