#770: Why by The Chartbusters
Peak Month: November 1964
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position: #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube.com: “Why”
Lyrics: “Why”
The Chartbusters were the house band at the Crazy Horse in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C. Vernon Sandusky, a guitarist and vocalist, was the frontman for the band. He had previously been in a Coffeyville, Kansas rockabilly group named Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats. The Poe-Kats had been on tour with country star Wanda Jackson. In fact, Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats were Wanda Jackson’s backing band and can be heard on a number of her recordings in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The Chartbusters formed in 1963. Other members of the band included guitar player and backing vocalist Vince Gedeon, bass player and backing vocalist Johnny Dubas, and drummer Mitch Corday. Bobby Poe, of the same group ended up being the manager of the Chartbusters. As an American band trying to start making records at the beginning of the British Invasion, the Chartbusters chose to imitate the Beatles sound.
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#772: Please Don’t Talk To The Lifeguard by Diane Ray
Peak Month: August 1963
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube.com: “Please Don’t Talk To The Lifeguard”
Lyrics: “Please Don’t Talk To The Lifeguard”
Carol Diane Ray was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, in 1945. In 1963 Diane Ray graduated from Gastonia High School. Earlier that year she entered a talent contest on a local AM radio station, WAYS, in Charlotte, NC. She had been singing with a band called the Continentals. In the September 7, 1963, Billboard Magazine reported that Mercury Records A & R director (Artists and Repetoire), Shelby Singleton, was on the panel of judges for the WAYS-AM radio contest in Charlotte. Diane Ray won the talent contest and she was signed to Mercury Records. While she went to Nashville to do some more recording, her first single, “Please Don’t Talk to the Lifeguard”, appeared on the Billboard Hot 100.
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#773: A Teenager Feels It Too by Denny Reed
Peak Month: August-September 1960
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #94
YouTube.com: “A Teenager Feels It Too”
Lyrics: “A Teenager Feels It Too”
Denny Reed was from Cahokia, Illinois, ten minutes east of St. Louis, Missouri. It is home to the St. Louis International Airport. Reed attended Cahokia High School. When he was sixteen years of age, among his favorite singers were Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby. He listened to their records over and over again so he could sing just like them. Eventually, Denny Reed was able to sing higher than Mathis and lower than Crosby. In time he developed a four octave range. When he recorded “A Teenager Feels It Too”, Reed had only sung in public on two occasions. Denny says, “I recorded ‘Teenager’ in Phoenix, Arizona at Ramsey’s Audio Recorders. It was a tiny little studio, and the echo chamber was a 1000-gallon propane tank. They put a microphone inside and wired it into the control booth. Duane Eddy was also with Sill and Hazlewood.” Sill and Hazelwood re-issued “A Teenager Feels It Too” on their Trey label distributed by Atlantic Records.
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#778: Hark, Is That A Cannon I Hear by Bobby Vee
Peak Month: February 1962
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Hark, Is That A Cannon I Hear”
Bobby Vee was born in Fargo, North Dakota with the birth name Robert Thomas Velline. He was part of a highschool band that was asked to step in and perform for the concert that was to be headlined by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Each had died in a small plane crash the day before. And the concert was held in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the Red River from Fargo. Fifteen year old Vee and his band were a hit and he got a contract with Liberty Records. It was his fourth single release, “Devil or Angel”, that catapulted him into the Top Ten and teen idol stardom. The single peaked at number-one in Vancouver on the C-FUN-TASTIC 50 on September 10, 1960. Other hits followed including “Rubber Ball” which peaked at #3 in Vancouver in December 1960. The B-side of “Rubber Ball”, a cover of the Buddy Holly tune “Everyday”, peaked at #7 on the CKWX Fabulous Forty in January 1961. “Take Good Care of My Baby” (#1), “Run to Him” (#2) “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” (#3) and “Come Back When You Grow Up Girl” (#3).
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#779: In My Baby’s Eyes by Bobby Vee
Peak Month: May 1962
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “In My Baby’s Eyes”
Lyrics: “In My Baby’s Eyes”
Robert Thomas Velline was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He was part of a highschool band that was asked to step in and perform for the concert on February 4, 1959, in Moorhead, Minnesota. The concert, across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota, was to have featured Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. However, the three died in a small plane crash the day before when the plane crashed into a cornfield near Mason City, Iowa. Fifteen year old Vee and his band, The Shadows, were a hit and he got a contract with Liberty Records. In August 1959, their debut single, “Suzie Baby”, made the Top Ten in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and the Top 20 in Des Moines, Iowa, and Boston, It was his fourth single release, “Devil or Angel”, that catapulted him into the Top Ten and teen idol stardom. It climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in Vancouver. Other hits followed including “Rubber Ball” (#2),” Take Good Care of My Baby” (#1), “Run to Him” (#2) “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” (#3) and “Come Back When You Grow Up Girl” (#3).
