#891: Puppet On A String by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: December 1965
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Puppet On A String”
Lyrics: “Puppet On A String”
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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#183: White Silver Sands by Owen Bradley Quintet
Peak Month: July 1957
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “White Silver Sands”
Lyrics: “White Silver Sands”
Owen Bradley was born in rural Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1915. He learned to play piano in his childhood, and started to play in local nightclubs and roadhouses while he was in his teens. In 1935, when he was 20 Bradley got a job at WSM-AM radio in Nashville, where he worked as an arranger and musician. He played piano, organ and trombone on WSM broadcasts. In 1942, Bradley was hired as the station’s musical director. As well, he was increasingly sought after as the leader of his dance band, performing for well-heeled society parties all over the “Music City.” It was also in 1942 that Owen Bradley co-wrote country singer Roy Acuff’s hit “Night Train to Memphis”, and “Deliver Me To Tennessee” for Woody Herman and His Orchestra.
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#184: Only The Good Die Young by Billy Joel
Peak Month: July 1978
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Only The Good Die Young”
Lyrics: “Only The Good Die Young”
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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#188: Refugee by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Peak Month: March 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Refugee”
Lyrics: “Refugee”
Thomas Earl Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mom worked at a tax office. While still ten years old, Tom Petty met Elvis Presley on the film set for Follow That Dream. But it was seeing the Beatles on TV in February 1964, that gave Tom Petty his inspiration. He recalls, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.
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#190: Lucky Devil/There’s A Little Song Singing In My Heart by Carl Dobkins Jr.
A-side: “Lucky Devil”
Peak Month: February 1960
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Lucky Devil”
Lyrics: “Lucky Devil”
B-side: “(There’s A Little Song Singing) In My Heart”
Peak Month: February 1960
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #52
YouTube: “(There’s A Little Song A-Singing) In My Heart”
Carl Dobkins Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in January 1941. He was raised in a musical family. At the age of nine Carls’ mom and dad bought him a ukulele with a plastic Arthur Godfrey attachment that played chords by pushing buttons. He soon took off the attachment and learned over fifty hillbilly songs as a child. At the age of sixteen, young Carl made a demo of two songs he wrote with his backup group, The Seniors. In Cincinnati Gil Sheppard was a popular deejay. Friends in Carls’ neighborhood introduced him to Gil Sheppard. The deejay was taken with young Dobkins Jr. and his musical ability and the demo he had recorded. Sheppard offered to become his his manager. Carl Dobkins Jr. was promoted as “The Teenage Rage.” As a result of the buzz that happened as a result of his singing at dance parties and record hops, Carl was signed up with Fraternity Records in Cincinnati. His only release with Fraternity was his 1958 single “Take Hold of My Hand” b/w “That’s Why I’m Asking”.
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#193: The Waiting by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Peak Month: July 1981
13 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube: “The Waiting”
Lyrics: “The Waiting”
Thomas Earl Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mom worked at a tax office. While still ten years old, Tom Petty met Elvis Presley on the film set for Follow That Dream. But it was seeing the Beatles on TV in February 1964, that gave Tom Petty his inspiration. He recalls, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.
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#194: Are You Ready? by Pacific Gas & Electric
Peak Month: July 1970
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #1
1 week Preview
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Are You Ready?”
Lyrics: “Are You Ready?”
Charles E. Allen was born in 1942. He learned to play drums, but by the time he joined Pacific Gas & Electric, he became the lead vocalist. Glenn Schwartz, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1940, was the lead guitarist. Schwartz had previously been with the James Gang, and then when he was drafted into the United States Army, he went AWOL and moved to California. Tom Marshall was on rhythm guitar, and Brent Block on bass guitar. Frank Cook became the band’s drummer. Born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, in 1942, Cook started drumming in his mid-teens. He was tutored by Murray Spivack, the sound designer for the 1933 film King Kong. Cook went on to play drums with jazz musicians: trumpeter Chet Baker, bassist Charlie Hayden and pianist Elmo Hope. Cook also collaborated with Shirley Ellis and Dodie Grey. He went on to become the first drummer for Canned Heat, and subsequently for Bluesberry Jam. Cook met Charlie Allen in Blueberry Jam. In 1967, Pacific Gas & Electric formed and in 1968 they released their debut album Get It On. The album included a recording of the African-American spiritual “Wade In The Water”. The single made the Top Ten in Honolulu. Another track, “The Hunter”, became a Top Ten hit in Melbourne, Australia, in 1969.
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#195: A Life Of Illusion by Joe Walsh
Peak Month: August 1981
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #34
YouTube: “A Life Of Illusion”
Lyrics: “A Life Of Illusion”
Joe Walsh was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1947. He got a guitar at age ten in 1957. When he heard the Ventures “Walk Don’t Run” in 1960, he dreamed of a life as a musician. He was part of several groups in the Sixties. One of these, The Measles, were a band of Kent State University students. Two tracks on the Ohio Express’ 1967 Beg Borrow and Steal album, “I Find I Think Of You” and “And It’s True” (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. He studied English and music at Kent State College in Ohio. Walsh was present when the Kent State massacre happened in 1970. In 2012, Walsh said “Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don’t need a degree that bad.”
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#196: Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft by the Carpenters
Peak Month: November 1977
17 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #101
YouTube: “Calling Occupants”
Lyrics: “Calling Occupants”
Richard Lynn Carpenter was born in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. He is a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and music arranger, who formed half of the sibling duo the Carpenters, alongside his younger sister Karen. He had numerous roles in the Carpenters including record producer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist, lyricist, and composer, as well as joining with Karen on harmony vocals. He learned to play musical instruments at an early age and was considered a child prodigy. Karen Carpenter was born in 1950, also in New Haven. She enjoyed dancing and by age four was enrolled in tap dancing and ballet classes. The family moved in June 1963 to suburban Los Angeles. At the age of 19, in 1965, Richard Carpenter created the Richard Carpenter Trio with sister Karen and friend Wes Jacobs. Richard played the piano, Karen played the drums, and Wes played the tuba and bass. In 1966 the Richard Carpenter Trio played “Iced Tea” and “The Girl from Ipanema” at the Hollywood Bowl Battle of the Bands. They recorded three songs with RCA in 1967. But their sound was too dissonant with the prevailing psychedelic pop-rock sound in the Summer of Love.
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#1012: Baby Weemus by April Stevens & Nino Tempo
Peak Month: June 1963
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Baby Weemus”
Caroline Vincinette LoTempio was born in 1929 in Niagra Falls, New York. Stevens has recorded since she was fifteen years old. From the official website of April Stevens & Nino Tempo comes this story: “One day, while standing outside Hollywood’s famous Wallach Music City on Sunset and Vine, she was approached by Tony Sepe, the owner of Laurel Records, who asked her if she could sing. The young teenager thought he was probably flirting, but answered his question in the affirmative. Before long, she changed her name to April Stevens and recorded a few songs for Sepe’s small independent label. An aunt of Carol LoTiempo’s had suggested April as a name, and as she was born in April LoTiempo liked the name. Still in high school, April then moved on to record for Society Records. on “Don’t Do It”, her first for Society, her sweetly innocent approach to addressing very real concerns for a teenage girl was given a twist at the end by giving in to the boy’s advances, as long as there’s a commitment. “Don’t Do It” was banned from airplay… “”Stop holding my hand,” April pleaded; but in the second verse, she suggestively purred “I need it, how I need it…ooooh I want it.” Consequently, “Don’t Do It” sold by word of mouth only, from under the counter.”
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