Peak Month: February 1972
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “I Am The Preacher”
Lyrics: “I Am The Preacher”

In 1967 Tony Kingston had a record deal with Pye and released “Master Hand” in the fall of the year. The British singer Tony Kingston had a brief deal with Decca Records in England in the late 1960’s with a single called “Mama Come On Home” released in April that year. The record is now considered a Northern Soul classic. Tony Kingston sang two songs from the 1970 British film I Start Counting, namely “They Want Love” and “Children”. After relocating to Canada in the early ’70s Kingston was signed to Yorkville Records in Toronto where he recorded “I Am The Preacher”.

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#569: Hushaby Little Guitar by Paul Evans

Peak Month: October 1960
8 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Hushaby Little Guitar”

Paul Evans was born in Queens, New York, in 1938. Although he got some fame with his modest success as a teen idol, Evans is more well known for his songwriting for other performing artists. He recorded his first single in 1957 titled “What Do You Know?”, backed with “Dorothy”. His first hit song was written in 1958 titled “When”. It became a Top 20 hit for the Kalin Twins. Evans told staff with the Songfacts website about the backstory. Evans said ” I was young… 19 or 20. I would write with two or three writers a day. It was our job to write songs… just sitting around, fooling around playing songs. We wrote a song for the Everly Brothers, but they were almost impossible to get. So we brought the song up to Decca Records. The demo was just my guitar, me singing, and my co-writer singing a harmony line. We got the Kalin Twins to do it because when [Decca] heard a duet on a demo, they thought of a duet, that’s just the way it was in the business at the time. We did not write it as a personal experience. We tried. We wrote it because we wanted to write a song that we could get a record recorded on.”

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#1440: I Told You So by Jimmy Jones

Peak Month: April 1961
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #85
YouTube.com: “I Told You So”
Lyrics: “I Told You So”

Jimmy Jones was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1937. He got a gig as a tap dancer in the early 50s. In 1954 Jones formed a doo-wop group named the Berliners. The group changed their name later in ’54 to The Sparks of Rhythm. He moved to New York City in 1955 and formed another group called the Savoys, named after the label they recorded with. They left Savoy for Rama Records and became the Pretenders, and then the Jones Boys. When the group disbanded in 1959, Jimmy Jones embarked on a solo career. In December 1959 he released a song he’d written in the mid-50s with the Sparks of Rhythm titled “Handy Man”. It was co-written with Otis Blackwell. In 1960 the single climbed to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on CFUN in Vancouver (BC).
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#1431: Skin Tight, Pin Striped, Purple Pedal Pushers by Sheb Wooley

Peak Month: July 1961
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Skin Tight, Pin Striped, Purple Pedal Pushers”

Shelby Fredrick “Sheb” Wooley was born in rural southwestern Oklahoma in 1921. His father was a farmer who also owned some horses. During his childhood Sheb learned to ride horses. He became a working cowboy and into his early teens a rodeo rider. When he was 15 Sheb formed a country and western band named the “Plainview Melody Boys.” His band occasionally appeared live on radio station KASA in Elk City, Oklahoma. When he was 19 years-old Sheb Wooley married 17-year-old Melva Miller. She was a cousin of Roger Miller. Sheb and Roger became friends and he taught Roger how to play the guitar and bought him his first fiddle while he was still a child. Due to his rodeo injuries, Sheb Wooley was not seen fit to join the United States Army. Instead he worked on the oil patch as a welder. He and his wife moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1946. That year he released his first single “Oklahoma Honky-Tonk Gal”. He hosted a Fort Worth-based country music radio show called Sheb Wooley and the Calumet Indians. But after three years of touring across the southern USA with a band, the marriage fell apart. Wooley remarried in 1949 and moved to Hollywood in 1950.

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#570: Open Up Your Door by Richard & The Young Lions

Peak Month: November 1966
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #99
YouTube.com: “Open Up Your Door”
Lyrics: “Open Up Your Door”

When Richard Tepp began to hear the Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones and the Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1964, these British Invasion acts inspired him to become a rock ‘n roll singer. Sitting in his home in Newark, New Jersey, he saw the way the opposite sex reacted to the Beatles. Tepp imagined a wonderful life that would include him performing and girls screaming. He attended a gig at a club on Chancellor Avenue in Newark where The Emeralds were on stage. He asked if he could join there band and, after showing them his vocal skills, they hired him on the spot. The Emeralds soon changed their name to The Original Kounts and became a cover band playing British Invasion songs. They grew their hair long and stood out.

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#571: Medicine Man by Buchanan Brothers

Peak Month: July 1969
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube.com: “Medicine Man”
Lyrics: “Medicine Man”

Thomas Picardo Jr. was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1942. In 1958 he co-founded a doo-wop group called The Criterions with Tim Hauser. The pair attended St. Rose High School in Belmar, NJ. The Criterions had a minor hit on the Alan Freed show in New York City and on WMGM in Wildwood, New Jersey in 1959 titled “I Remain Truly Yours”. West and Hauser went to Villanova University in Pennsylvania and in 1960. West became the conductor of the Villanova Singers, the university glee club. From the glee club, West formed another group of singers named The Villanova Spires. This was a 12-man folk group who sang with guitars. Tim Hauser also  joined the Villanova Spires. In 1961, West another student named Jim Croce joined The Villanova Spires and they became friends.

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#572: Private Eye by Bob Luman

Peak Month: August 1961
8 weeks on CKWX’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #115
YouTube.com: “Private Eye”

Bob Luman was born in Blackjack, Texas, in 1937. Before 1955 the only hits Bob Luman had were on the baseball field. He was an outstanding baseball player for his school team in Kilgore, Texas. He also fronted a band that performed the country hits. But after seeing Elvis Presley perform in Kilgore in May 1955, Luman was resolved that his hits going forward would be “Rockabilly hits.”

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#1436: Try My Love Again by Bobby Moore’s Rhythm Aces

Peak Month: December 1966
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #97
YouTube.com: “Try My Love Again”
Lyrics: “Try My Love Again”

Robert “Bobby” Moore was born in 1930 in New Orleans. When he was a teenager he joined the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia. While in basic training, Moore learned to play the tenor saxophone. In 1952 he formed a band on the base called the Rhythm Aces made up of members of the marching band. He finished his service to the Army in 1961 and moved to Montgomery, Alabama. It was there he re-formed the Rhythm Aces with his brother Larry Moore on alto sax, Chico Jenkins on vocals and guitar, Marion Sledge on guitar, Joe Frank on bass, Clifford Laws on organ, and John Baldwin Junior on drums.

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#1421: The Twelfth Rose by The Browns

Peak Month: June 1963
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #17
Twin Pick Hit June 1/63
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “The Twelfth Rose”
Lyrics: “The Twelfth Rose”

Ella Maxine Brown was born in 1931. Jim Ed Brown was born in 1934, and Bonnie Jean Brown was born in 1938. All three siblings were born in Sparkman, Arkansas. The family owned a farm and their father worked in a sawmill. When the family moved to Pine Bluff, an hours drive east, the children began to sing together at church and other social functions. Maxine signed Jim Ed up for a talent contest on KLRA’s “Barnyard Frolic,”a radio station in Little Rock. Jim Ed didn’t win the contest, but was offered a spot on the radio show’s cast. In 1954 Jim and Maxine formed a duo and recorded a single titled “Looking Back To See”. They performed it on the Ernest Tubb radio show and it became a #8 hit on the Billboard Country chart that summer.

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#573: Hungry Eyes by Platinum Blonde

Peak Month: May 1986
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Hungry Eyes”
Lyrics: “Hungry Eyes”

Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards. But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You”, a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.

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