#18: Shutters And Boards by Jerry Wallace
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: January 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Shutters And Boards”
Lyrics: “Shutters And Boards”
Jerry Wallace was born in 1928 in Guilford, Missouri. He loved to sing and on June 1, 1952, he was one of the performers at the eighth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Among the other performers was Roy Brown, who by that time had charted over a dozen Top Ten hits on the Billboard R&B chart. Child star Toni Harper, who recorded with Oscar Peterson, Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie in the ’50’s. And Louis Jordan who had 54 Top Ten hits on the Billboard R&B chart, eighteen of which climbed to #1, including “Caldonia”. Also, jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon was there to sing his 1949 #1 hit “Ain’t Nobody’s Business”, which stayed on the chart for 34 weeks. (It was first popularized in 1922 by Bessie Smith and also Alberta Hunter). Wallace’s presence made the bill inter-racial that night.
Continue reading →
#20: The First Night Of The Full Moon by Jack Jones
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: August 1964
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #59
YouTube: “The First Night Of The Full Moon”
Lyrics: “The First Night Of The Full Moon”
Jack Jones was born in 1938 in Hollywood. In 1957, he released his first single “Good Luck Good Buddy” on Capitol Records. Two four singles on Capitol in the late 50s failed to chart. Meanwhile, in 1959 Jones debuted in his first film getting top billing in the Columbia Pictures musical Juke Box Rhythm. In 1961, Jones was hired to perform at Facks nightclub in San Francisco after the owner heard Jones song “This Could Be The Start Of Something Big”. At Facks nightclub, Jones was heard by Pete King, a producer and artist for Kapp Records, who quickly signed him to the label. Jack Jones was still working at his ‘day job’ as a gas station attendant when his first album on Kapp was released. While washing a customer’s windshield, Jones was surprised to hear one of his cuts playing on the car radio. He could now legitimately hope that his work as a gas station attendant would soon be over.
Continue reading →
#34: Mr. Lucky by Henry Mancini
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: June 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “Mr. Lucky”
Enrico Nicola Mancini was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, in 1924. Both his parents were Italian immigrants to the USA. At age eight Enrico learned to play the piccolo. He later studied at the Juilliard School of Music. When he turned 18 he enlisted in the United States Army he met Glenn Miller at basic training. Owing to a recommendation by Miller, Mancini was first assigned to the 28th Air Force Band before being reassigned overseas to the 1306th Engineers Brigade in France. In 1945, he helped liberate the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria. In 1946, he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by ‘Everyman’ Tex Beneke. (Glenn Miller was declared missing in action after his plane disappeared over the English Channel in December 1944). In 1952, Henry Mancini joined Universal Studios’ Universal-International music department. In 1952 he scored music for The Raiders, and in 1953 for The Glenn Miller Story.
Continue reading →
#2: Stay Away From Bobby by the Sherry Sisters
City: Fort St. John, BC (and Peace River, AB)
Radio Station: CKNL/CKYL
Peak Month: April 1963
Peak Position in Fort St. John ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Stay Away From Bobby”
The Sherry Sisters were a vocal pop duo from Brooklyn, New York. They were two sisters, Lois and Karen Klein. Karen Klein entered a talent contest at the age of 16 when she was a counselor at the Catskill Mountain resort of the famous Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, New York. Spotted by a booking agent, she and Lois represented the United States in the First International Song Festival in Bogata, Colombia. They released their debut single on the Okey label titled “Stay Away From Bobby”.
Continue reading →
#39: House Of Bamboo by Earl Grant
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: May 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #88
YouTube: “House Of Bamboo”
Lyrics: “House Of Bamboo”
Earl Grant was born in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma in 1931. Grant attended four music schools, eventually becoming a music teacher. He augmented his income by performing in clubs during his U.S. Army service, throughout which he was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas. Grant signed with Decca Records in 1957. His first album was released in 1958 titled The Versatile Earl Grant. His first single “The End” reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 13, 1958. It would be his only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. “The End” subsequently appeared in the motion pictures Iron Maze (1991), Days of Tomorrow (1993), and A Dirty Shame (2004), and the TV show Lovecraft Country (2019).
