#1133: Red Hot by Billy Riley
Peak Month: November 1957
4 weeks on Teen Canteen chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Red Hot”
Lyrics: “Red Hot”
Billy Lee Riley was born in in Pocahontas, Arkansas in 1933. His father was a sharecropper, which means he rented land from a landowner and used the land in return for giving a portion of the profits of the crops produced to the landowner on their portion of land. Though Riley’s father was a house painter by trade he would work in the cotton fields to feed the family during lean times. Young Billy Lee began playing harmonica at age six, and learned blues guitar in his early teens. “Blues is the music I grew up hearing on the plantation. There were black families and white families all living together, far from town. We were poor, and playing music was our main form of entertainment,” he recalled. In 1957 Riley recorded “Red Hot,” included in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Song’s that Shaped Rock n’ Roll.
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#1134: Stormy by Donnie Owens
Peak Month: March 1961
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Stormy”
Donald Lee Owens was born October 30, 1932, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Out of high school Owens went into the U.S. Air Force where he served as Airman First Class. He was a veteran of the Korean War. Taking the stage name, Donnie Owens, for five years Donnie Owens and the 4 Jacks played at a Harry’s Capri Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona. Owens recorded three 45’s on the Guyden Records label. Each featured Duane Eddy on guitar. Owens was a pop singer and guitarist. He played guitar for Duane Eddy’s backing band, the Rebels. In that capacity, Donnie Owens was one of the guitarists heard on “Because They’re Young” and other hits by Duane Eddy. Though he was American, Donnie Owens only had one hit record in the USA. On October 6, 1958 Owens made his Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Need You”. The record peaked on the Hot 100 at #25 and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks. It peaked in Vancouver on CKWX at #26 and spent 9 weeks on the charts. Duane Eddy is heard playing acoustic guitar on the record. The hit resembled the plodding pace of the more popular hit by Jack Scott, “My True Love.”
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#1135: So Young by Ray Smith
Peak Month: October 1958
4 weeks on Vancouver’s Teen Canteen chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “So Young”
Ray Smith was born in 1934 in the hamlet of Melber, Kentucky, thirteen miles from the town of Paducah where the Ohio River and the Tennessee River meet. Smith was the seventh son of a sharecropper who, in turn, was also the seventh son in Smith’s grandfather’s family. His dad later worked at the atomic bomb plant in Paducah. Smith left his home at the age of twelve. He worked as a gopher on a Coca-Cola Truck and then operated an oven at Kirchoff’s Bread plant in Paducah. As he grew up Ray Smith worked as a curb hop at Price’s Barbecue at 34th and Broadway where he would serve U.S. (KY) Senator Alben W. Barkley, who later became President Harry Truman’s Vice-President. Next he worked as a sole back tacker and tack machine operator at the International Shoe Company.
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#1178: Boomerang by Donnie Brooks
Peak Month: August 1961
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
WX DISC-overy of the week ~ July 22, 1961
YouTube.com: “Boomerang”
In 1936 John Dee Abohosh was born in Dallas, Texas. His family moved to Ventura, California when he was in his youth. In his teens he was adopted by his stepfather, John D. Fairecloth, who supported young John in developing his voice. John Dee Abohosh was than given the surname Fairecloth. While growing up in southern California, he studied under the same vocal coach who previously instructed Eddie Fisher. In high school John Dee Fairecloth made his professional debut on a classical music showcase broadcast by Ventura-based station KBCC. After graduating from high school, Fairecloth earned his living singing at local clubs, fairs, and weddings, embracing rock & roll and in 1957 signing to local indie Fable Records to cut his debut single, “You Gotta Walk the Line“, credited to Johnny Faire.
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#1095: Crying My Heart Out For You by Julius La Rosa
Peak Month: June 1957
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Crying My Heart Out For You”
Julius La Rosa was born in Brooklyn in 1930 and raised in an Italian-American Roman Catholic milieu. Out of high school he joined the U.S. Navy and became a radioman. According to a 1991 New York Times article, La Rosa sang in the Navy Choir, at officers clubs and bars to pay for drinks. La Rosa was in the Navy when Arthur Godfrey heard him sing. Godfrey had been encouraged to listen to La Rosa by a buddy of La Rosa’s named George “Bud” Andrews, who happened to be the seaman mechanic on Godfrey’s personal airplane. Godfrey soon invited Julius La Rosa to appear on his CBS TV show. After his discharge, Julius La Rosa became a star on the Arthur Godfrey and his Friends from 1951 to 1953, recording several hits including “Eh, Cumpari”, which shot to #2 on the Billboard pop charts.
