#17: Learning To Fly by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1991
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #22
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #28
YouTube: “Learning To Fly”
Lyrics: “Learning To Fly”
Thomas Earl Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mom worked at a tax office. While still ten years old, Tom Petty met Elvis Presley on the film set for Follow That Dream. But it was seeing the Beatles on TV in February 1964, that gave Tom Petty his inspiration. He recalls, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.
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#6: Swanee River Rock by Ray Charles
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: December 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Swanee River Rock”
Lyrics: “Swanee River Rock”
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. was born in 1930 in Albany, Georgia. His half-brother, George, was born when Ray was one-years-old. The brother had the same father, but George’s mother was someone the father had taken up with after he abandoned the family in the first year of Ray Charles’ life. George died accidentally in their mother’s laundry tub at the age of 4. From an early age Ray learned to play piano, though he began to lose his sight at the age of 4, and lost it by age 7. In 1937, Ray Charles was sent to St. Augustine (FL) to attend the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. At the school, young Ray learned to play classical piano by using braille music. In 1945, his mother died when he was 14-years-old.
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#19: Respectable by the Outsiders
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Respectable” – The Outsiders
YouTube: “Respectable” – The Isley Brothers (1959)
Lyrics: “Respectable”
Tom King was born in Cleveland in 1942. In 1957, at the age of 15, he formed Tom King & the Starfires. They released a single titled “Ring Of Love” which charted in the Top 30 in Cleveland in the summer of 1960. The Starfires released three more singles that got airplay but not much chart action. Tom King formed The Outsiders, a continuation of the Starfires, in 1965. Joining him were Sonny Geraci on lead vocals. Born Emmett Peter “Sonny” Geraci in 1946 in Cleveland, he was described in a WTAM 1100 radio obituary as “a street kid.” In 1964, Geraci became the lead singer of The Starfires prior to Tom King changing the name of the group to The Outsiders. Along with King and Geraci, Mert Madsen (born 1940 on the island of Samos in Denmark) had been an original with The Starfires, and provided continuity for The Outsiders on bass guitar and backing vocals. Madsen learned to play harmonica at the age of four and piano accordion at the age of ten. He moved with his parents from Denmark to America in 1957. He learned English from watching TV shows and movies. In 1958 he became a member of the Cleveland Heights Barbershop Chorus and Quartet.
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#22: Shaving Cream by Benny Bell
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: April 1975
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Shaving Cream”
Lyrics: “Shaving Cream”
Benny Bell (born Benjamin Samberg) was born in New York City in 1906. His father wanted him to be a rabbi, but after trying various odd jobs including self-employed street peddler, he decided to pursue a career in vaudeville and music, sometimes under the names Benny Bimbo and Paul Wynn. His first record, “The Alimony Blues”, for Plaza Records on December 16, 1929, was a comical song about preferring to spend time in jail rather than pay alimony. He went on to write approximately 600 songs. He also wrote jingles on radio, including for Lemke’s cockroach powder. Bell enjoyed writing risqué lyrics, and in 1939 he was advised that he could make so-called party records with “blue” lyrics, primarily for use in jukeboxes in cocktail bars. He entered into this endeavour using his self-established record company, while continuing to make ethnic and mainstream comedy records. In an interview on the Dr. Demento radio program, Bell stated that he kept his straight and blue careers separate for many years, the latter being a secret. His eventual fame would come from his risqué material.
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#29: Younger Girl by the Critters
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1966
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube: “Younger Girl”
Lyrics: “Younger Girl”
In 1964 there was a group in Plainfield, New Jersey called the Vibratones. The lineup was comprised of Jimmy Ryan on lead guitar, Ken Gorka on bass guitar, Jack Decker on drums, Chris Darway on keyboards, and Bob Podstawski on saxophone. One night a local singer-songwriter named Don Ciccone came by to hear the group. His dad owned Bill Williams Auto Sales, and the Ciccone family lived in a 56-room mansion in Plainfield. Don Ciccone learned to play both guitar and bass guitar. The Vibratones were impressed with Ciccone being both a musician and a singer-songwriter. They asked him to join their group. Ciccone suggested they change their name to the Critters, a riff off of the British Invasion band the Animals who had a number-one hit with “House Of The Rising Sun”.