Continue reading →
#2: Paradise by Sammy Turner
City: Fort William, ON
Radio Station: CJLX
Peak Month: March 1960
Peak Position in Fort William ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #24
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
YouTube: “Paradise”
Lyrics: “Paradise”
Sammy Turner was born Samuel Black in Patterson, New Jersey, in 1932. When he was 18, he put his dream of being a singer on hold and joined the U.S. Air Force and fought in the Korean War as a paratrooper. After the war ended in 1953, Turner worked as an accounting clerk, and sang at nightclubs at night. He was spotted by a talent agent who got Sammy Turner a record deal with Bigtop. He was being compared to the Platters lead singer Tony Williams, and Tommy Edwards. In early 1959, Sammy Turner and the Twisters released “Sweet Laurie Anne” – based on an 18th century poem written by William Douglas. The single was a Top 30 hit in Winnipeg, and a Top 20 hit in Buffalo. Turner went solo after this, and the Twisters became the Rivingtons who had a hit in 1962 titled “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow”.
Continue reading →
#16: The Walls Have Ears by Patti Page
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: May-June 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #55
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #77
YouTube: “The Walls Have Ears”
Lyrics: “The Walls Have Ears”
Patti Page was born on November 8, 1927. The New York Times writes “She was born Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Oklahoma, the second youngest of 11 children of a railroad laborer. Her mother and older sisters picked cotton. She often went without shoes. Because the family saved money on electricity, the only radio shows Miss Page heard as a child were Grand Old Opry, The Eddie Cantor Show and Chicago Barn Dance.”
Continue reading →
#1: With Open Arms by Jane Morgan
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: September 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #42
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “With Open Arms”
Lyrics: “With Open Arms”
Florence Catherine Currier was born in 1924 in the suburbs of Boston. Her family moved to Florida when she was four-years-old. When she was five, Florence started taking voice lessons as well as piano. In the summertime, she was a child actor in theater productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Playhouse was founded by her brother. At the age of 17, in the summer of 1941, she was listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse. During her years at school, she competed in singing competitions with other students across Florida and the Southeast. Upon graduating from high school in Daytona Beach, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan. She had plans to become an opera singer, and studied opera at the school.
Continue reading →
#2: Chanson D’Amour by the Fontane Sisters
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: July 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “Chanson D’Amour”
Lyrics: “Chanson D’Amour”
The Fontane Sisters were a trio of sisters. They were Bea (born 1915), Geri (born 1921) and Marge (born 1917) Rosse, all from New Milford, New Jersey. Bea and Marge started out singing for local functions, doing so well that they were urged to audition in New York City. Originally they performed as a trio with their guitarist brother Frank, under the name the Ross Trio (Rosse with the “e” omitted). The group auditioned for NBC and was soon sent off to work in Cleveland, Ohio. When they returned to New York in 1944, Frank was drafted into the Army. He went to France and was mortally wounded by a German sniper. Geri, who had just finished school, took her brother’s place, making it an all-girl trio. The sisters first performed together as The Three Sisters. Sheet music of two of their songs, “I’m Gonna See My Baby”, and “Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes”, was published by Santly-Joy in 1944.
Continue reading →
#3: Round The Bay Of Mexico by Harry Belafonte
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position Dutch Singles Chart ~ #11
YouTube: “Round the Bay Of Mexico”
Lyrics: “Round The Bay Of Mexico”
Harold “Harry” George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in 1927 in New York City. He lived with one of his grandmothers in Jamaica from 1932 to 1940. In the 1940s, he worked as a janitor’s assistant, during which a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and befriended Sidney Poitier, who was also financially struggling. At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City. His classmates included Tony Curtis, Bea Arthur, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, and Walter Matthau. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949, but quickly developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives. Along with guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In the 1949-50 season, Belafonte was a regular on the all-black variety show Sugar Hill Times on CBS.
Continue reading →
