#49: Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl by the Barbarians
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August 1965
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube: “Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl”
Lyrics: “Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl”
The Barbarians were a band from Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The drummer was Victor “Moulty” Moulton, born in Provincetown (MA) in 1945. Jerry Causi was the lead vocalist and had recently left the United States Coast Guard. Guitarist Ron Enos (born 1943) joined in 1964, but left the band before they found their fifteen minutes of fame. He was replaced by Geoffrey “Jeff” Morris in 1965. Guitar player Bruce Benson (born in 1946 in Provincetown) was the third original continuing member of the Barbarians. In the summer of 1964, Bruce Benson had a job at Howard Johnson’s tin Provincetown. Benson recalls, “I helped man the soda fountain, all the 3D burgers and ice cream you could eat.” Victor Moulton worked in the kitchen washing dishes. Benson and Moulton became friends and go to Victor’s Restaurant down Bradford Street from Howard Johnson’s.
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#26: Down Home by Rick Nelson
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: October-November 1963
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #126
YouTube: “Down Home”
Lyrics: N/A
In 1940 Eric Hilliard Nelson was born. On February 20, 1949, while still eight years old, he took the stage name of Ricky Nelson when appearing on the radio program, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. A child actor, Ricky was also a musician and singer-songwriter. who starred alongside his family in the long-running television series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–66), as well as co-starring alongside John Wayne and Dean Martin in the western Rio Bravo (1959). He placed 53 songs on the Billboard singles charts between 1957 and 1973.
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#17: Hot Rod Hearts by Robbie Dupree
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: September 1980
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Hot Rod Hearts”
Lyrics: “Hot Rod Hearts”
Robert Dupuis was born in 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. In 1980, he released his debut self-titled album Robbie Dupree. He took the name Robbie Dupree as his stage name. The debut single from the album was titled “Steal Away”. It reached #6 in the USA and #14 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada. Dupree is regarded as a one-hit-wonder. “Steal Away” was ranked #64 by American cable TV network VH1 on their 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s list. However, Robbie Dupree actually released more than one Top 40 hit single. His followup was titled “Hot Rod Hearts”.
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#19: Beach Party by Frankie Avalon
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: January 1964
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Beach Party”
Lyrics: N/A
Francis Thomas Avallone was born in Philadelphia in 1940. When he was 12-years-old, he appeared in a Christmas episode on The Jackie Gleason Show, playing trumpet in a Honeymooners sketch. RCA signed Frankie Avalon to the label and in 1954 released the trumpet solo he performed in the December 1952 Honeymooners sketch. “Trumpet Sorrento” climbed to #42 on the Cashbox Best Selling Singles chart in March 1954. Avalon also appeared on The Perry Como Show where he played trumpet. With Bobby Rydell, Avalon was in a doo-wop group called Rocco and the Saints. They were backing vocalists for his debut single in 1957, “Cupid”, written by Peter DeAngelis. He appeared in the 1957 rock and roll film Jamboree and performed “Teacher’s Pet” (also written by DeAngelis, and different from “Teacher’s Pet” recorded by Doris Day in 1958). In the film Jamboree, Frankie Avalon got to meet other pop stars in the cast including Fats Domino, Connie Francis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Bowen, Buddy Knox, Charlie Gracie, and jazz singer Joe Williams.
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#1: Macho Man by Village People
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: October 1978
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Macho Man”
Lyrics: “Macho Man”
The Village People were formed in 1977 in San Francisco. French composer Jacques Morali had written some dance tunes. Around that time singer Victor Willis gave Morali a demo tape. Jacques Morali liked the demo and invited Willis to record four songs for an album credited to the Village People. The group name referenced New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, at the time known for having a substantial gay population. Morali got the inspiration for creating an assembly of American male archetypes based on the gay men of ‘The Village’ who frequently dressed in various fantasy attire. The Village People debut single release was “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me)”. It topped the Billboard Dance Club songs chart in for seven weeks from September 3rd to October 15th, 1977. Other cuts from the Village People album, “In Hollywood” and “Fire Island”, shared the top spot on the Dance Club chart. At the time, the Village People only consisted of singer Victor Willis.
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#31: Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square) by Tony Bennett
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: October 1956
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”
Lyrics: “Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)”
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in New York City in 1926. His parents were grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (nee Suraci), and he was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. Both parents had come from the Calabria region in southern Italy. With a father who was ailing and unable to work, Anthony and his brother and sister grew up with their parents in poverty. Anthony had an uncle in vaudeville who inspired him as a young child to consider entertaining as a career. By age 10 Anthony was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around Queens. Though he had an aptitude to study painting and music, he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. Anthony mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a nightclub in Paramus, New Jersey.
