The Cuff Links were a creation of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss who wrote and produced the group’s material. They hired musicians to sing and play, and controlled the Cuff Links name. Ron Dante, the lead singer of The Archies, was the lead singer on the Cuff Links debut single “Tracy”. He provided multi-tracks of Dante’s voice to record “Tracy”. The single shot to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1969. When a band was assembled to tour with the hit single, Ron Dante decided not to tour with the Cuff Links. The band that was assembled to tour was comprised of Pat Rizzo (saxophone), Rich Dimino (keyboards), Bob Gill (trumpet/flugelhorn/flute), Dave Lavender (guitar), Andrew “Junior” Denno (bass), Joe Cord (vocals) and Danny Valentine (drums).

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#3: Date With The Blues by Billy Williams

City: Oshawa, ON
Radio Station: CKLB
Peak Month: July 1957
Peak Position in Oshawa ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Date With The Blues”
Lyrics: “Date With The Blues”

Wilfred “Billy” Williams was born in Waco (TX) in 1911. His dad was a Methodist minister. Growing up, he sang in choirs at churches where his father was the pastor, with his mother often the choir director. He was frequently a soloist, and he also learned to help her arrange music. From the early 1930s, Billy Williams was a member of the Charioteers, a gospel and pop group. With Williams as lead singer from 1935, The Charioteers signed a contract with Decca Records. They had a #23 pop hit in the USA in 1940 titled “So Long”. Williams served in the United States Army during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He received a medical discharge in 1944. Back from the Army, Williams and the Charioteers had a #9 pop hit backing Frank Sinatra in 1945 titled “Don’t Forget Tonight Tomorrow”. In 1947 The Charioteers version of “Open The Door Richard” climbed to #6 on the pop chart. They equaled their success in 1948 backing Buddy Clark on “Now Is The Hour”.

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#2: Strawberry Shortcake by Jay & the Techniques

City: New Glasgow, NS
Radio Station: CKEC
Peak Month: February-March 1968
Peak Position in New Glasgow ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #27
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “Strawberry Shortcake”
Lyrics: “Strawberry Shortcake”

Jay & The Techniques was a pop group from Allentown (PA) formed in 1965. The group Jay & The Techniques was born when lead vocalist Jay Proctor (born in October 1940) and vocalist George “Lucky” Lloyd teamed with an all-white band. The white members of the newly formed inter-racial band were lead guitar player Dante Dancho, bass guitar player Chuck Crowl, drummer Karl Landis (born Karl Lippowitsch), saxophone player Ronnie Goosley, and trumpeter Jon Walsh. Along with Sly and the Family Stone, Jay & The Techniques were among the first inter-racial bands to break into Top 40 radio. Jay Proctor had his stage debut singing acapella in 1958 in a group called Hambone. In 1960 and ’61, Proctor had cut a few unsuccessful singles. George Lloyd was born in 1941, and by 1956 was an aspiring singer who made his first recording at the age of 15 with a group called the Jaylarks. Initially, Jay & The Techniques were called the Floridians.
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#27: Goin’ Away by the Fireballs

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: May 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #79
YouTube: “Goin’ Away”
Lyrics: “Goin’ Away”

The Fireballs were formed in Raton, New Mexico, in 1957 and got their start as an instrumental group featuring the distinctive lead guitar of George Tomsco. Born in 1940 in Raton (NM), Tomsco learned to play guitar. Another founding member, Stan Lark, was also born in 1940 in Raton (NM). In liner notes of one of their albums, it states “Stan Lark plays electric bass… is as tall as a house and eats like a horse.” They recorded at Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico. According to group founders Tomsco and Lark, they took their name after their standing ovation performance of Jerry Lee Lewis‘s “Great Balls of Fire”, at the Raton High School PTA talent contest in New Mexico, U.S. They reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 with the singles “Torquay” (#39), and “Bulldog” (#24). “Torquay” climbed to #6 in Calgary (AB). “Vaquero (Cowboy)” peaked at #7 in Calgary in 1960. “Quite a Party” peaked at #27 on the Hot 100 and #29 in the UK Singles chart in August 1961. There were lineup changes in the early 1960s when the Fireballs added Doug Roberts on drums, plus Petty Studio singer Jimmy Gilmer (born September 15, 1940, in Chicago and raised in Amarillo, Texas) to the group.

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#1: Super Freak by Rick James

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: December 1981
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Netherlands Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Super Freak”
Lyrics: “Super Freak”

James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in 1948 in Buffalo (NY). His dad left the family in 1958, and his mother who was a dancer got additional work as a numbers runner with the Buffalo crime family to make ends meet. This gave a James the chance to see acts like John Coltrane, Etta James and Miles Davis. But it also introduced him to the underbelly of society as an older child. In his autobiography, Glow, it is stated that he lost his virginity to a girl of 14 when he was “9 or 10.” James joined the Navy at age 14 or 15, lying about his age to avoid the draft for the Vietnam war. The singer had already picked up a penchant for narcotics and theft by this time in his life, and there was hope the Navy could go some way to straighten him out. However, that was soon dashed as he failed to turn up to his fortnightly reserve session aboard USS Enterprise. It also gained him a ticket to Vietnam.

