#158: 99 by Toto
Peak Month: November-December 1980
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #38
YouTube: “99”
Lyrics: “99”
Born in 1954 in Los Angeles, David Paich is the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and singer of the band Toto. He co-wrote “Lowdown” with Boz Scaggs, numbers of hits for Toto including “Hold The Line”, “99”, “Rosanna” and “Africa”, and 1978 disco hit “Got To Be Real” for Cheryl Lynn. In 1977, Paich produced the No. 1 R&B hit “Break It to Me Gently” for Aretha Franklin. In 1978 he founded Toto.
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#160: Storm Clouds by Buddy Knox
Peak Month: August 1960
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Storm Clouds”
Buddy Wayne Knox was born in 1933, in Happy, Texas, a small farm town in the Texas Panhandle a half hour south of Amarillo. During his youth he learned to play the guitar. He was the first artist of the rock era to write and perform his own number one hit song, “Party Doll“. The song earned Knox a gold record in 1957 and was certified a million seller. Knox was one of the innovators of the southwestern style of rockabilly that became known as “Tex-Mex” music.
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#1345: True Love by Richard Chamberlain
Peak Month: July 1963
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube: “True Love”
Lyrics: “True Love”
George Richard Chamberlain was born in 1934 in Beverly Hills, California. After high school graduation in 1952, he studied acting at a college in Pomona. But, he was drafted in December 1952, and sent to fight in the Korean War. He rose to the rank of sergeant. In 1959, Richard Chamberlain appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The following year, he made a guest appearance in the crime-drama series Rescue 8, about the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Other guest appearances in TV shows in the early ’60s include Gunsmoke, the crime series Bourbon Street Beat, Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff, The Deputy starring Henry Fonda, and another western titled Whispering Smith. In 1960, Chamberlain starred opposite Richard Falk in The Secret of the Purple Reef. In 1961, Chamberlain starred with Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens, and Duane Eddy in the western A Thunder of Drums.
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#163: I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door by Eddie Hodges
“I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door”
Peak Month: June 1961
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door”
Lyrics: “I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door”
Samuel Hodges was born in 1947 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. By the age of six he became a child actor billed as Eddie Hodges. He appeared on the Jackie Gleason Show and on Name That Tune in 1953. In 1957 he was cast in the role of ten-year-old Winthrope Paroo in the Broadway musical The Music Man. In the stage production he was one of those singing “The Wells Fargo Wagon” and “Gary, Indiana”, along with Robert Preston. In the 1962 film The Music Man, Ron Howard would appear as Winthrope Paroo. Eddie Hodges first film was in 1959 with Frank Sinatra in A Hole in The Head. Hodges played opposite Frank Sinatra (Tommy Manetta) as his 11-year-old son. The film about a down-and-out widowed father featured the Oscar award winning song “High Hopes” (Best Original Song) and a Grammy Award nomination. In the film Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges sang a duet. In 1959 Eddie Hodges appeared on The Jimmy Durante Show where he sang with Durante, Ray Bolger and Jane Powell. In 1960 Eddie Hodges starred as Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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#164: Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: October 1964
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby”
Lyrics: “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby”
“Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” – Eddie Riff
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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#167: Little Devil/I Must Be Dreaming by Neil Sedaka
A-Side: “Little Devil”
Peak Month: June 1961
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Little Devil”
Lyrics: “Little Devil”
B-Side: “I Must Be Dreaming”
Peak Month: July 1961
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN
Peak Position ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #102
YouTube: “I Must Be Dreaming”
Lyrics: “I Must Be Dreaming”
In 1939 Neil Sedaka was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brighton Beach beside Coney Island. His paternal grandparents immigrated to America from Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, in 1910. His fathers side of the family there were Sephardi Jews and his mother’s side Ashkenazi Jews from Russian and Polish background. When Neil was eight years old he listened to a show on the radio called The Make-Believe Ballroom that opened his world to appreciation for music. Within a year Neil had began learning classical piano at the Julliard School of Music. His progress was impressive and Arthur Rubinstein voted Neil as one of the best New York High School pianists after he turned 16 years old.
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#168: Let’s Talk About Sex by Salt-N-Pepa
Peak Month: November 1991
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Let’s Talk About Sex”
Lyrics: “Let’s Talk About Sex”
Cheryl Renee James was born in 1966 in Brooklyn, New York. She later went by the stage name Salt. Sandra Jacqueline Denton was born in 1964 in Kingston, Jamaica. She moved to join her family in Queens, New York, in 1970, at the age of six. While she was a child she was sexually molested. Both James and Denton attended nursing school at Queensborough Community College in Queens. In 1985, James and Denton were working as customer service representatives at Sears. The duo recorded their first single “The Show Stoppa”, which was a minor R&B hit in ’85. The duos’ original name was Super Nature. However, they changed their name because in “The Show Stoppa” they rap the lines “Right now I’m gonna show you how it’s supposed to be ‘Cause we, the Salt and Pepa MCs”. This resulted in radio stations getting phone calls requesting “The Show Stoppa” by Salt & Pepper.
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#1189: If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox) by Gene Pitney
Peak Month: September 1962
Peak Position ~ #11
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #58
YouTube: “If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)”
Lyrics: “If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)”
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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#170: Lido Shuffle by Boz Scaggs
Peak Month: May 1977
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Lido Shuffle”
Lyrics: “Lido Shuffle”
William Royce “Boz“ Scaggs was born in 1944 in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland. His father was a traveling salesman, and the family moved to Oklahoma and next to Texas. While attending a private school in Dallas, Scaggs met Steve Miller while he was 12-years-old. Scaggs was learning to play guitar and was invited to join Miller’s band the Marksmen. In 1961-62 Boz Scaggs joined Steve Miller’s band the Ardells while the pair were studying university in Madison, Wisconsin. Scaggs followed Miller to Chicago in ’62-’63. Then he went to London and Sweden to perform as a solo artist in concert. While in Sweden, Boz Scaggs released his debut album, Boz, in 1965. The album only sold in Sweden and soon went out of print.
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#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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