#669: The Return Of The Red Baron by The Royal Guardsmen
Peak Month: March 1967
6 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube.com: “Return Of The Red Baron”
Lyrics: “Return Of The Red Baron”
The Posmen were a band from Ocala, Florida. They were all students at Lake Weir High School. With the British Invasion, they decided to change their name to the Royal Guardsmen, giving themselves a British sounding name. When their debut single, “Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron,” became a hit single late in 1966, they began touring. The band consisted of Billy Taylor on organ, Tom Richards and Barry Winslow on guitar, drummer John Burdett, bass player Bill Balough and singer Chris Nunley. Their first single, “Baby, Let’s Wait,” climbed to #11 in Sarasota, Florida in the fall of 1966. They recorded “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” which became a #2 hit in the US and a #1 hit in Vancouver. Initially, the Royal Guardsmen got into legal trouble with their records about Snoopy since they hadn’t got permission from Peanuts cartoonist, Charles Schultz, to use Snoopy and the Red Baron in their songs.
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#672: The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage by Smokey Robinson And The Miracles
Peak Month: March 1967
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube.com: “The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage”
Lyrics: “The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage”
William “Smokey” Robinson Jr. was born in Detroit in 1940. An uncle gave him the nickname “Smokey Joe” when he was a child. From the age of five he became acquainted with Aretha Franklin, who lived a few doors from his home in the Belmont neighborhood. In 1955 he formed a doo-wop group named the Five Chimes and renamed them the Matadors in 1957. Later that year they changed their name again to the Miracles. The other members of the Miracles were Robert Edward “Bobby” Rogers, who was born in 1940 in Detroit in the same hospital as Robinson. Bobby Rogers joined the Five Chimes in 1956. Born in 1942, Claudette Annette Rogers was from New Orleans and joined the Miracles in 1957. Ronald Anthony “Ronnie” White co-founded the Five Chimes with Smokey Robinson. Warren Thomas “Pete” Moore was born in Detroit in 1938 and was an original member of the Five Chimes. Moore and Robinson met at a musical event in public school in Detroit. Marv Tarplin was born in Atlanta in 1941. He became the Miracles guitarist in 1959 after the group had a dismal reception at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem in 1959. With a guitarist backing the five singers, they were headed for stardom.
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#675: Freedom Blues by Little Richard
Peak Month: August 1970
8 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube.com: “Freedom Blues”
Lyrics: “Freedom Blues”
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in 1932 in Macon, Georgia. His father ran the Tip In Inn in Macon. He had eleven siblings. At the age of 13, Richard heard plenty of recording artists passing through his city at the Macon City Auditorium where he worked selling Coca-cola. Some of the recording artists who impressed him the most were Cab Calloway, Lucky Millender and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. He was taught to play gospel piano at a young age and sang gospel songs. He recalled that time in his life stating “there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days” that they sang gospel to try to keep their spirits up. In fifth grade, Penniman learned to play alto saxophone while in a school marching band. By his late teens ‘Lil Richard, as he was known in his family because of his skinny frame, was a member Doctor Nubillo’s traveling show, a vaudeville revue. He developed a theatrical style from his exposure to vaudeville that included wearing turbans and capes. It was a natural persona for the young man who was a prankster from his childhood. At the age of 16, in 1949, Little Richard joined Doctor Hudson’s Medicine Show and performed the Louis Jordan hit “Caldonia”. He got a record deal with RCA Victor in 1951.
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#676: Needles And Pins by Jackie DeShannon
Peak Month: June 1963
12 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #84
YouTube.com: “Needles And Pins”
Lyrics: “Needles And Pins”
Sharon Lee Myers was born in Hazel, Kentucky, in 1941, a town on the Tennessee and western Kentucky border. When she was only two years old she received her first vocal training. By 1947, she was appearing on a local radio station as a child country and western singer. And by 1952, Sharon Lee Myers was hosting her own radio show. In 1954, with the family farm posing mounting challenges, the family moved to her mother’s home town of Aurora, Illinois, a seven hour drive north of Hazel. A year later, when she was in 8th grade, the family moved to nearby Batavia, Illinois. Her dad became a barber and young Sharon got instant recognition in the local paper. A headline in on May 5, 1955, in the Batavia Herald read “Sharon Lee Myers, Only 13, Is Talented Batavia Vocalist.” The paper enthused, “Though only 13, the youngster can boast almost 11 years of voice training and experience and in the past she has toured most of the south making personal appearances. Also she has sung on radio with a rhythm band for 2 years and has appeared on television 3 times.”
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#678: Summertime by Billy Stewart
Peak Month: August 1966
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week CKLG Up ‘N Comers ~ July 16, 1966
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
YouTube.com: “Summertime”
Lyrics: “Summertime”
William Larry Stewart II was born in Washington D.C. in 1937. In 1949, at the age of 12 Stewart he and his three younger brothers began singing under the billing The Four Stewart Brothers. Singing gospel music, they were given a weekly spot on Sundays from 1949 to 1954 on WUST-AM in Washington D.C. In his teens he also won a talent singing contest performing George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. In 1955 Bo Diddley encountered Billy Stewart playing piano. Diddley was impressed and invited Stewart to become one of his backing musicians. During his time with Bo Diddley, Billy Stewart was able to expand his musical repertoire to include playing organ, bass and drums. In 1956 Bo Diddley played guitar on Stewart’s first single titled “Billy’s Blues” recorded on the Chess label. In 1957, Stewart released “Billy’s Heartache” which featured backing vocals from 18-year-old Marvin Gaye. In 1962, Stewart recorded a tune based on his nickname called “Fat Boy”. The song climbed to #18 on the Billboard R&B charts.