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#1139: Little Man by Sonny & Cher
Peak Month: October 1966
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube.com: “Little Man”
Lyrics: “Little Man”
In November 1962, in a coffee shop in Los Angeles, sixteen year old Cherilyn Sarkisian met twenty-seven year old Salvatore Bono. At the time Bono was employed at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood working for record producer Phil Spector. Cher began to work as a back up singer for Phil Spector including on “Be My Baby” for the Ronettes in 1963, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” for the Righteous Brothers, recorded in November 1964. Meanwhile, Sonny & Cher released several singles under the billing, Caesar and Cleo, including “The Letter” which made the Top 40 in Los Angeles. In the fall of 1964 they released the single, “Baby Don’t Go” under the billing Sonny & Cher. It was a regional hit that fall peaking at #2 in San Bernardino, #5 in Honolulu, #7 in Los Angeles and #14 in San Francisco. The song would chart again in the fall of 1965, after their #1 hit that summer, “I Got You Babe”.
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#1141: Love Me by Bobby Hebb
Peak Month: January 1967
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #84
YouTube.com: “Love Me”
Lyrics: “Love Me”
Robert Von Hebb was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1938. His parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were both blind musicians. When “Bobby” was just three years old he performed on stage in The Jerry Jackson Revue of 1942, which took place in 1941. Hebb’s older brother Harold “Hal” introduced him to the audience at the Bijou Theatre. Over the next three years before he entered elementary school, and through his school years, Bobby Hebb and his brother “Hal” appeared at various Nashville nightclubs. These included The Hollywood Palm, Eva Thompson Jones Dance Studio and The Paradise Club. Their appearances were backed by William Hebb on trombone and guitar, and Olivia Hebb on both piano and guitar. The brothers sang “Lady B. Good”, “Let’s Do the Boogie Woogie” and other songs spanning the R&B and jazz genre in the 40s.
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#1415: Dear Abby by Buddy Knox
Peak Month: November 1962
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Youtube: “Dear Abby”
Buddy Wayne Knox was born in 1933 Happy, Texas, a small farm town in the Texas Panhandle a half hour south of Amarillo. During his youth he learned to play the guitar. He was the first artist of the rock era to write and perform his own number one hit song, “Party Doll“. The song earned Knox a gold record in 1957 and was certified a million seller. Knox was one of the innovators of the southwestern style of rockabilly that became known as “Tex-Mex” music.
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#1413: If The Boy Only Knew by Sue Thompson
Peak Month: June 1962
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #112
YouTube.com link: “If The Boy Only Knew”
Lyrics: “If The Boy Only Knew”
Eva Sue McKee was born in Nevada, Missouri on July 19, 1925. By 1932, at the age of seven, she was playing guitar and singing on stage. She got married at the age of 17 in 1942. But by 1945 was divorced and a single mother. Sue‘s first successful fling in show business was with the “Dude Martin Show” on KYA Radio in San Francisco, and KGO TV in 1950. The Dude Martin Show moved to TV station KTTV in Los Angeles in 1951. She performed with Dude at the Palamino Club in Los Angeles. Between 1950 and 1954 she recorded thirteen 78 RPMs as the featured vocalist with Dude Martin and His Roundup Gang. “If You Want Some Lovin” from 1950 is an example of the country records she was releasing under the stage name, Sue Thompson. She was nominated for an Emmy award in 1954 for her work on the Dude Martin Show, but lost out to Lucille Ball.
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#1153: Mary, Mary Lou by Bill Haley
Peak Month: January 1958
4 weeks on Vancouver’s Teen Canteen Chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Mary, Mary Lou”
Lyrics: “Mary, Mary Lou”
Bill Haley was born in Michigan in 1925. His dad played the mandolin and banjo while his mom played the piano. In a story Haley would relate years later in a biography, he recalled as a child when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one. Sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album Rock Around The Clock describe Bill Haley’s early life and emerging career: “Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $1 a night. Very soon after this he formed a group of equally enthusiastic youngsters and managed to get quite a few local bookings for his band.”
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