#7: With Pen In Hand by Billy Vera
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “With Pen In Hand”
Lyrics: “With Pen In Hand”
William Patrick McCord was born in Riverside, California, in 1944. He grew up in New York State. His father was radio announcer Bill McCord. His mother, singer Ann Ryan, was a member of The Ray Charles Singers backing Perry Como on his TV show and his hit records. In 1962, at the age of 18, Bill jr. was a member of the Resolutions. He also recorded fronting Billy Vera and the Contrasts. In 1967, he wrote a song about interracial love titled “Storybook Children”. He also sang a duet with Judy Clay, a black singer. The single made the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart in 1967. He released several more duets with Clay and they appeared several times in concert at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem (New York City). Though the topic of interracial dating had been the subject of previous songs like “Society’s Child” (Janis Ian in 1966), Vera and Clay pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in the age of movies like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
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#6: Soul Limbo by Booker T & the MGs
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #17
YouTube: “Soul Limbo”
Booker T. & the M.G.’s is a band founded in Memphis in the summer of 1962. That summer 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 20-year-old guitarist Steve Cropper, and two seasoned players, bassist Lewie Steinberg and drummer Al Jackson Jr. were in the Memphis studio to back the former Sun Records recording aritst Billy Lee Riley. During downtime, the four started playing around with a bluesy organ riff. The president of Stax Records, Jim Stewart, was in the control booth. He liked what he heard, and he recorded it. Cropper remembered a twelve-bar blues riff that Jones had come up with weeks earlier on a Hammond M3 organ. Before too long a second track was recorded. Stewart wanted to release the single with the first track, “Behave Yourself”, as the A-side and the second track as the B-side. And so “Green Onions” was released as the B-side. However, Cropper and radio DJs argued that “Green Onions” was the better A-side. Soon, Stax re-released Booker T. & the M.G.’s’ “Green Onions” as the A-side.
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#25: It’s Getting Better by Mama Cass
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “It’s Getting Better”
Lyrics: “It’s Getting Better”
Ellen Naomi Cohen was born in 1941 and raised in Washington, D.C. She adopted the name “Cass” in high school after the actress Peggy Cass. When Ellen Cohen was 16 she saw Peggy Cass in the film Auntie Mame.Peggy Cass who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1959 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in Auntie Mame. “Cass” Cohen later she took the surname “Elliot,” in memory of a friend who had died. She moved to Manhattan, pursuing an acting career where she toured in a musical production of The Music Man in 1962. She was part of a folk trio called the Big 3 from 1962 to 1964. From there she joined the Mugwumps, and met Denny Doherty. In 1965 she became part of The Mama’s & the Papas.
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#37: Memory by Menage
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Memory”
Lyrics: “Memory”
Menage was a disco project by Warren Schatz and Eric Matthew focused on disco adaptations of Broadway show tunes. Schatz was born in Brooklyn in 1945. He recorded an album in 1971. He went on to variously write, arrange or produce songs for Frankie Valli, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Vicki Sue Robinson, Donny Osmond, Dolly Parton and others. His most notable effort was with Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Top Ten Hit Turn The Beat Around” in 1976. He also was the executive producer for Evelyn “Champagne” King’s Top Ten 1977 hit “Shame”.
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#4: Mexican Hat Rock by the Applejacks
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Mexican Hat Rock”
The Applejacks is a group formed by Dave Appell in 1954. Born in 1922 in Philadelphia, Appell began working as an arranger for United States Navy big bands while he was a sailor in the navy. He also worked as an arranger for African-American swing band leader Jimmie Lunceford. He also was an arranger for dance band leaders Earl Hines and Benny Carter. He formed the Dave Appell Four in 1953 and released a version of the 1928 Guy Lombardo fox trot hit “Coquette”. The Applejacks released their debut single in 1954 titled “Sweet Patootie Pie”. The other members of the band became studio musicians at Cameo-Parkway Records in Philadelphia. They were keyboardist and pianist Demetrios Pappas, Frank Day (born Francesco Cocchi), George Young (born in Philadelphia in 1937), percussionist Hector Rosado, bass player Steve Buskrone, and drummer, percussionist Vic Stevens. While the Applejacks were performing and recording singles, Frank Day was concurrently in a local Philadelphia band named Billy Duke and his Dukes who released ten singles between 1955 and 1957. In 1956, Dave Appell and the Applejacks appeared in the Alan Freed rock flim Don’t Knock the Rock.
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#94: High Energy by Evelyn Thomas
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: September 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #85
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on the Danish Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “High Energy”
Lyrics: “High Energy”
Evelyn Thomas was born in Chicago in 1953. She was “discovered” by UK producer Ian Levine who brought her to the UK and took her to the recording studio. In 1976, Thomas released her debut single “Weak Spot” which reached #26 in the UK pop singles chart. A followup single, “Doomsday”, missed the Top 40 in the UK. Her 1978 debut album is titled I Wanna Make It on My Own. Four more singles were released in the late ’70s. Her second album, Have a Little Faith in Me, was released in 1979.
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#3: Unwind by Ray Stevens
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: June 1968
Peak Position in Guelph: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #52
YouTube: “Unwind”
Lyrics: “Unwind”
Harold Ray Ragsdale was born in January 1939, in Clarkdale, Georgia. In high school he formed a group called The Barons. When he was 18, he was signed to Capitol Records on their Prep label. His debut single was “Five More Steps”. The single charted briefly on CKWX in Vancouver in February 1958. In the summer of 1960, Stevens “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” climbed to #22 in Vancouver. While in 1961, Stevens released a single about unscrupulous pharmaceutical products pitched to cure whatever ails you. “Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills” reached #8 in Vancouver, and also charted in the Top 50 in Winnipeg and Montreal. For several decades, Ray Stevens’ song was the longest song title to make the Billboard Hot 100.
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#43: That Sunday, That Summer by Nat King Cole
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: October-November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “That Sunday, That Summer”
Lyrics: “That Sunday, That Summer”
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. His family headed by his Baptist minister father, moved to Chicago in 1923. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. Coles first performance was the Billy Jones chart-topping 1923 hit, “Yes! We Have No Bananas”, at the age of four. Cole began formal piano lessons at 12, learning jazz, gospel, and classical music. As a youth, Cole joined the news delivery boys’ “Bud Billiken Club” band for an African-American newspaper called The Chicago Defender. At the age of 15, Nat Cole left school to follow a path in music. In 1936, with his bassist brother Eddie, Nat Cole became part of a sextet named Eddie Cole’s Swingsters. Cole was married in 1937 and moved to Los Angeles. He formed a band called the King Cole Swingsters. They were named after the British nursery rhyme Old King Cole (was a merry old soul…). ” The name next was changed to the King Cole Trio in anticipation of making radio transcriptions, and recording for small record labels.
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#48: My Male Curiosity by Kid Creole and the Coconuts
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: November 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #110
YouTube: “My Male Curiosity”
Lyrics: “My Male Curiosity”
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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#71: Fakin’ It by Simon and Garfunkel
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Fakin’ It”
Lyrics: “Fakin’ It”
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. Arthur Ira Garfunkel was born in 1941 in New York City. He is of Moldovian-Jewish decent. 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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