#28: Hound Dog Man/Friendly World by Fabian
Peak Month: November 1959
A-side: “Hound Dog Man”
Peak Position #1
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #9
Peak Position on Cashbox Singles Chart ~ #11
YouTube.com: “Hound Dog Man”
Lyrics: “Hound Dog Man”
Peak Month: January 1960
B-Side: “Friendly World”
Peak Position #2
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
Peak Position on Cashbox Singles Chart ~ #16
YouTube.com: “Friendly World”
Lyrics: “Friendly World”
Fabian Forte was born in Philadelphia in 1943. His father was a police officer in the city. Forte was discovered in 1957 by Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis, owners of Chancellor. At the time, record producers were looking to the South Philadelphia neighborhoods in search of teenage talents with good looks. Marcucci was a friend of Fabian’s next-door neighbor. One day, Fabian’s father had a heart attack, and, while he was being taken away in an ambulance, Marcucci spotted Fabian. Fabian later recalled, “He kept staring at me and looking at me. I had a crew cut, but this was the day of Rick Nelson and Elvis. He comes up and says to me, ‘So if you’re ever interested in the rock and roll business…’ and hands me his card. I looked at the guy like he was out of his mind. I told him, ‘Leave me alone. I’m worried about my dad.'” When Fabian’s father returned from the hospital he was unable to work, so when Marcucci persisted, Fabian and his family were amenable, and he agreed to record a single. Frankie Avalon, also of South Philadelphia, suggested Forte as a possibility. Fabian later said, “They gave me a pompadour and some clothes and those goddamned white bucks and out I went. He was the right look and right for what we were going for”, wrote Marcucci later.
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#30: Honky Tonk Man by Johnny Horton
Peak Month: April 1957 & March 1962
April 1957: 9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #3
March 1962: 9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #96
YouTube.com: “Honky Tonk Man”
Lyrics: “Honky Tonk Man”
John LeGale Horton was born on April 30, 1925, in Los Angeles, born to migrant fruit pickers. He spent most of his life growing up in East Texas when the family wasn’t back in California picking fruit. A great athlete, twenty-six colleges offered him basketball scholarships after his graduation from high school. Horton chose to study geology for a while in Seattle. Then in 1948 he went north to Alaska to pan for gold. While there he began to write songs. Back in the lower forty-eight, Horton was a winner at a talent contest in Henderson, Texas. This prompted him to move back to California and seek a career in music. He was a guest on Cliffie Stone’s Hometown Jamboree on KXLA-TV in Pasadena. This spawned The Singing Fisherman, Horton’s own half-hour show. He got married to a girl he met in Hollywood named Donna Cook. In high demand to perform on the Louisiana Hayride, they relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana. Touring was hard on the newlyweds and Horton got divorced.
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#34: Boulevard by Jackson Browne
Peak Month: September 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube.com: “Boulevard”
Lyrics: “Boulevard”
Clyde Jackson Browne was born in 1948 in Heidelberg, Germany. His father was on assignment writing for Stars and Stripes magazine for the United States military. At the age of three, Jackson Browne moved with his family to Los Angeles. As he grew up he developed an interest in music and was singing and playing guitar in folk clubs, including The Troubadour Club in West Hollywood. In 1966, Browne joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Before he turned 18, Browne moved to Greenwich Village and was a staff writer for Electra Records. He was a musician on several albums and began to write songs that were covered by Joan Baez, the Eagles, the Byrds, Linda Ronstadt and others. In 1971 his self-titled debut album included the top ten hit “Doctor My Eyes”. Another track, “Rock Me On The Water”, peaked at #48 in 1972 and was covered by Linda Ronstadt. As well, Jackson Browne co-wrote “Take It Easy”, a #12 hit for the Eagles in 1972. On March 15, 1972, Jackson Browne gave his first concert in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
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#42: Conscience by James Darren
Peak Month: May 1962
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube.com: “Conscience”
Lyrics: “Conscience”
James William Ercolani was born in 1936 in Philadelphia. From a young age he wanted to be an actor. He recalls, “I wasn’t really a singer. I was a kid in Philly whose dad would take him to bars and nightclubs and I would get up and sing two songs.” Just after he turned twenty, Ercolani went to the Brill Building in Manhattan and was instantly offered a contract with Columbia Pictures. He was quickly given the stage name James Darren. His first film was a crime film noir in 1956 titled Rumble on the Docks. Darren was given the lead role as a young man caught up in the rivalry between two gangs, who eventually changes his ways and gets work in his father’s print shop. In 1957, Darren starred in the military comedy Operation Mad Ball with Jack Lemmon. That year, James Darren was cast in the laundry business meets crime syndicate film noir The Brothers Rico. His third film noir was in 1957 titled The Tijuana Story, and Darren was given second billing. In 1958, it was the western film Gunman’s Walk where James Darren appeared with top billing on the movie poster along with Tab Hunter and Van Hefflin.