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#1455: Runnin’ Out Of Fools by Aretha Franklin
Peak Month: October 1964
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #57
YouTube.com:”Runnin’ Out Of Fools”
Lyrics: “Runnin’ Out Of Fools”
Aretha Franklin born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1942. Her family moved to Detroit when she was four years old. Her father was a Baptist minister and she was raised in the church and sang in the choir. In 1956, at the age of 14, she released an live album of sacred music titled Songs Of Faith. It was recorded at the New Bethel Baptist Church where she worshipped. Sensing a call to share the gift of her voice with a wider audience, Aretha asked for her father’s blessing to go into the field of rhythm and blues and pop music. He told her he would do anything he could to support her, saying he wanted her to sign with a record label that could help her reach a wider audience. Aretha Franklin signed with Columbia Records in 1960. In 1961 she had a minor Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, a remake of the Al Jolson tune from the 1918 Broadway musical, Sinbad, titled “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody”. In 1962, Aretha was dubbed as the Queen of Soul by a Chicago DJ named Pervis Spann on WVON. The nickname stuck even though she was only twenty years old.
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#780: Donna Means Heartbreak by Gene Pitney
Peak Month: July 1963
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #6
CFUN Twin Pick June 30, 1963
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Donna Means Heartbreak”
Lyrics: “Donna Means Heartbreak”
Gene Pitney was born in 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a songwriter who became a pop singer, something rare at the time. Some of the songs he wrote for other recording artists include “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee, “He’s A Rebel” for The Crystals and “Hello Mary Lou” for Ricky Nelson. Pitney was more popular in Vancouver than in his native America. Over his career he charted 14 songs into the Top Ten in Vancouver, while he only charted four songs into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100. Curiously, only two of these songs overlap: “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Vallance” and “I’m Gonna Be Strong”. Surprisingly “Only Love Can Break A Heart”, which peaked at #2 in the USA, stalled at #14 in Vancouver, and “It Hurts To Be In Love” stalled at #11 in Vancouver while it peaked at #7 south of the border.
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#782: Long Line Rider by Bobby Darin
Peak Month: February 1969
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #79
YouTube.com: “Long Line Rider”
Lyrics: “Long Line Rider”
Walden Robert Cassotto was born in the Bronx in May, 1936. His mother, born in November 1917, was pregnant with him when she was only sixteen, giving birth to him when she was seventeen. In the 1930’s, being a pregnant teenager was very improper. So she gave birth and was introduced to her son as his older “sister.” In order for the deceit to be pulled off, young Robert was raised by his grandmother, Polly, who he understood was his mother. And he understood that his “mother” had given birth at a later stage in life. His “mother” was a showgirl in her earlier days and so not the “grandmother type.” So the ruse was successful. It was not until 1968, when he was 32 years of age, that he discovered that his older sister, Giovannina Cassotto, was actually his mother. In his childhood, Robert learned to play piano, drums and guitar. According to his biographies, Walden Robert Cassotto suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. Bobby’s real sister, Vivienne, said years later, “my earliest memory of Bobby as a child was about his rheumatic fever. We couldn’t walk on the floor because just walking across the floor would put him in agony. I remember Bobby crying and screaming and my father having to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, he was in so much pain. I remember being told all my life, “Bobby’s sickly. You have to be careful, and you have to protect him.” Between the ages of eight and thirteen, Bobby had four illnesses with rheumatic fever. Each one damaging his heart muscle more severely than the previous illness.
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#783: Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home by Joe South
Peak Month: October 1969
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #5
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
YouTube.com: “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home”
Lyrics:”Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home”
Joseph Alfred Souter was born in 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of eleven his father gave him a guitar. In his mid-teens he built a small radio station where he played his own songs to his listeners. In his teens he changed his surname from Souter to South. He began his career penning a novelty answer song in 1958. “The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor” was in response to two number one hits that year. The “Witch Doctor” had been a hit for David Seville and The Chipmunks, while “The Purple People Eater” was a hit for Sheb Wooley. South wrote the song for The Big Bopper, who had a hit earlier that year called “Chantilly Lace”. In the case of “Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor” the Witch Doctor and the Purple People Eater find themselves forming a two piece rock n’roll band. The Witch Doctor plays guitar and the Purple People Eater plays horn. The lyrics build on the longing of the Purple People Eater who in Sheb Wooley’s song confides the reason he has come to earth is “I want to get a job in a rock n’ roll band.”
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#787: Poco Loco by Gene & Eunice
Peak Month: October 1959
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #48
YouTube.com: “Poco Loco”
Lyrics: “Poco Loco”
Eugene Forrest III was born in San Antonio, Texas, in September 1931. Later he took the name Gene Forrest when he began a singing career. In May 1931, Eunice Levy Frost was born in Texarkana, Texas. Before 1954, Eunice heard Ann Walls playing with Ernie Fields’ Orchestra in Phoenix. Eunice reflects, “when I saw her complete control of the band, for a few minutes she was the queen. They had to do everything she said, it seemed good.” Eunice Levy headed to Los Angeles to fulfill her dream. When she got to Los Angeles she met Gene Forrest at a singing contest. She discovered that Gene Forrest was “a struggling young man trying to make it entertainment-wise…and make big money the fastest way he knew.” The pair hit it off and soon became a singing duo and got involved romantically. Gene & Eunice wrote most of their own songs. Their first single, “Ko Ko Mo”, put “The Sweethearts of Rhythm & Blues” on the map. However, Perry Como covered the song and it became a #2 hit for Como and a #6 hit for The Crew Cuts on the hit parade.
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