#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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#60: Desiderata by Les Crane
Peak Month: November-December 1971
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #8
YouTube.com: “Desiderata”
Lyrics: “Desiderata”
Les Crane was born in New York City in 1933 as Lesley Stein, and was raised in a Jewish household. He was a talk show host on KONO (San Antonio, TX) in 1958, and moved to WPEN in Philadelphia. In 1961, Crane hosted a talk show on KGO in San Francisco. Years later, American Top 40 show host Casey Kasem credited Les Crane as one of several radio show hosts who solidified the Top 40 pop song format. Previously, AM stations had Top 50 (like CFUN) or Top 60 (like CKWX) or even for awhile the Top 99 (WIBG – 990 AM – in Philadelphia). In 1964 ABC offered Crane a chance to host a show on the east coast. Based in New York City on WABC, The New Les Crane Show went head-to-head with Johnny Carson.
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#63: First Name Initial by Annette and the Afterbeats
A-side: “First Name Initial”
Peak Month: December 1959
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube.com: “First Name Initial”
Lyrics: “First Name Initial”
Annette Joanne Funicello was born in Utica, New York in 1942. In 1955 she began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve when Walt Disney discovered her performing as the Swan Queen in a dance recital of Swan Lake at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, California. She became one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. As a teenager, she became a pop singer and shortly after an actress in a series of films popularizing the successful Beach Party genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon during the mid-1960s. On July 17, 1955 Annette Funicello made her television debut during the live broadcast of Disneyland’s opening day ceremonies. She participated in a song and dance routine promoting the upcoming debut of Walt Disney’s new television show, The Mickey Mouse Club. Following the shows premier on Monday, October 3, 1955, The Mickey Mouse Club became an immediate hit. Its army of small, amateur mouse-eared stars took America by storm. It wasn’t long before the young audience of boys and girls developed a particular interest in a little dark haired girl named Annette.
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#74: King Creole by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: August 1958
8 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson Teen Canteen Survey
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Cashbox Top 100 Singles ~ #20
YouTube.com: “King Creole”
Lyrics: “King Creole”
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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#76: She’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel
Peak Month: November 1978
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube.com: “She’s Always A Woman”
Lyrics: “She’s Always A Woman”
William Martin Joel was born in 1949 in The Bronx. His father, Helmut “Howard” Joel, was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and sold his textile business at a fraction of its value to be able to move to Switzerland. From there his father traveled to Cuba and was able to enter the United States from the Caribbean. Billy Joel’s mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in Brooklyn, also to Jewish parents. Young William was coerced by his mother to take piano lessons at the age of four. He kept taking piano lessons until he was sixteen. His parents divorced when he was eight, and in his later years in high school Billy Joel played at a piano bar to make some extra income to support his single mother, his sister and himself. Though his parents were Jewish, Billy Joel did not identify as Jewish and began to attend a Roman Catholic parish at age eleven.
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