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#45: You’re The Reason by Bobby Edwards
Peak Month: September 1961
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube.com: “You’re The Reason”
Lyrics: “You’re The Reason”
Robert Edward Moncrief was born in 1926 in Anniston, Alabama. Around 1956 Moncrief served for two years in the United States navy. As Bobby Moncrief, he first recorded for Pappy Daily at ‘D’ Records in late 1958. His first recording was called “Long Gone Daddy”. In 1959, was going by the stage name Bobby Edwards. He revived Tex Ritter’s 1945 hit, “Jealous Heart”, written by Jenny Lou Carson. He also has a hit credited to Bobby Edwards With The Texas Trailblazers titled “Stranger To Me”. The record was issued on the Bluebonnet label. Then Edwards went out west, working shows on his own in southern California. Songwriter Terry Fell was impressed with Edwards and placed him on Crest Records. Fell helped produce and arrange a song Edwards wrote titled “You’re the Reason.” The single was recorded in February 1961.
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#47: Walking With My Angel by Bobby Vee
Peak Month: November-December 1961
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube.com: “Walking With My Angel”
Lyrics: “Walking With My Angel”
Bobby Vee was born in Fargo, North Dakota as Robert Thomas Velline. He was part of a highschool band that was asked to step in and perform for the concert that was to be headlined by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Each had died in a small plane crash the day before. And the concert was held in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the Red River from Fargo. Fifteen year old Vee and his band were a hit and he got a contract with Liberty Records. It was his fourth single release, Devil or Angel, that catapulted him into the Top Ten and teen idol stardom. The single peaked at #1 in Vancouver on September 10, 1960. Vee’s followup single, “Rubber Ball”, climbed to #3 in Vancouver in December ’60. “Run to Him” (#2) “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” (#3) and “Come Back When You Grow Up Girl” (#3).
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#52: Robbin’ The Cradle by Tony Bellus
Peak Month: August 1959
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube.com: “Robbin’ The Cradle”
Lyrics: “Robbin’ The Cradle”
Anthony J. Bellusci was born in Chicago in 1936. On his debut album, NRC Records wrote “Tony has been a professional entertainer since he was fifteen years old. Graduating from Bradley, Illinois High, he was offered scholarships in both teaching and dramatics. He was not long in making up his mind, and immediately checked in at the famed Goodman Theatre in Chicago for the basic training in dramatics that has been of so much value to him in his personal appearances.”
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#66: You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care) by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: November 1957
8 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson’s Teen Canteen Survey
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care”
Lyrics: “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care”
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie Garon Presley, was stillborn. When he was eleven years old his parents bought him a guitar at the Tupelo Hardware Store. As a result Elvis grew up as an only child. He and his parents, Vernon and Gladys, moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948. The young Presley graduated from high school in 1953. That year he stopped by the Memphis Recording Service to record two songs, including “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager. In 1954, Elvis began his singing career recording “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” at Sun Records in Memphis.
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#60: Paralyzed/When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again by Elvis Presley
A-side: “Paralyzed”
Peak Month: November 1956
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #59
YouTube.com: “Paralyzed”
Lyrics: “Paralyzed”
B-side: “When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again”
Peak Month: November 1956
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube.com: “When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again”
Lyrics: “When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again”
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie Garon Presley, was stillborn. When he was eleven years old his parents bought him a guitar at the Tupelo Hardware Store. As a result Elvis grew up as an only child. He and his parents, Vernon and Gladys, moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948. The young Presley graduated from high school in 1953. That year he stopped by the Memphis Recording Service to record two songs, including “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager. In 1954, Elvis began his singing career recording “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” at Sun Records in Memphis.
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#69: Mona Lisa by Carl Mann
Peak Month: August 1959
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX Chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube.com: “Mona Lisa”
Lyrics: “Mona Lisa”
Carl Richard Mann was born in 1942 in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He was referred to as “The Last Son of Sun”, as he was one of the final artists introduced by Sam Phillips of Sun Records. A child musical prodigy, he learned to play the guitar by age eight, sang in church, and by the age of eleven also began to perform country songs for local talent shows in nearby Jackson, Tennessee. In 1957 at the age of 15, Mann released his first single on Jaxon Records, “Gonna Rock and Roll Tonight” b/w “Rockin’ Love”. After he released several more singles on Jaxon, Carl Perkins drummer – W.S. Holland – became the manager for Carl Mann.
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