#715: It’ll Be Me by Cliff Richard

Peak Month:  August 1963
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “It’ll Be Me”
Lyrics: “It’ll Be Me”

Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line.”

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#915: C’mon by Poco

Peak Month:  May 1971
8 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube.com: “C’mon”
Lyrics: “C’mon”

Paul Richard “Richie” Furay  was born in 1944 in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He is a singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member. Furay is best known for forming the band Buffalo Springfield and later forming the band Poco. Prior to forming Buffalo Springfield, Furay was a member of the nine member group called the Au Go Go Singers who performed at New York City’s Cafe Au Go Go. In 1967, one of the production engineers for the album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was Jim Messina. He was the producer for the bands final album in 1968, Last Time Around. Messina was born in Maywood, California, in Los Angeles County, in 1947. While still 16 years of age in 1964, Messina recorded his first record credited to Jim Messina And His Jesters, primarily a surf guitar album.

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Peak Month: January 1967
10 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Never To Leave”

The Two Bits are rumored to have been the American band The Cascades, who had a big hit in 1963 with “Rhythm of the Rain”. The origins of The Cascades, a smooth pop harmony group, were born in 1960 aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR-8. When the ship wasn’t overseas in Sasebo, Japan, it docked in San Diego. The group initially consisted of singer and lead guitarist Lenny Green, singer and drummer Dave Wilson, bass player Dave Stevens and rhythm guitarist Art Eastlink. On and off ship they were known to other servicemen and local San Diegans’ as The Silver Strands. Fellow friend and serviceman on the U.S.S. Jason, John Gummoe, was a huge fan and started to serve as the group’s manager. Gummoe booked the group for five gigs a week. He also performed duets with Dave Wilson as part of the Silver Strands’ concerts. The group left the U.S. Navy and became billed as The Thundernotes. They released an instrumental surf single in the fall of 1961. “Pay Day” got airplay on the local San Diego radio station KDEO. Lenny Green left the group and John Gummoe officially joined the band as lead vocalist.

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#725: Ronnie, Call Me When You Get A Chance by Shelley Fabares

Peak Month: April 1963
8 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #72
YouTube.com: “Ronnie, Call Me When You Get A Chance”
Lyrics: “Ronnie, Call Me When You Get A Chance”

Michele Anne Marie Fabares was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1944. From the age of three she appeared as a model, including for clothing ads. At 9, she guested on a live TV special with Frank Sinatra, who sang his hit “Young at Heart” to her. She appeared on a TV adaptation of Our Town with Sinatra, Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint, and was a regular on The Mickey Mouse Club. When she was ten years old, she appeared in an episode of Letter To Loretta (the original name of The Loretta Young Show) in late January, 1954. In grade seven, Shelley Fabares met Annette Funicello, and they became lifelong friends after attending catechism classes. In 1957, Shelley Fabares appeared with Kim Novak and Agnes Moorehead in the movie, Jeanne Eagles. In 1958, she appeared in the film, Marjorie Morningstar, about a young Jewish girl living in New York City, and her attempt to become an artist. That year she also appeared in Summer Love, with Fay Wray and Rod McKuen.

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#728: Senses Working Overtime by XTC

Peak Month: May 1982
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Senses Working Overtime”
Lyrics: “Senses Working Overtime”

Colin Ivor Moulding was born in 1955 in Swindon, England. Moulding is self-taught as a bass player; he was learning rock riffs at the age of 15. Terry Peter Chambers was born in 1955 in Swindon. At age 14 he bought a drum kit and learned to play drums.  Andrew John Partridge was born in Malta in 1953. He grew up in Swindon and wrote his first song at the age of 15. In 1970 he formed a band called Stiff Beach, which by 1972 was a four-piece band renamed Star Park. Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers both joined Star Park in 1972. The band opened for Thin Lizzy in 1973. Subsequently, the renamed their band the Helium Kidz. The UK pop music magazine, New Musical Express, wrote an article about them. Swindon, in Wiltshire, England, was known for several other notable musicians including Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Gilbert O’Sullivan (“Alone Again Naturally”), late 90s UK pop singles chart topper Billie Piper (“Because We Want To”, “Girlfriend”), and Josh Kumra who provided vocals on the #1 UK single, “Don’t Go” with Wretch 32 in 2011.

