#1106: Animal Crackers (In Cellophane Boxes) by Gene Pitney
Peak Month: April 1967
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #106
YouTube.com: “Animal Crackers”
Lyrics: “Animal Crackers”
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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#1140: Cherry Pie by Tri-Lads
Peak Month: March 1958
4 weeks on Red Robinson Teen Canteen chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Cherry Pie”
Lyrics: “Cherry Pie”
In 1938, Billy Reynolds Eustis was born in Harden City, Oklahoma. This is a town nearly two hours southeast of Oklahoma City. He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eustis graduated Tulsa Central High School same year as Oklahoma City native, J. J. Cale. In 1957, during his senior year in Tulsa High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Billy Eustis (pictured on the right in the photo below) teamed up with Jim Scott, Mary Hazelton and Dan Smith to perform in the teen vocal group The Countabulies.
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#1425: Ronnie by Marcy Joe
Peak Month: June 1961
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube.com link: “Ronnie”
In 1944, Marcy Rae Sockel was born in Pittsburgh. She grew up in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In her teens, each Saturday, for four consecutive years she took transit to the city center. At the Carlton House Hotel she’d take singing lessons from songwriter and co-owner of Robbee Records, Lennie Martin. The year before Martin had produced the Top 30 hit “Pennies From Heaven” by The Skyliners. When she turned seventeen, Marcy Joe wrote a song about her boyfriend Howard. She called it “Ronnie”. Martin was impressed with the song and quickly composed an arrangement for the tune. He produced a recording session of “Ronnie” at Pittsburgh’s United Recording Service studio and got local Robbee Record artists Lugee & the Lions to sing back up. Lugee & the Lions were comprised of Lou “Lugee” Sacco (later known as Lou Christie), Amy Sacco (Lou’s older sister), Kay Chick and Bill Fabec. In March 1961 the song was released.
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#1107: Oh Deed I Do by Elyse Weinberg
Peak Month: June 1969
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Record World ~ #101
YouTube.com: “Oh Deed I Do”
Lyrics: “Oh Deed I Do”
Elyse Weinberg was born in 1946. In the 1968, the Toronto born Weinberg, now living in California, released her self-titled debut to much success. The album, Elyse, hit #31 on the Billboard 200 album chart. She appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, in Newsweek and the L.A. Free Press, and at Shaffer Music Festival in New York City. Even Cher choose to use one of her song’s “Band of Thieves” on the soundtrack to Cher’s acting debut in the 1969 film Chastity. However, a string of bad luck — and the fact that Cher for some reason instead credited the song to Sonny instead — led Elyse to experience only minor success in the years that followed before she drifted into seclusion and changed her name to Cori Bishop.
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#1112: Walkin’ Proud by Pete Klint Quintet
Peak Month: October 1967
6 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #7
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Walkin’ Proud”
The Pete Klint Quintet, formed in 1965 and was managed by Tom Jolas of Mason City, Iowa. The original line up for the quintet included: Pete Klint on guitar, bass player Jamie Wornsom, drummer Bill “Mo” Morisky, keyboard player John Peterson and backing guitarist Mike Hesselink. Under the leadership of the dynamic Larry “Pete” Klint, these Iowa recording stars established themselves as one of the top concert attractions throughout the entire Central U.S.A. In 1965 the band members were all 17 years old. The group was named as Lake Okoboji’s Roof Garden Balfroom’s “Band Of The Year” in 1967. At that time, this was one of the most prestigious awards that a group could acquire. In addition, they received several national citations from the National Ballrooms Operators Association (NBOA) for their professionalism. If you were a top Iowa or Midwest ballroom, from the Roof Garden, to the Danceland, to the Laramar, to Matters Ballroom, the Pete Klint Quintet rocked them all. The quintet’s leader, Larry Klindt, used the stage name Pete Klint.
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#1113: The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix
Peak Month: August 1967
5 weeks on CKLG chart
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “The Wind Cries Mary”
Lyrics: “The Wind Cries Mary”
In 1942 Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington. His grandparents, Nora and Ross Hendrix immigrated from America to Vancouver in 1911. There they raised Jimi’s father, James Allen Hendrix, who moved to Seattle in 1941 where he met Lucille Jeter, Jimi’s mother. In 1946, Johnny Allen Hendrix’s name was changed to James “Jimmy” Marshall Hendrix. As a child when he was asked to sweep the floor with a broom, his parents and grandparents would find him in his room strumming the broom like he was playing a guitar. He was given a guitar when he was 15 years old. Despite a limited mainstream exposure of four years while billed as Jimi Hendrix, he is widely considered one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
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#1424: I Wish I Knew by Solomon Burke
Peak Month: May 1968
5 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68
YouTube.com link: “I Wish I Knew” Solomon Burke
“I Wish I Knew“Billy Taylor Trio
In 1940 James Solomon McDonald was born in his grandmother’s home in a row house in West Philadelphia. Burke was the child of Josephine Moore and an absentee father. His mother Josephine was a nurse, schoolteacher, concert performer and pastor. Burke was consecrated a bishop at birth by his grandmother in the Solomon’s Temple, a congregation of the United House of Prayer for All People, which she founded at her home in Black Bottom, West Philadelphia. When Burke was nine, his mother married rabbi and butcher Vincent Burke and had James Solomon McDonald had his name changed to Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke.
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#1115: (If’n You Don’t) Somebody Else Will by Monica Lewis
Peak Month: May 1957
15 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “(If’n You Don’t) Somebody Else Will”
Lyrics: “(If’n You Don’t) Somebody Else Will”
May Lewis was born in Chicago in 1922. Her father Leon, was a musical director for CBS and her mother, Jessica, sang with the Chicago Opera Company. Lewis began to take singing lessons in her childhood. She overcame early poverty and capitalized on lucky breaks. She was discovered by Benny Goodman. Miss Lewis was studying at Hunter College when she was hired as a $25-a-week vocalist on a radio wake-up program called Gloom Dodgers to help support the family. She soon had her own radio show, Monica Makes Music. Then she won the part of a singing cigarette girl in the short-lived Broadway show Johnny 2×4, starring alongside a very young Lauren Bacall.
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#1117: Tell Someone You Love Them by Dino, Desi and Billy
Peak Month: September 1968
6 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
1 week Hitbound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube.com: “Tell Someone You Love Them”
Lyrics: “Tell Someone You Love Them”
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV is the son of Des Arnaz and Lucille Ball. His birth in 1953 was one of the most publicized in television history. His parents were the stars of the television sitcom I Love Lucy, and Ball’s pregnancy was part of the storyline, which was considered daring then. The same day Lucy gave birth to Desi Jr., the fictional Lucy Ricardo gave birth to “Little Ricky.” As a testament to how interested the American public was in Lucy’s TV baby, Arnaz appeared on the cover on the very first issue of TV Guide with a title that read: “Lucy’s $50,000,000 baby.” The reason he was given this title was because revenue from certain tie-in commitments were expected to top that mark. In 1964 Desi became the drummer for the pop trio Dino, Desi and Billy. “Dino” was Dean Paul Martin, the son of pop singer Dean Martin “Billy” was Billy Hinsche, brother-in-law of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
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#1119: Love Hurts by Roy Orbison
Peak Month: June 1961
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Love Hurts”
Lyrics: “Love Hurts”
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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