#42: I Promise To Remember by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers

City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CFRN
Peak Month: September 1956
Peak Position in Edmonton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver: #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #57
YouTube: “I Promise To Remember”
Lyrics: “I Promise To Remember”

In 1942 Franklin Joseph “Frankie” Lymon was born in New York City. Frankie and his brothers grew up in a musical home in Harlem. Their mother, Jeanette, was a domestic maid. Their dad, Howard Lymon Sr., had a job as a truck driver and was a member of a gospel group called the Harlemaires. Frankie and his brothers, Howard and Lewis, all attended the Harlemaires rehearsals and concerts from an early age. From the age of ten Frankie worked at a grocery store to help the family pay the rent. He also had a sideline hustling prostitutes. When Frankie’s voice developed into a beautiful boy soprano lead singer he joined a group called The Teenagers. The doo-wop groups original lineup consisted of three African Americans: Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Ricans: Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni.

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#31: The Lone Teen Ranger by Jerry Landis

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: February 1963
Peak Position in London ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #97
YouTube: “The Lone Teen Ranger”
Lyrics: “The Lone Teen Ranger”

Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. His dad was a bandleader who went by the name Lou Sims. When he was eleven years old he met Art Garfunkel and were both part of a sixth grade drama production of Alice In Wonderland. By 1954 Paul and Art were singing at school dances. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the name “Tom & Jerry”, a name that was given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.

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#125: Shame, Shame, Shame by Shirley & Company

Peak Month: April 1975
Peak Position #1
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube.com: “Shame, Shame, Shame”
Lyrics: “Shame, Shame, Shame”

Shirley & Company was a disco group that consisted of Shirley Goodman and Jason Alvarez, and an impression group of studio musicians. Bernadette Randle was a soul/funk pianist and songwriter who played or wrote songs recorded by Etta James, Brook Benton, Solomon Burke, Donnie Ebert, Candi Staton and others. Clarence Oliver was a drummer who was also in the recording studio with Bernadette Randle for the same recording acts, as well as for Chuck Jackson. Jonathan Williams was also in the studio with Bernadette Randle and Clarence Oliver, playing bass guitar. Walter Morris was also in the recording studio with Randle, Oliver and Williams, contributing guitar. Randle, Oliver and Williams were all members of Brother to Brother, an R&B band founded in 1974.

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#4: Daisy A Day by Jud Strunk

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: May 1973
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Daisy A Day”
Lyrics: “Daisy A Day”

Justin Roderick Strunk Jr. was born in 1936 in Jamestown, New York. He graduated in 1959 with a B.A. in history from the Virginia Military Institute. He worked in Maine as a salesman for True Temper skis and also for the U.S. Ski Team. Strunk learned to play the banjo from childhood. He played his banjo at military bases across Europe. Jud Strunk’s big break came when Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, former NBC president, saw him perform in Sun Valley, Idaho. His son, Rory Strunk, relates, “He (Weaver) tracked him down on a ski lift and signed him to a contract and suddenly he was locked into the entertainment world.” Doors opened and Strunk appeared on Hee Haw, The Mere Griffin Show, and The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. He appeared with Jim Neighbors, Burt Bacharach, Vikki Carr and Petula Clark, among others. In 1969, Strunk wrote a song titled “Ski Bum” that was featured in the sport documentary The Last of the Ski Bums.

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#2: Make The World Go Away by Timi Yuro

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: September 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #36
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Make The World Go Away”
Lyrics: “Make The World Go Away”

Rosemary Victoria Yuro was born in Chicago to an Italian-American family in 1941. The family surname had been changed from Aurro to Yuro after they arrived in America. She moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was nine in 1952. Rosemary sang in her parents’ Italian restaurant and, despite their opposition, in local nightclubs before catching the eye and ear of talent scout Sonny Knight. She was signed to Liberty Records in 1959. She became professionally known as Timi Yuro. Her debut single in 1961, a cover of the 1954 Roy Hamilton tune “Hurt”, climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her album Hurt!!!!!!! reached #51 on the Billboard Pop Album chart. Later that year, she had a minor hit with a cover of the 1936 tune “Smile”, from the Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times.

