#418: The Flower Children by Marcia Strassman
Peak Month: July 1967
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #103
YouTube: “The Flower Children”
Lyrics: “The Flower Children”
Marcia Ann Strassman was born in New York City in 1948. She replaced Liza Minelli in the Off-Broadway musical reprise of Best Foot Forward in 1963, after Minelli left to rehearse for Carnival! In their September 11, 1963, issue Variety described Strassman as “a winning comedienne.” At the age of 15, Strassman appeared in three episodes of The Patty Duke Show in 1964 in the role of Adeline. In the summer of ’64, Strassman worked with Shelley Winters and Robert Walker in a Westport (CT) production of Days of the Dancing, described by Variety as a story of “beatniks wasting their lives in at a beach bar in Venice, Cal.” When she turned 18 in 1966, Marcia Strassman moved to Los Angeles in search of new opportunities. One of the first things she did was get a recording contract with Uni Records.
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#361: She Can’t Find Her Keys by Paul Peterson
Peak Month: February 1962
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
6 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube: “She Can’t Find Her Keys”
Lyrics: “She Can’t Find Her Keys”
Paul William Petersen was born in Glendale, California, in 1945. He started his career at the age of eight and began appearing on the Mickey Mouse Club in 1955. From there he was cast as Jeff Stone on the Donna Reed Show where he starred in that role from 1958 to 1966. When he first started playing Jeff Stone, Paul was just 4’3″ tall, which is one reason he got the job. Donna herself was a petite 5’4″. Paul got this part the day after he turned thirteen. While appearing on the Donna Reed Show both he and his sister, Mary Stone, sang songs that would become hit singles. The actress playing Mary Stone was child actor Shelley Fabares who had a number one hit in 1962 called “Johnny Angel.” Paul Petersen also sang songs in the Donna Reed Show including “She Can’t Find Her Keys”, “My Dad” and “Keep Your Love Locked”.
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#420: The Cheater by Bob Kuban & the In-Men
Peak Month: February 1966
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “The Cheater”
Lyrics: “The Cheater”
Robert “Bob” Kuban was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1940. In 1963 he graduated from the St. Louis Institute of Music and became a music teacher at Bishop DuBourg High School. Kuban was also in a local brass band By 1964 Kuban was also interested in forming a pop group and found organist and songwriter Greg Hoeltzel, who agreed to join his band. Hoetzel was a pre-med student at Washington University in St. Louis. Next, Kuban searched for a lead singer and frontman for the group. One night he heard a singer named Walter Scott, who was part of a lounge act named The Pacemakers. Scott was born Walter Simon Nothius Jr. and grew up in St. Louis. He worked a day job as a crane operator. Immediately, Kuban offered Scott the position as lead singer for Kuban’s band. The name of the band was the Rhythm Masters. Other bandmates were bass guitarist and songwriter John Mike Krenski (born in St. Louis in 1944), tenor saxophone and trumpet player Patrick Hixon, a vocalist from the Carolinas. Krenski was doing a Masters Degree in Math at St. Louis University, and a Bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering. Other members, Harry Simon and Skip Weisser, were students at the St. Louis Institute of Music. The eighth member of the band was lead guitarist Ken Smith.
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#421: Wings Of A Dove by Paul Clayton
Peak Month: January 1961
10 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: N/A
Lyrics: “Wings Of A Dove”
Paul Clayton Worthington was born in New Bedford – the whaling city – on the south coast of Massachusetts, in 1931. From his childhood, he heard his grandfather, Paul hardy – who was a whaler’s outfitter, sing songs of the seafarers’ life. While grandmother, Elizabeth Hardy, sang him folksongs she learned when she grew up in Prince Edward Island. When he turned eleven, Paul was given a guitar. From his teens, Paul started to research old folksongs after a visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It was there that he discovered a collection of original manuscripts of seafaring songs. He told DJs at WBSM in New Bedford about his interest in folk music. This led to Paul Clayton Worthington hosting a weekly series of folk programs on WBSM. For the show, Clayton wrote his own material and sang live music on his program. At first the program was a ten minute spot, but was later expanded to one hour.
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#723: Piano Man by Billy Joel
Peak Month: May 1974
Peak Position #5
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Piano Man”
Lyrics: “Piano Man”
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. In 1964, at the age of 15, Joel was the pianist on the recording of “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” for the Shangri-Las. Later, he played piano on the demo for “Leader Of The Pack”, which the Shangri-Las later recorded and became a number-one hit in November 1964. He took up boxing and was in the Golden Gloves, winning 22 fights, but quit after he got his nose broken.
