#93: Where Is My Man by Eartha Kitt
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Where Is My Man”
Lyrics: “Where Is My Man”
Eartha Mae Keith was born in 1927 in the the town of North, in central South Carolina. She has both Afro-American and Cherokee ancestry. After her mother died when she was a child, Eartha moved to live with an aunt (Mamie Kitty) in Harlem. She began her singing career at the age of 15 in 1943 as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company (the first African-American modern dance company). She went with the stage name Eartha Kitt. In 1948, she appeared in a film noir movie titled Casbah. In 1951, she recorded the Cole Porter standard “Let’s Do It”. The recording reached #12 in Australia in 1954. In 1953, Kitt recorded a Turkish folk song titled “Urska Dara” which cracked the Top 30. Later she recorded “C’est si bon” which charted to #8 on the Billboard pop chart. That winter she earned even greater success with the Christmas novelty tune “Santa Baby” which peaked at #4 on Billboard. In 1955, Eartha Kitt had a #7 hit in the UK with “Under the Bridges of Paris”.
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#99: A Night In New York by Elbow Bones and the Racketeers
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #33
YouTube: “A Night In New York”
Lyrics: “A Night In New York”
Thomas August Darnell Browder was born in 1950 in The Bronx (NY). Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder Jr., in 1965. The band disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. He taught at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead (NY). He later claimed that he established a musical career because he was a “frustrated actor.” In 1974, again with Stony Browder, he formed Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, becoming its lyricist and bass player. The band combined swing and Latin music with disco rhythms. They had their biggest hit in 1976 with “Cherchez La Femme”. The single topped the Billboard Disco Action Top 30 chart, and peaked at #2 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s self-titled debut release was a Top 40-charting album. It was certified gold and was nominated for a Grammy.
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#111: The World We Knew by Frank Sinatra
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “The World We Knew”
Lyrics: “The World We Knew”
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. Sinatra spent much time at his parents’ tavern in Hoboken, working on his homework and occasionally singing for spare change. After leaving school before graduating, Sinatra began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City. In New York, Sinatra found jobs singing for his supper or for cigarettes. He got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group called the 3 Flashes to let him join. Baritone Fred Tamburro stated that “Frank hung around us like we were gods or something”, admitting that they only took him on board because he owned a car and could chauffeur the group around. Sinatra soon learned they were auditioning for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show, and “begged” the group to let him in on the act. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and passed an audition from Edward Bowes to appear on the show. They each earned $12.50, and ended up attracting 40,000 votes to win first prize—a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the U.S. Sinatra quickly became the group’s lead singer, and, much to the jealousy of his fellow group members, garnered most of the attention from girls.
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#204: Land Of Hunger by Earons
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Dance Club chart ~ #1
YouTube: “Land Of Hunger”
Lyrics: N/A
The Earons were a band from Tampa Bay, Florida. They were inspired by the cosmic mythology of Sun Ra. Group members use the following stage names: .28 (a.k.a. Henry Pizzicarola, vocals), .22 (Percival Prince, guitar), .33 (Kevin Nance, keyboards), .69 (Melvin Lee, bass) and .18 (Lonnie Ferguson, drums). Prior to joining the Earons, Kevin Nance, Lonnie Ferguson and Melvin Lee were members of The Machine. This was a studio disco funk and rock group, active from 1977 to 1981. In an MTV interview, Earon bandmates wearing space suits, were asked what an Earon is and where do you come from? They responded, “Earons are earotronic energies from here on earth, with no names, only numbers. And we exist in all colors. We are actually products of a civilization known as Sumer, which existed some six to eight thousand years ago, near the spot where Africa, Asia and Europe, connect. Our earotronic energy was stored in an instrument used by the Sumerians called the earotron. This earotron enabled the user to store positive energies to be released at a time designated by the universe. Now is the time. Our energies have been released. And we’ve taken the form of musical beings here on earth to bring the message of sameness to everyone here on earth. We’re all earons, living in love here on earth.”
