#58: 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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#59: 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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#48: 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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#75: There Ought To Be A Law by Mickey & Sylvia
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CHML
Peak Month: March 1957
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube: “There Ought To Be A Law”
Lyrics: “There Ought To Be A Law”
Mickey and Sylvia were a calypso-pop duo who were popular in the mid to late 50s. MacHouston “Mickey” Baker was born in 1925 in Louisville, Kentucky. His mother was black and his father is believed to be white. Baker was put in an orphanage at age 11 in 1936. After a series of escapes from the orphanage, at age 16 he headed to New York City. It was there he found work as a laborer and then a dishwasher. But after hanging out in the pool halls of 26th Street, he gave up regular work to become a full-time pool shark. At the age of 19, he saved $14 and bought a guitar. In 1949, he formed his own band. In the early 50s, Mickey Baker started working as a session musician.
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#72: 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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#77: My What A Shame by Dino, Desi & Billy
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: March 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “My What A Shame”
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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#74: Mr. Businessman by Ray Stevens
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #28
YouTube: “Mr. Businessman”
Lyrics: “Mr. Businessman”
Harold Ray Ragsdale was born in January 1939, in Clarkdale, Georgia. In high school he formed a group called The Barons. When he was 18, he was signed to Capitol Records on their Prep label. His debut single was “Five More Steps”. The single charted briefly on CKWX in Vancouver in February 1958. In the summer of 1960, Stevens “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” climbed to #22 in Vancouver. While in 1961, Stevens released a single about unscrupulous pharmaceutical products pitched to cure whatever ails you. “Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills” reached #8 in Vancouver, and also charted in the Top 50 in Winnipeg and Montreal. For several decades, Ray Stevens’ song was the longest song title to make the Billboard Hot 100.
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#81: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It by R.E.M.
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: March 1988
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube: “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
Lyrics: “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
R.E.M. is a band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980. Drummer William “Bill” Berry was born in Duluth (MN) in 1958. His family spent some years variously in Wisconsin and then Ohio, before moving to Macon (GA) in 1972. In high school he met guitar player Mike Mills. Born in Orange County (CA), Mills moved with his family to Georgia when he was six months old. Mills and Berry formed a band called Shadowfax, which later became The Back Door Band. Lead vocalist, Michael Stipe, was born in Decatur (GA) in 1960. Like Mike Mills, he was raised in a military family. When Stipe was in university, he met store clerk and guitar player Peter Buck. The pair formed a band and were later joined by Berry and Mills. Peter Buck was born in 1956 in Berkeley (CA). His family moved to Georgia where he attended public school.
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#90: Joy In The Morning by Richard Chamberlain
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: July-August 1965
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Joy In The Morning”
Lyrics: “Joy In The Morning”
George Richard Chamberlain was born in 1934 in Beverly Hills, California. After high school graduation in 1952, he studied acting at a college in Pomona. But, he was drafted in December 1952, and sent to fight in the Korean War. He rose to the rank of sergeant. In 1959, Richard Chamberlain appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The following year, he made a guest appearance in the crime-drama series Rescue 8, about the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Other guest appearances in TV shows in the early ’60s include Gunsmoke, the crime series Bourbon Street Beat, Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff, The Deputy starring Henry Fonda, and another western titled Whispering Smith. In 1960, Chamberlain starred opposite Richard Falk in The Secret of the Purple Reef. In 1961, Chamberlain starred with Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens, and Duane Eddy in the western A Thunder of Drums.
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#45: Elephant Candy by The Fun And Games
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: December 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Elephant Candy”
Lyrics: “Elephant Candy”
There was a band of musicians from a high school in Houston, Texas, that included rhythm guitarist, trumpet and recorder player, and vocalist Rock Romano (born 1945). Rock was playing guitar by the age of 13. Romano was joined by classmates Mike Cemo, guitar player and vocalist Paul Guillet, and John Bonno. When they added Richard Bain, D. J. Greer, and drummer Carson Graham, the students took the name The Six Pents. They worked as the house band at La Maison in Houston. They also recorded a single at local studio named Andrus. After releasing the single, they changed their name to The Sixpentz. They released a single on Matrix label titled “Your Girl Too”. They moved to the Geer label and released “Good To You”. A third garage rock tune, “Summer Girl”, was released on the Kidd label in 1966.
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