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#57: If You’re Thinking What I’m Thinking by Dino, Desi & Billy
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: June 1967
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #128
YouTube: “If You’re Thinkin’ What I’m Thinkin‘”
Lyrics: N/A
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV is the son of Des Arnaz and Lucille Ball. His birth in 1953 was one of the most publicized in television history. His parents were the stars of the television sitcom I Love Lucy, and Ball’s pregnancy was part of the storyline, which was considered daring then. The same day Lucy gave birth to Desi Jr., the fictional Lucy Ricardo gave birth to “Little Ricky.” As a testament to how interested the American public was in Lucy’s TV baby, Arnaz appeared on the cover on the very first issue of TV Guide with a title that read: “Lucy’s $50,000,000 baby.” The reason he was given this title was because revenue from certain tie-in commitments were expected to top that mark. In 1964 Desi became the drummer for the pop trio Dino, Desi and Billy. “Dino” was Dean Paul Martin, the son of pop singer Dean Martin “Billy” was Billy Hinsche, brother-in-law of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
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#52: My Heart Belongs To Only You by Bobby Vinton
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: April 1964
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #9
YouTube: “My Heart Belongs Only To You”
Lyrics: “My Heart Belongs Only To You”
Stanley Robert Vinton was born in 1935 in Canonsberg, Pennsylvania. His father was a bandleader, and the Polish surname was originally Vintula, and anglicized to Vinton. He was given a weekly 25-cent allowance as an incentive to learn the clarinet (about $4.25 in 2024 dollars). By the age of sixteen, Bobby Vinton had his own band in Pittsburgh. He got a degree in university in music composition, and learned to also play saxophone, piano, drums, trumpet and oboe. In the fall of 1959, Bobby Vinton wrote a song titled “First Impression” which became a Top 40 hit in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Syracuse (NY) and Flint (MI). In early 1960, Vinton had a Top 20 hit in Syracuse (NY) with “A Freshman And A Sophomore”. He served in the United States Army for two years and got a record deal late in 1960 on the Epic label.
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#53: Turn Down Day by the Cyrkle
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Turn Down Day”
Lyrics: “Turn Down Day”
Don Dannemann was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, NY. By age eight, he started playing piano. In 1961, he formed The Rhondells at Lafayette College in Easton (PA). Tom Dawes was born in Albany (NY) in 1943. He co-founded The Rhondells with Dannemann. Earl Pickens also joined the group, playing keyboards and bass guitar. Marty Fried (alias Troy Honda) joined the band when they needed a drummer in 1963. The Rhondells covered songs by the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, Beatles and other recording artists into the mid-60s. The four band members were performing as the Rhondells in Atlantic City, N.J., when they were discovered by an associate of Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein. A that point, The Rhondells had released one garage rock single titled “Don’t Say That You Love Me”.
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#38: Overjoyed by Stevie Wonder
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CHQR
Peak Month: April 1986
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ “Also Getting Airplay”
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Overjoyed”
Lyrics: “Overjoyed”
Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950. He was born six weeks premature and confined to a hospital incubator. After birth he developed resulted in retinopathy of prematurity – a condition of some premature babies – in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach. Soon after his birth he became blind. As an adult he remarked “people who see often choose the book by the cover…. Maybe a person is also beautiful inwardly and that’s the side I’ll know first.” When he was four his mother divorced his father and remarried. The boy took his new father’s legal name, Morris, after they moved to Detroit. He remembers that in the winter of 1954 “my mother, brothers and I went to this dry dock where there was coal and steal some to keep warm. To a poor person, that’s not stealing, that’s not a crime. That’s a necessity.” As he could not see, he spent a lot of time in his family home listening to the radio. His favorite recording acts were Johnny Ace, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, and later Del Shannon. An uncle gave him a harmonica. After he mastered the instrument, he was given a drum kit one Christmas. And a neighbor gave her piano to Stevie where she moved from the neighborhood. He formed a singing partnership with his friend John Glover. They billed themselves as Stevie and John, playing on street corners, parties and dances.
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#65: In My Room by the Beach Boys
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: December 1963
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “In My Room”
Lyrics: “In My Room”
Brian Wilson was born in Inglewood, California, in 1942. In biographer Peter Ames Carlin’s book, Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, he relates that when Brian Wilson first heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” it had a huge emotional impact on him. As a youngster, Wilson learned to play a toy accordion and sang in children’s choirs. In his teens he started a group with his cousin, Mike Love and his brother, Carl. Mike was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and Carl was born in 1946 in Hawthorne, California. Brian Wilson named the group Carl and the Passions in order to convince his brother to join. They had a performance in the fall of 1960 at Hawthorne High School, where they attended. Their set included some songs by Dion and the Belmonts. Among the people in the audience was Al Jardine, another classmate. Jardine was born in Hawthorne in 1942. He was so impressed with the performance that he let the group know. Jardine would later be enlisted, along with Dennis Wilson to form the Pendletones in 1961. Dennis was born in Inglewood in 1944.
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