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#679: Hold On! I’m A Comin’ by Sam & Dave
Peak Month: June 1966
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube.com: “Hold On! I’m A Comin’”
Lyrics: “Hold On! I’m A Comin'”
Samuel David Moore was born in Miami, Florida, in 1935. Dave Prater, Jr. was born in Ocilla, Georgia, in 1937. Prater was one of ten children. When he was in his teens he sang with a group called The Sensational Hummingbirds. He moved to Miami in 1957 and got some gigs at local nightclubs. But it wasn’t enough to pay the bills. One night a local Miami R&B singer named Sam Moore was performing at the King of Hearts Club. Prater ended up singing a few duets with Moore onstage. The response was electric. Sam Moore had been raised in gospel music in his parents church. He sang with two the gospel quartets: The Gales and The Mellionaires. He was once invited to join the Soul Stirrers when Sam Cooke went solo in 1957, but Moore turned down the opportunity and kept on performing as a solo act in Miami.
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#680: And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind by Mark Lindsay
Peak Month: November 1970
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube.com: “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”
Lyrics: “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”
A band called The Downbeats formed in Boise, Idaho, in 1958. Paul Revere Dick started the band originally as an instrumental group. They had their first chart single in Vancouver in 1960. It was an instrumental riff on the piano tune, Chopsticks, which they titled “Beatnik Sticks”. They changed their name to Paul Revere And The Raiders in 1960. Between 1960 and 1976 they released 41 singles. They charted five songs into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA beginning in 1966 with songs like “Kicks”, and “Hungry” (1966), “Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be?” (1967) and their cover of Don Fardon’s 1968 single “Indian Reservation,” which peaked at #1 for the band in 1971. They were even more popular in Vancouver where they charted over fifteen songs into the Top Ten on the local charts here on the West Coast. The lead singer of the band was Mark Lindsay who was born in Eugene, Oregon, in 1942.
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#683: Memories Of Maria by Jerry Byrd
Peak Month: January 1962
7 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube.com: “Memories Of Maria”
Gerald Lester “Jerry” Byrd was born in Lima, Ohio, in 1920. As he retells it in his autobiography, Byrd was taken to a “tent” show at the age of 13. It was the during the Great Depression. But for his friend, Richard Bennett, who came from a wealthier family, Byrd would never have seen the show. His friend suggested they go and the friend told Byrd he would pay for the “one dollar ticket” after Byrd told him “I can’t. I don’t have any money.” Byrd says at the age of eleven he had never seen a one dollar bill. In inflation adjusted dollars $1.00 in 1933 is equivalent to $19.40 in 2019. Byrd recalls “nobody has any money in those days. There would be maybe two shows a year that came to town, and the show would come for one day and be gone the next. So if you had the money to go, you went.” At the “tent” show he saw a band from Hawaii. Byrd recalls “There were six or eight of them, and the stage drop was a scene with palm trees along an ocean shoreline, and a volcano erupting. All that exotic stuff, like in the movies. And the music – you couldn’t have captured my attention any more if you hit me on the head with a hammer. But it was the sound of the steel guitar that captivated me the most.”
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#686: What The World Needs Now by Tom Clay
Peak Month: August 1971
5 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #8
YouTube.com: “What The World Needs Now Is Love”
Lyrics: “What The World Needs Now Is Love”
Thomas Clague was born in New York City in 1929. He got involved in radio in the early fifties while he was in his early twenties and was a radio personality in Buffalo on WWOL-AM as “Guy King.” On July 3, 1955, Guy King did a publicity stunt from the top of a billboard in Buffalo’s Shelton Square. From his perch he broadcast “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets over and over again. The stunt resulted in Guy King being fired from WWOL and being arrested. Local Vancouver DJ, Red Robinson was also known for publicity stunts, though none landed him in jail. Thomas Clague moved to Cincinnati and then back to Detroit on WJBK. He got to DJ school dances and other events around town in addition to his regular paycheck from the pop station. But then, in 1959, Clague was caught up in the Payola Scandal while there were hearings in Washington D.C. about corruption of youth in America because of rock ‘n roll. Alan Freed was fired, so was Tom Clay for accepting bribes of $6,000 to spin certain discs on air. In 1959 $6,000 was about as much as $52,000 with inflation factored in for earners in 2018. We worked briefly at WQTE in Detroit before moving to California.
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#687: Attack by The Toys
Peak Month: January 1966
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
YouTube.com: “Attack”
Lyrics: “Attack”
The Toys were a girl group that consisted of Barbara Ann Harris, Barbara Parritt and June Montiero. Both Harris and Parritt came from east coast cities in North Carolina and were born in 1945 and 1944, respectively. June Montiero was born in Queens, New York, in 1946. From an early age Barbara Ann Harris began to sing at her church at the age of six, and by the age of eight she was singing in churches across Elizabeth City, North Carolina. In a 2011 interview with New Jersey.com, Harris commented, “I would go and sing my little heart out…. They would give me a chance to do it. They pulled me up front and said, ‘Go ahead and sing!’ ” She moved with her family to Queens, New York, in 1956. Once she was in high school in the late 50’s, Harris joined a doo-wop quintette of female singers. “We would come home from school and sing and make harmonies. Then we would go out and sing on the street corner or do talent shows or sing at people’s homes — wherever someone invited us to sing. We would sing stuff we heard on radio — R&B and even pop songs. Only in church did we sing church songs; on the street corner, it was rock ‘n’ roll.” The members of the quintette were Betty Stokes, Betty Blocker, Barbara Parritt Toomer, June Montiero and Harris.
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