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#732: Falling by Roy Orbison

Peak Month: June 1963
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
CFUN Pick of the Week ~ May 18, 1963
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “Falling”
Lyrics: “Falling”

Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas in 1936. When he turned six his dad gave him a guitar. Both his dad, Orbie Lee, and uncle Charlie Orbison, taught him how to play. Though his family moved to Forth Worth for work at a munitions factory, Roy was sent to live with his grandmother due to a polio outbreak in 1944. That year he wrote his first song “A Vow of Love”. The next year he won a contest on Vernon radio station KVWC and was offered his own radio show on Saturdays. After the war his family reunited and moved to Wink, Texas, where Roy formed his first band, in 1949, called The Wink Westerners.

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#736: Why by The Cues

Peak Month: January 1957
5 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #77
YouTube.com link: “Why”
Lyrics: “Why”

From the late 1940’s Atlantic Records was a primary company for rhythm and blues artists. In 1954, with rock n’ roll a new sound on radio, The Cues were Atlantic Records’ first studio vocal group. Their primary way of earning a living was by being a back-up group for other R&B artists on the Atlantic label. Though they had a group name, The Cues, that they tried to make a hit record with, they earned their bread and butter going by different names. As back-up to Ruth Brown they were the Rhythm makers. As backup group to LaVern Baker they were known as the Gliders. When doing backup on a recording for Big Joe Turner they went by the name of the Blues Kings. And with Ivory Joe Hunter they took the moniker, the Ivory Tones.
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#739: The Snake by Al Wilson

Peak Month: August 1968
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #27
YouTube.com link: “The Snake”
Lyrics: “The Snake”

Allen LaMar “Al” Wilson was born in 1939 in Meridian, Mississippi. By the age of twelve he was singing in gospel choirs. Meridian, Mississippi, was the same hometown where James Chaney, the Civil Rights worker who’s killing, along with two others, led to the infamous “Mississippi Burning” trial. Young Al Wilson was friends with James Chaney and the Wilson family knew the cost of living in segregated Mississippi. Alene Wilson-Harris, a daughter of Wilson, said of her father’s upbringing: “My father, well, he grew up in a very volatile time for a young black man. And, he was, unfortunately, in a position to have to know what it was to actually leave a place because there were life-threatening circumstances and hardships and all of those type of things in order to try and make a life for yourself somewhere else where those factors didn’t exist.”

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#740: Johnny Willow by Fred Darian

Peak Month: August 1961
8 weeks on CKWX chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #96
YouTube.com: “Johnny Willow”
Lyrics: “Johnny Willow”

Fred Darian was born in Detroit in June 1927. After college he began to sing in nightclubs and on TV starting in 1951. “The corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street was the hub of the music industry, a gathering place where hopeful songwriters, music publishers, producers, musicians, singers, disc jockeys and show business executives gathered and congregated daily. Fred Darian entered onto the scene as an ambitious singer, working the graveyard shift, as a fry cook at Coffee Dan’s restaurant. He made the rounds during the days, by performing songs as demonstrations for songwriters to present to record companies and music publishers. His ability to quickly read and perform the songs, without mistakes, made him even more in demand. This was a time when records were cut directly onto acetate, before the advent of tape. More than one take on a song would prove costly to the songwriter. Fred earned a reputation for his ability to interpret a song accurately, with one take.

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#741: So Long Baby by Del Shannon

Peak Month: October 1961
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #28
YouTube.com link: “So Long Baby”
Lyrics: “So Long Baby”

Charles Weedon Westover was born on December 30, 1934. He was known professionally as Del Shannon. Westover was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He learned ukulele and guitar and listened to country music. He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called The Cool Flames. When his service ended, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan. There he worked as a carpet salesman and as a truck driver in a furniture factory. He found part-time work as a rhythm guitarist in singer Doug DeMott’s group called Moonlight Ramblers, working at the Hi-Lo Club. Ann Arbor deejay Ollie McLaughlin heard the band. In July 1960, Westover signed to become a recording artist and composer on the Bigtop label. Westover changed his name to Del Shannon. It was a combination of Shannon Kavanagh (a wannabe wrestler who patronized the Hi-Lo Club) with Del, derived from the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, which Westover’s carpet store boss drove.

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