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City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: May 1970
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Cecilia”
Lyrics: “Cecilia”

Sweet Henry was the name of a British studio musician, who had some pop recordings in the early 1970’s. Little is known about Sweet Henry, or even the studio musician’s name. An online search generates links to an English grammarian named Henry Sweet (1845-1912) who published works on Old English, Old Norse, phonetics and grammar. But Henry Sweet was deceased for several decades before studio musician credited as Sweet Henry was recording in the early 1970s.

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#5: Casino Royale by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: June 1967
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #35
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “Casino Royale”

Herb Alpert was born in 1935 in Los Angeles. His parents were Jewish immigrants, from the Ukraine and Romania. He started to play the trumpet at the age of eight. After he graduated from high school, he joined the United States Army and played trumpet. In 1956 he was one of the drummers at Mt. Sinai in the film The Ten Commandments. In 1957 he became a songwriter for Keen Records. He teamed up with Lou Adler in 1958 and released a single titled “The Trial” credited to Herb B. Lou and the Legal Eagles. The recording was of the “break-in” genre, like Buchanan & Goodman’s “Flying Saucer” from 1956. The single had break-in’s from “Tears On My Pillow” by Little Anthony & The Imperials, “Splish Splash” by Bobby Darin, “To Know Him Is To Love Him” by the Teddy Bears, “Little Star” by The Elegants, “Volare” by Domenico Modugno and others. “The Trial” made the Top Ten in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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#1285: My World Fell Down by Sagittarius

Peak Month: July 1967
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
YouTube.com: “My World Fell Down”
Lyrics: “My World Fell Down”

Gary Usher was born in Massachusetts in 1938 and grew up in the community of Grafton. After graduating from high school in 1957, Usher headed to California and was a musician in a few local rock ‘n roll bands. As it happened, Gary Usher’s uncle was a neighbor of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys over in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles. Usher and Wilson ended up co-writing a number of songs for The Beach Boys including “409” and “In My Room”. The latter was a Top 30 hit in America in December 1963. Gary Usher also produced records in the mid-60’s for The Byrds, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Hondells and others. After considerable success as a producer, he eventually became a staff producer for Columbia Records. It was at this position that, during 1967, he produced Chad & Jeremy. They had played him several songs, which he felt lacked any commercial potential.

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#1: Tamiami by Bill Haley and His Comets

City: Fort William, ON
Radio Station: CJLX
Peak Month: March 1960
Peak Position in Fort William ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tamiami”

Bill Haley was born in Michigan in 1925. His dad played the mandolin and banjo while his mom played the piano. In a story Haley would relate years later in a biography, he recalled as a child when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one. Sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album, Rock Around The Clock, describe Bill Haley’s early life and emerging career: “Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $1 a night. Very soon after this he formed a group of equally enthusiastic youngsters and managed to get quite a few local bookings for his band.”

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#4: Ain’t I’m A Dog by Ronnie Self

City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: November 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Ain’t I’m A Dog”
Lyrics: “Ain’t I’m A Dog”

Ronald Keith Self was born in Tin Town, Missouri, in 1938. On the Black Cat website in Europe, Dik de Heer writes “Ronnie Self was his own worst enemy. His self-destructive behavior is probably the main reason why he is no more than a footnote in rock ‘n’ roll history. Hugely talented, both as a singer and a songwriter, he could have been a big star if he hadn’t possessed such an unstable personality. The oldest of five children, Ronnie was born on a farm in rural Missouri. After the war, the family moved to Springfield where his father took a job with the railroad. The signs of instability showed themselves early. On one occasion Ronnie chopped down a tree to block the school bus from getting to his house. Another story has him attacking a teacher with a baseball bat in grade school.”

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