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#422: That’s All Right by Ray Smith
Peak Month: December 1959
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “That’s All Right”
Lyrics: “That’s All Right”
Ray Smith was born in 1934 in the hamlet of Melber, Kentucky, thirteen miles from the town of Paducah where the Ohio River and the Tennessee River meet. Smith was the seventh son of a sharecropper who, in turn, was also the seventh son in Smith’s grandfather’s family. His dad later worked at the atomic bomb plant in Paducah. Smith left his home at the age of twelve. He worked as a gopher on a Coca-Cola Truck and then operated an oven at Kirchoff’s Bread plant in Paducah. As he grew up Ray Smith worked as a curb hop at Price’s Barbecue at 34th and Broadway where he would serve U.S. (KY) Senator Alben W. Barkley, who later became President Harry Truman’s Vice-President. Next he worked as a sole back tacker and tack machine operator at the International Shoe Company.
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#423: Fallen Idol by Ken Lyon
Peak Month: June 1961
8 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Fallen Idol”
In 1941 Ken Lyon was born in Newport, Rhode Island. His mother was classically trained and began to give vocal lessons to Ken at age three. Ken’s father was an Episcopal priest and his family moved to East Weymouth (MA) before he entered his teens. When he turned 15 in 1956, Ken Lyon got his first guitar and taught himself to play. In 1957, Lyon teamed up with a South Weymouth high school classmate named Billy Allen to form a singing duo called The Seniors. Lyon was taken with both folk music and calypso and in 1959 started performing under the name “Calypso Ken.” In 1960 he made appearances playing calypso at Ted Hilton’s Dude Ranch in Moosup, Connecticut. The Woonsocket Call reported that Lyon also was in the United States Navy Reserves for two years, but got a medical discharge due to an asthmatic condition. After high school Ken Lyons got work as an electrician at the Ann & Hope Factory Outlet in Lower Cumberland, Rhode Island.
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#424: Peter Rabbit by Dee Jay And The Runaways
Peak Month: June 1966
8 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #45
YouTube: “Peter Rabbit” ~ Dee Jay And The Runaways (1966)
Lyrics: “Peter Rabbit”
YouTube: “Peter Rabbit” ~ Myron Lee and the Caddies (1961)
Dee Jay And The Runaways was a band formed in 1964. They were from Spirit Lake, Iowa. The “Dee” in the band was Denny Storey, from Spencer, Iowa, and was born in 1943. Denny played drums, and had formed his first band at the age of 14 in early 1958. The “Jay” in the band was bass guitar player John Stenn, born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in 1940. Denny and John looked for other musicians to join their new band. The lead singer was Gary Lind. Other members of the band included bass guitarist Bob Godfredson, and keyboard player Dennis Kintzi from St. James (MN). Storey, Stenn and Kintzi had all been members of a six-piece band called The Chevelles. Stenn talked up a couple of local investors and founded IGL Studios in Milford, Iowa. IGL stood for Iowa Great Lakes. The band released “Love Bug Crawl” in 1965, a cover of a 1957 rockabilly tune by Jimmy Edwards that was popular in a few radio markets in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
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#428: Searching For My Love by Bobby Moore’s Rhythm Aces
Peak Month: August 1966
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube: “Searching For My Love”
Lyrics: “Searching For My Love”
Robert “Bobby” Moore was born in 1930 in New Orleans. When he was a teenager he joined the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia. While in basic training, Moore learned to play the tenor saxophone. In 1952 he formed a band on the base called the Rhythm Aces made up of members of the marching band. He finished his service to the Army in 1961 and moved to Montgomery, Alabama. It was there he re-formed the Rhythm Aces with his brother Larry Moore on alto sax, Chico Jenkins on vocals and guitar, Marion Sledge on guitar, Joe Frank on bass, Clifford Laws on organ, and John Baldwin Junior on drums.
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#430: Tra La La La Suzy by Dean And Jean
Peak Month: January 1964
12 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #35
YouTube: “Tra La La La Suzy”
Lyrics: “Tra La La La Suzy”
Dean and Jean an African-American recording act from Ohio. They were Welton Young and Brenda Lee Jones. Brenda Lee Jones had previously released “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None” on the Apollo label in 1957, backed by the Vocaltones. Welton “Pappy” Young was born in Dayton, Ohio. He learned to play guitar and sing. In 1956 he joined the King Toppers, who subsequently changed their name to the Corvettes. On Marv Goldberg’s website, he states that while they were the Corvettes, they played at local Dayton venues like the Democratic Club with Count Basie, and the Fifth Street YMCA. The Corvettes headed for the Big Apple in the fall of ’56 and auditioned for the Apollo Amateur Show. They changed their name back to the King Toppers by the end of the year. But the group disbanded by February 1957 when too many members got drafted into the United States Army. Welton Young worked for Western Union and moved back to Dayton. Back in Dayton, Welton Young met Brenda Lee Jones. They had common goals to move advance their musical careers and decided to become a singing duo. In 1958 they signed up with the small Buckeye label and released “Oh Yeah”. This was co-written by Young and Jones. Though the song was a hit number, with Chuck Berry-inspired guitar riffs, it was a commercial failure. So Dean and Jean switched labels and got signed with Ember Records in New York City.
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