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#8: Give Me One More Chance by Wilmer & the Dukes

City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: July 1968
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #80
YouTube: “Give Me One More Chance”

Wilmer Alexander Jr. was born in 1943 in Geneva, NY. Alexander Jr., Ronnie Alberts, and Ralph Gillotte formed Wilmer Alexander Junior and the Dukes in Geneva (NY) in1957. Except for Alexander, all of the members were white. This made the band stand out even more in some of the all-black clubs that they first played in. The Alexanders lived on 90 Wadsworth Street in Geneva, and the band used to practice at one of the garages owned by the Felice Trucking Company on Kirkwood Ave. Alexander sang and played saxophone, and the band was managed by Ebo (Owl) Alberts, the father of the drummer, Ronnie Alberts, and the original bassist, Monty Alberts.

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#26: Real True Lovin’ by Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: May 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #119
YouTube: “Real True Lovin’”

Sidney Liebowitz was born in 1935 to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, and his mother, Helen, was a homemaker. During high school, Lawrence skipped school to spend time at the Brill Building in the hopes of being employed as a singer. In 1952 at the age of 16, Lawrence signed a contract with King Records after winning a talent contest on Arthur Godfrey’s CBS TV show. That year he had a #21 hit single credited to Steve Lawrence on the Billboard pop chart titled “Poinciana”. The next year, talk show host Steve Allen hired Lawrence to be one of the singers on Allen’s local New York City late night show on WNBC-TV, with vocalists Eydie Gormé and Andy Williams. The show was chosen by NBC to be seen on the national network, becoming The Tonight Show, and Lawrence, Gormé, and Williams stayed until the program’s end in 1957. Lawrence credited the exposure and experience he gained on Allen’s show for launching his career “I think Steve Allen was the biggest thing that happened to me. Every night I was called upon to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”

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#24: Games That Grown Up Children Play by Browning Bryant

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: July 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Games That Grown Up Children Play”
Lyrics: “Games That Grown Up Children Play”

Known professionally as Browning Bryant (born in 1957), he was the only child of Maud and Ray Bryant, and a long-time resident of Pickens, South Carolina. He was given a guitar at age three, took lessons at age seven, and soon began performing. He attained success singing folk-pop that was uncharacteristically mature and introspective for a pre-teen heartthrob. With a young voice compared to Wayne Newton, Browning Bryant’s career is highlighted in a meteoric rise starting around the age of ten. In 1967, he sang at the Easley Football Jamboree and was invited on a Charlotte, North Carolina, TV show. He appeared six times on The Arthur Godfrey Show on CBS. That led to a talent agency visit in New York. In 1968 , at the age of eleven, he was signed to Dot Records. His first single release was in 1969 at the age of twelve.

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#19: Double Dutch Bus by Frankie Smith

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: August 1981
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
Peak Position on Dutch Singles Top 100 ~ #7
YouTube: “Double Dutch Bus”
Lyrics: “Double Dutch Bus”

Franklyn “Frankie” Leon Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1940. As a child, he taught himself to play piano. He studied a minor in music at a college in Tennessee. One of his uncles was comedian Pigmeat Markham. In 1973, Frankie Smith and Bill Bloom wrote a song called “Double Dutch” after a game of skipping rope popular across America. However, the single was not a hit. Through the 70s, Frankie Smith wrote songs recorded by Melba Moore, Barbara Mason, Archie Bell & The Drells, Billy Paul, and others.

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#11: Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: July 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #27
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #27
YouTube: “Ring Of Fire”
Lyrics: “Ring Of Fire”

John R. “Johnny” Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, in 1932. At the age of five he started working with his sharecropping parents and siblings in the cotton fields. During his childhood his family home was flooded twice. He began singing and playing guitar by the age of 12. He moved to Detroit in his late teens for work. He was drafted and served in the U.S. Air Force as a Morse Code Intercept Operator for Soviet Army transmissions at a base in Germany from 1950 to 1954. When he was discharged from the military he and his new wife, Liberto, moved to Memphis. Cash worked as an appliance salesman while trying to get a break in the music industry. Cash got to audition with Sun Records in 1954. He had his first charting single on the Billboard Country charts in 1955 titled “Cry! Cry! Cry!” Subsequently single releases, “So Doggone Lonesome” and “I Walk The Line” climbed to #4 and #1 on the Country charts. The latter hit also was his first debut on the Billboard pop charts where it made it to #17 in 1956.

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