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#2: Sugar On Sunday by the Clique
City: Medicine Hat, AB
Radio Station: CHAT
Peak Month: November 1969
Peak Position in Medicine Hat ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “Sugar On Sunday”
Lyrics: “Sugar On Sunday”
The Clique was a late-1960s American sunshine pop band from Austin, Texas. They started as the Roustabouts in the Beaumont, Texas, area, 90 miles east of Houston. Next, they renamed themselves the Sandpipers before finally settling on the Clique in 1967. At that point they moved to Houston. Original members of the band were drummer John Kanesaw, bass guitar player Bruce Tinch, lead guitar player Cooper Hawthorne, lead singer and keyboard player Larry Lawson, singer and horn and saxophone player David Dunham, and Randy Shaw also on vocals and horns.
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#28: Blue Guitar by Richard Chamberlain
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #42
YouTube: “Blue Guitar”
Lyrics: “Blue Guitar”
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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#24: Mary Ann Regrets by Burl Ives
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: January 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #38
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “Mary Ann Regrets”
Lyrics: “Mary Ann Regrets”
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was born in 1909 in Hunt City, Illinois. As a youngster, one day Ives was singing in the garden with his mother, and his uncle overheard them. He invited his nephew to sing at the old soldiers’ reunion in Hunt City. The boy performed a rendition of the folk ballad “Barbara Allen” and impressed both his uncle and the audience. He went to college from 1927 to 1929, but decided he was wasting his time. In 1930, he began traveling across the USA as an itinerant singer during the early 1930s, earning his way by doing odd jobs and playing his banjo. He was jailed in Mona, Utah, for vagrancy and for singing “Foggy Dew” (an English folk song), which the authorities decided was a bawdy song. Around 1931, he began performing on WBOW radio in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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#11: Sing ‘Em Some Blues by Sanford Clark
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Sing ‘Em Some Blues”
Lyrics: N/A
Sanford Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1935. In his early childhood his family moved to Phoenix. Sanford got his first guitar when he was 12 years old. He played around Phoenix until 1953, then he was enlisted at the age of 18 into the U.S. Air Force for four years. He then moved to Johnston Island in the Pacific where he played music when he was off-duty. The Air Force assigned back home in Phoenix where returned to playing clubs again. Local guitar player, Al Casey, had been a friend of Sanford Clark’s since school days told local disc jockey Lee Hazlewood to go listen to Sanford. Hazlewood was impressed with Sanford’s voice. He was looking for somebody to record a song he had just written. About a week later he took Sanford into Floyd Ramsey’s studio with Al Casey and recorded “The Fool”. Hazlewood gave his wife, Naomi Ford, the songwriting credit for “The Fool.”
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#6: No One Knows by Dion and the Belmonts
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube: “No One Knows”
Lyrics: “No One Knows”
Dion Francis DiMucci was born in the Bronx, NY, in 1939. His parents named him Dion in honor of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplents who captured the interest of millions around the world after the five infants were born in May 1934. Dion’s dad, Pasquale DiMucci, was a vaudeville performer and Dion accompanied him to see his dad on stage. As a child he was given an $8 dollar guitar by his uncle while he lived on 183rd Street. Dion’s childhood was set in the midst of conflict between his parents. In an interview with New York Magazine in 2007, Dion remembers “…There was a lot of unresolved conflict in my house… My pop, Pasquale, couldn’t make the $36-a-month rent on our apartment at 183rd and Crotona Avenue.” He was a dreamer, a failed vaudevillian, and sometimes Catskills puppeteer. He’d talk big and lift weights he’d made from oilcans, while Frances, Mrs. DiMucci, took two buses and the subway downtown to work in the garment district on a sewing machine. “When they’d start yelling, I’d go out on the stoop with my $8 Gibson and try to resolve things that way.”
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#14: Need You by Donnie Owens
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #26
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Need You”
Lyrics: “Need You”
Donald Lee Owens was born October 30, 1932, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Out of high school Owens went into the U.S. Air Force where he served as Airman First Class. He was a veteran of the Korean War. Taking the stage name, Donnie Owens, for five years Donnie Owens and the 4 Jacks played at a Harry’s Capri Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona. Owens recorded three 45’s on the Guyden Records label. Each featured Duane Eddy on guitar. Owens was a pop singer and guitarist. He played guitar for Duane Eddy’s backing band, the Rebels. In that capacity, Donnie Owens was one of the guitarists heard on “Because They’re Young” and other hits by Duane Eddy. Though he was American, Donnie Owens only had one hit record in the USA. On October 6, 1958 Owens made his Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Need You”.
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