#30: Clementine by Bobby Darin
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: May 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~#21
YouTube: “Clementine”
Lyrics: “Clementine”
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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#18: With The Wind and the Rain in Your Hair by Pat Boone
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: March 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube: “With The Wind and the Rain in Your Hair”
Lyrics: “With The Wind and the Rain in Your Hair”
Pat Boone was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on June 1, 1934. He was the son of Margaret Virginia (Pritchard) and Archie Altman Boone. The Boone family moved to Nashville from Florida when Boone was two years old. In a 2007 interview on The 700 Club, Boone claimed that he is the great-great-great-great grandson of the American pioneer Daniel Boone. Boone is a singer, composer, actor, writer, television personality, motivational speaker, and spokesman. He won a talent contest on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. He became a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He has sold over 45 million records, charted 38 Top 40 hits between 1955 and 1962. Boone has also appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films. He still holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
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#31: Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: April 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “Witchcraft”
Lyrics: “Witchcraft”
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. Sinatra spent much time at his parents’ tavern in Hoboken, working on his homework and occasionally singing for spare change. After leaving school before graduating, Sinatra began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City. In New York, Sinatra found jobs singing for his supper or for cigarettes. He got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group called the 3 Flashes to let him join. Baritone Fred Tamburro stated that “Frank hung around us like we were gods or something”, admitting that they only took him on board because he owned a car and could chauffeur the group around. Sinatra soon learned they were auditioning for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show, and “begged” the group to let him in on the act. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and passed an audition from Edward Bowes to appear on the show. They each earned $12.50, and ended up attracting 40,000 votes to win first prize—a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the U.S. Sinatra quickly became the group’s lead singer, and, much to the jealousy of his fellow group members, garnered most of the attention from girls.
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#32: My Love For You by Johnny Mathis
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: September 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #23
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube: “My Love For You”
Lyrics: “My Love For You”
Johnny Mathis was born in Gilmer (TX) in 1935. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5-years-old. His father was a vaudeville singer and piano player. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. Mathis’ first song was “My Blue Heaven”. He started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. In 1955, Mathis got a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club in San Francisco.
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#7: Little By Little by Nappy Brown
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: March 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #57
YouTube: “Little By Little”
Lyrics: “Little By Little”
Napoleon “Nappy” Brown Goodson Culp was born in 1929 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After his mother died, he was raised by family friends, Fred and Maggie Culp. He attended an AME Zion congregation. He later told a reporter, ” (I) just grew up religious. I got started singing when I was about nine years old in the choir at church. My dad was what you call a steward, and the bass singer in the choir.” In 1946, at the age of 16, he formed a gospel group with his cousins, the Golden Crowns, before moving on to the Golden Bell Quintet. From 1949 to 1954, Brown worked as a gospel singer with The Selah Jubilee Singers prior to switching to R&B. In 1954, he got a record deal with Savoy Records. His vocal style was recognizable, as Brown used a wide vibrato, melisma (singing a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession), and distinctive extra syllables, in particular, “li-li-li-li-li.”
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#9: Heartaches by Clyde McPhatter
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: August 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Heartaches”
Lyrics: “Heartaches”
Clyde McPhatter was born in the historic African-American district of Hayti in Durham, North Carolina, on November 15, 1932. Starting at the age of five, he sang in his father’s Baptist church gospel choir along with his three brothers and three sisters. When he was 10, Clyde was the soprano-voiced soloist for the choir. When his family moved to Harlem after he graduated, Clyde formed a gospel group, the Mount Lebanon Singers. In 1950, after winning the coveted Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater contest, McPhatter returned to his job as a grocery store manager. He was discovered singing the choir in the Holiness Baptist Church of New York City by Billy Ward of Billy Ward and his Dominoes and was recruited into the group.
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#5: The Aisle by Roy Hamilton
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: September 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube: “The Aisle”
Lyrics: “The Aisle”
Roy Hamilton was born in the village of Leesburg, Georgia, in 1929. He began singing in church choirs at the age of six. In the summer of 1943, when Hamilton was fourteen, the family moved to New Jersey in search of a better life. There, he sang with the Central Baptist Church Choir, the state’s most famous African American church choir. Hamilton studied commercial art and was gifted enough to place his paintings with a number of New York City galleries. In February 1947, 17-year-old Roy Hamilton won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater. Yet, Hamilton recalled, “I couldn’t get a break. I really had nothing different to offer. They were seeking blues singers at the time, and I didn’t know any blues at all.” So, as he developed his vocal styling, Hamilton worked as an electronics technician during the day. At night, he was an amateur heavyweight boxer, with a record of six wins and one defeat. From 1948 to 1953, Hamilton was a member of the Searchlight Gospel Singers, performing in churches and gospel concerts. When the group split, Hamilton began performing at The Caravan night club in Newark, New Jersey.
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#25: Lucky Star by Rick Nelson
City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CJCA
Peak Month: August 1964
Peak Position in Edmonton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #127
YouTube: “Lucky Star”
Lyrics: “Lucky Star”
In 1940 Eric Hilliard Nelson was born. On February 20, 1949, while still eight years old, he took the stage name of Ricky Nelson when appearing on the radio program, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. A child actor, Ricky was also a musician and singer-songwriter. who starred alongside his family in the long-running television series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–66), as well as co-starring alongside John Wayne and Dean Martin in the western Rio Bravo (1959). He placed 53 songs on the Billboard singles charts between 1957 and 1973.
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#10: Bad Boy by the Jive Bombers
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: March 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Bad Boy”
Lyrics: “Bad Boy”
The Jive Bombers were an R&B doo wop group whose members consisted of Clarence Palmer, William “Pee Wee” Tinney, Al Tinney, and Earl Johnson. Palmer was born in 1911, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and was stricken with polio as a child. He was the lead vocalist for the Jive Bombers. Al Tinney was born in Alsonia, CT, in 1921, and his brother “Pee Wee” Tinney was born in 1930. Earl Johnson was born in 1932. Al Tinney was a child actor and appeared in the Broadway cast of Porgy and Bess starting in October 1935 at the Alvin Theater in Manhattan. The Tinney brothers , Pee Wee and Al, had both been part of the cast of a 1938 Broadway musical, Sing Out The News. Al Tinney was part of the band that played at Monroe’s Uptown House at 198 West 134th St in Harlem. Tinney was with the band from 1939 to 1943. Others in the house band at the time included saxophonist Charlie Parker, drummer Max Roach, trumpeters Vic Coulsen, Benny Harris, and George Treadwell. Al Tinney was drafted into the United States Army in 1943, and served until 1946.
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#8: Rosie Lee by the Tunedrops
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: June 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #4
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Rosie Lee”
Lyrics: “Rosie Lee”
Malcolm Dodds was born in Brooklyn, and studied classical music at NYU. In the early 50s, he was living in Brooklyn in and was busy working as a musical/vocal instructor and as always was involved with choral groups in Schools, YMCAs and churches. He was using his birth name, Malcolm Williams. It was during this period that he was approached by arranger Fred Norman, to sing in a group. Consequently, the Normanaires were formed, comprised of Malcolm Dodds, Dorice Brown, Bill Glover and Sam Dillworth.
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