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#1: Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight by James Taylor
City: Fort St. John, BC
Radio Station: CKNL
Peak Month: February 1973
Peak Position in Fort St. John ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”
Lyrics: “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”
James Vernon Taylor was born in Boston in 1948. From the age of three, he lived with his family in North Carolina. Taylor would say later “Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people.” During his childhood he took cello lessons, and picked up guitar at the age of 12. James Taylor got to know people in the folk music scene on Martha’s Vineyard, where his family had a vacation home. In 1963 he was playing coffeehouses on the island as part of a duo named Jamie & Kootch. But in 1961 he was enrolled in a boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts. The pressures of the school were too much for the very sensitive James, even though he was doing well academically. Back in North Carolina he became depressed and by 1965 was sleeping for 20 hours a day.
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#45: Sweet Impossible You by Brenda Lee
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: October 1963
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #45
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
Peak Position on the UK Singles chart ~ #28
YouTube: “Sweet Impossible You”
Lyrics: “Sweet Impossible You”
Brenda Mae Tarpley was born in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her parents were poor. During her childhood, young Brenda shared a sagging iron bed with her brother and sister in a series of three-room houses. They had no running water. Here parents went from job to job. After the stock market crash in 1929, Brenda’s mother would recall “you could hardly buy a job.” The region was devastated by an infestation of the boll weevil. Brenda started singing solos each Sunday at the Baptist church where her family attended. In her 2002 autobiography, she wrote “I grew up so poor, and it saddens me to see the poverty that is still there. A lot of my family have never done any better. Some of them are just exactly where they were when I was a kid. And in a way, there is still something inside of me that is a part of that, the part that doesn’t expect much. Little things make them happy, and that’s the same with me.”
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#2: Artificial Flowers by Bobby Darin
City: Sudbury, ON
Radio Station: CKSO
Peak Month: November 1960
Peak Position in Sudbury ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “Artificial Flowers”
Lyrics: “Artificial Flowers”
Walden Robert Cassotto was born in the Bronx in May, 1936. His mother, born in November 1917, was pregnant with him when she was only sixteen, giving birth to him when she was seventeen. In the 1930’s, being a pregnant teenager was very improper. So she gave birth and was introduced to her son as his older “sister.” In order for the deceit to be pulled off, young Robert was raised by his grandmother, Polly, who he understood was his mother. And he understood that his “mother” had given birth at a later stage in life. His “mother” was a showgirl in her earlier days and so not the “grandmother type.” So the ruse was successful. It was not until 1968, when he was 32 years of age, that he discovered that his older sister, Giovannina Cassotto, was actually his mother. In his childhood, Robert learned to play piano, drums and guitar. According to his biographies, Walden Robert Cassotto suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. Bobby’s real sister, Vivienne, said years later, “my earliest memory of Bobby as a child was about his rheumatic fever. We couldn’t walk on the floor because just walking across the floor would put him in agony. I remember Bobby crying and screaming and my father having to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, he was in so much pain. I remember being told all my life, “Bobby’s sickly. You have to be careful, and you have to protect him.” Between the ages of eight and thirteen, Bobby had four illnesses with rheumatic fever. Each one damaging his heart muscle more severely than the previous illness.
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#55: Everyday I Have To Cry Some by Steve Alaimo
City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: March 1963
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #8
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #32
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
YouTube: “Everyday I Have To Cry”
Lyrics: “Everyday I Have To Cry”
Stephen “Steve” Alaimo was born in 1939 in Omaha, Nebraska. He entered the music business during his time as a pre-med student at the University of Miami. He joined his cousin’s instrumental rock band the Redcoats. Alaimo became the guitarist, and shortly took the role of lead singer. The Redcoats played at a sock hop held by local disc jockey Bob Green and record label owner Henry Stone. Subsequently, the Redcoats were signed to a record contract with Stone’s Marlin Records. In 1959, “I Want You To Love Me” became a regional hit for the band. That year Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars came to Miami. They needed a band to back up headliners, so the Redcoats got the nod. As well, Steve Alaimo and the Redcoats climbed to number-one on WINZ in Miami with “She’s My Baby” in August 1959. In the winter of 1959-60, the band released “You Can Fall In Love”, credited to Steve Alaimo and the Redcoats on Dade Records. It charted in Miami. In September 1960, Steve Alaimo and the Redcoats charted the rockabilly tune “Blue Fire” into the Top 20 in Bakersfield (CA), and the Top 30 in Portland (OR).
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