#175: Party Girl by Bernadette Carroll
Peak Month: May 1964
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube: “Party Girl”
Lyrics: “Party Girl”
Bernadette Dalia was born in 1944 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Bernadette’s first performance was at the age of seven, given a role in an elementary school play. Soon after her family moved to Linden, New Jersey, she became a bit of a reckless teenager. She’d sneak out late at night to go to local recording studios with her friends. In 1959, she joined with sisters Barbara Allbut, Jiggs Allbut and, Lynda Malzone to form a group called The Starlets. Their first recording, on the Astro label, was “PS I Love You.” The single was a Top 30 hit on WMCA in New York City in 1960. Bernadette graduated from Linden High School in in Linden, New Jersey, in 1962. After The Starlets disbanded, Bernadette made her first solo recording for the Julia label, “My Heart Stood Still.” Early pressings of the record were credited only to ‘Bernadette.’ A second pressing was credited to ‘Bernadette Carroll.’ In the fall and winter of 1962 “My Heart Stood Still” charted into the Top Ten in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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#1360: Peace Of Mind by Count Five
Peak Month: December 1966
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #7
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #125
YouTube: “Peace Of Mind”
Lyrics: “Peace Of Mind”
The Count Five were a band formed in San Jose, California, in 1964. The band consisted of five members. John “Sean” Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1947. He was a lead vocalist who played rhythm guitar. Byrne also wrote most of the original songs by the band. Craig “Butch” Atkinson was born in Springfield, Missouri, in 1947, and was the bands’ drummer. In 1948, Brooklyn, New York, native Kenn Ellner was born. He became the other lead vocalist for the Count Five and also played tambourine and harmonica. Born in 1948 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Roy Cheney played bass guitar. In sixth grade, Roy asked his parents to buy him a guitar. His mom picked up an acoustic special at Sears Roebuck in downtown San Jose. The fifth bandmate was John “Mouse” Michalski, who was born in Cleveland in 1949 and played lead guitar. In 1964 Cheney and Michalski were classmates at Pioneer High School in San Jose. They formed a band called The Citations. But as the British Invasion dominated pop music in 1964, the band changed their name to The Squires.
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#176: Love Of The Common People by Wayne Newton
Peak Month: December 1967
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #106
YouTube: “Love Of The Common People”
Lyrics: “Love Of The Common People”
Carson Wayne Newton was born in 1942 in Norfolk, Virginia. When he was four years old his parents took him to see the Grand Ole Opry. He began to learn guitar, steel guitar and piano from the age of six. At the age of six he was featured on a local radio show each morning on his way to elementary school. At the age of six, young Wayne also performed in front of the USO and for President Harry Truman. With his brother, Jerry, they performed at country fairs and clubs as the Rascals in Rhythm. They had several guest spots with the Grand Ole Opry roadshows and on ABC-TV’s Ozark Jubilee. They also gave a performance for President Eisenhower. From 1958 to 1962 the brothers performed six days a week on the Lew King Rangers Show. In 1961, Wayne Newton & The Newton Brothers cover of the Johnnie Ray hit from 1951, “The Little White Cloud That Cried”, charted in at least five states. Further success awaited them with their first of twelve guest appearances on The Jackie Gleason Show on September 29, 1962.
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#177: Corinna Corinna by Ray Peterson
Peak Month: January 1961
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #9
YouTube: “Corinna Corinna”
Lyrics: “Corinna Corinna”
Ray T. Peterson was born in Denton, Texas, in 1939. He became an athlete in high school. But he contracted polio at the age of fifteen. Peterson had thought singing was for sissies, but with polio he focused on his vocal gift. He took singing lessons and developed a four-octave range. Ray Peterson was told he would never walk again. And then his doctors told him he could only walk with crutches. Peterson persevered and performed at singing contests in San Antonio. He won some contests and was flown out to Los Angeles to appear with Bob Hope in a telethon for polio victims. By 1957 he moved to Los Angeles and got a contract with RCA Victor that fall.
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#178: Mecca by Gene Pitney
Peak Month: November 1963
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “Mecca”
Lyrics: “Mecca”
Gene Pitney was born in 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a songwriter who became a pop singer, something rare at the time. Some of the songs he wrote for other recording artists include “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee, “He’s A Rebel” for The Crystals and “Hello Mary Lou” for Ricky Nelson. Pitney was more popular in Vancouver than in his native America. Over his career he charted 14 songs into the Top Ten in Vancouver, while he only charted four songs into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100. Curiously, only two of these songs overlap: “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Vallance” and “I’m Gonna Be Strong”. Surprisingly “Only Love Can Break A Heart”, which peaked at #2 in the USA, stalled at #14 in Vancouver, and “It Hurts To Be In Love” stalled at #11 in Vancouver while it peaked at #7 south of the border.
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#179: Fire And Ice by Pat Benatar
Peak Month: August 1981
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Fire And Ice”
Lyrics: “Fire And Ice”
Patricia Mae Andrzejewski was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City in 1953. She was raised near the city of Babylon, Long Island. Her dad was a sheet-metal worker and her mom was a beautician. At the age of eight she began to take voice lessons. After high school, she spent a year to study health education, but dropped out to marry high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar, who was drafted into the United States Army. She was 19. While her husband was stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia, she worked as a bank teller near Richmond (VA). She quit her job and formed the Pat Benatar Band. Dennis Benatar was discharged from the Army and the couple moved to New York in May 1975 so Benatar could pursue a singing career. She performed at an amateur night at the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in Manhattan. Later in 1975, Pat Benatar got a part in Harry Chapin’s rock musical The Zinger showing at a theatre in Huntington Station, Long Island.
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#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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