#612: The Great Snowman by Bob Luman
Peak Month: April 1961
8 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Cashbox Singles chart ~ #100
YouTube.com: “The Great Snowman”
Lyrics: “The Great Snowman”
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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#613: Gloria by Them
Peak Month: June 1965
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
C-FUN Twin Pick Hit May 15, 1965
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #93
YouTube.com: “Gloria”
Lyrics: “Gloria”
Sir George Ivan “Van” Morrison, was born in Belfast on August 31, 1945. He is a singer, songwriter and musician. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1996 he was given the Order of the British Empire for his service to music enriching the lives of people in the UK (and beyond). Since 1996 his formal title has been Sir “Van” Morrison, OBE. In 2016 he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.
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#735: A Little Salvation by Luba
Peak Month: March 1990
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position: #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “A Little Salvation”
Lyrics: “A Little Salvation”
Lubomyra Kowalchyk was born in 1958 in Montreal, Quebec. During her teens she travelled across Canada performing traditional Ukrainian folk songs at weddings and festivals. Growing up she studied piano, guitar, flute and voice. She was a fine-arts student when she formed a band called Zorya in 1973, releasing an album. In 1977 she released her second album titled. Lubomyra. In 1978 she formed a band named Luba with herself as the lead vocalist. Then, when her father died in 1979, she wrote what would become her signature song, “Everytime I See Your Picture”, as a tribute to him. The first studio album for the band Luba, Chain Reaction, was released in 1980. A Luba (EP) was released in 1982 containing “Every time I See Your Picture”. The song climbed to #1 in Ottawa, #3 in Halifax, #6 in Montreal and #11 in Kitchener (ON). She performed in front of 12,000 rock fans at the Montreal Forum in January 1983. She was the opening act at that concert for the headliner Chris de Burgh.
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#1346: Sandy by Johnny Crawford
Peak Month: March 1964
8 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #108
YouTube.com link: “Sandy”
“Sandy” lyrics
John Ernest Crawford was born in 1946 in Los Angeles. He got into acting as a child star and by the age of nine was one of the Mouseketeers in the first season caste of the The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955. Crawford was asked in 1982 about how he got picked for the show. He recalled, “I went on the audition and I did a tapdance routine with my brother, and we also did a fencing routine. Then they asked if we had anything else we could do. My grandmother told me to tell them that I imitated ’50s singer Johnny Ray. I stepped forward and did my imitation of him singing “Cry” and that was what got me into the Mouseketeers.” Though he was cut from the show in 1956 after Disney cut the caste from 24 to 12, Crawford continued to get acting roles. Between 1956 and 1958 he appeared in episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Loretta Young Show, Sheriff of Cochise, Wagon Train, Crossroads, Whirlybirds, Mr. Adams and Eve and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. The latter featured an episode that became a syndicated TV show called The Rifleman. Johnny Crawford played Mark McCain, son of Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors). In 1959 Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in The Rifleman. The show ran from 1958 to 1963.
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#614: The Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp by O.C. Smith
Peak Month: March 1968
6 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #40
YouTube.com: “Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp”
“Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp” lyrics
Ocie Lee Smith was born in Mansfield, Louisiana, in 1932. Mansfield was the site of a battle in 1864 where Confederate troops turned away Union troops from their conquest of the state capitol of Shreveport. Smith’s parents divorced in his and he decided to move to Los Angeles. According to his biography, Little Green Apples, Smith didn’t want to become a farmer like his father. After finishing his senior year in college he came back home. Within days he climbed on his mule, headed toward the freight train passing by, tied the mule to a nearby tree, hopped aboard a train and left Leesville, Louisiana, where the family then resided. According to Ocie “if nobody has gone down to untie that mule, he is still standing there, tied to that tree.” He joined the U.S. Air Force in July 1951 and was stationed in Europe and several bases in the USA. While stationed in Alaska for fifteen months Smith won first prize in a talent contest.
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#615: (I Wanna) Testify by The Parliaments
Peak Month: August 1967
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #3
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube.com: “(I Wanna) Testify”
Lyrics: “(I Wanna) Testify”
George Edward Clinton was born in Kanapolis, North Carolina, in 1941. At the age of 14 he formed a doo-wop group in the winter of 1955, in Plainfield, New Jersey. They called themselves The Parliaments. The group originated as a barbershop quintet in the back room of a barber shop on West 3rd Street. Shortly after formation, they quickly fashioned their sound after the newly popular Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers whose “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” was a breakout hit on the R&B and Pop charts in February 1956. Other founding members were Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas.
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#617: Broken English by Marianne Faithfull
Peak Month: April 1980
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #125
YouTube.com: “Broken English”
Lyrics: “Broken English”
Marianne Faithfull’s story has been well documented, not least in her insightful 1994 autobiography Faithfull. She was born in December, 1946, in Hampstead, a borough of Greater London. In 1964 she began appearing at coffeehouses in London as one of the acts on stage. She showed up at a launch party for the Rolling Stones. At the event she met Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones manager who was always on the lookout for new talent. Faithfull’s career as the crown princess of swinging London was launched with “As Tears Go By”. The song climbed to #9 in the UK and into the Top 30 in the USA and in Vancouver. At the time she was 16 years old. Her 1964 hit single was the first song ever written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Two folk albums, two pop albums and a singles collection followed. Marianne Faithfull also embarked on a parallel career as an actress, both on film in Girl On A Motorcycle (1968) and on stage in Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1967) and Hamlet (1969) By the end of the Sixties personal problems halted Marianne’s career and her drug addiction took over.
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#1079: What Happened To Janie by Johnny Crawford
Peak Month: August 1963
8 weeks on the C-FUN-TASTIC FIFTY
Peak Position: #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “What Happened To Janie”
John Ernest Crawford was born in 1946 in Los Angeles. He got into acting as a child star and by the age of nine was one of the Mouseketeers in the first season caste of the The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955. Crawford was asked in 1982 about how he got picked for the show. He recalled, “I went on the audition and I did a tapdance routine with my brother, and we also did a fencing routine. Then they asked if we had anything else we could do. My grandmother told me to tell them that I imitated ’50s singer Johnny Ray. I stepped forward and did my imitation of him singing “Cry” and that was what got me into the Mouseketeers.” Though he was cut from the show in 1956 after Disney cut the caste from 24 to 12, Crawford continued to get acting roles. Between 1956 and 1958 he appeared in episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Loretta Young Show, Sheriff of Cochise, Wagon Train, Crossroads, Whirlybirds, Mr. Adams and Eve and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. The latter featured an episode that became a syndicated TV show called The Rifleman. Johnny Crawford played Mark McCain, son of Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors). In 1959 Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in The Rifleman. The show ran from 1958 to 1963.
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#618: Louisiana Man by Bobbie Gentry
Peak Month: May 1968
6 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #1
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #100
YouTube.com: “Louisiana Man”
Lyrics: “Louisiana Man”
In August 2017, Rolling Stone magazine celebrated the 50 year anniversary of Bobbie Gentry climbing into the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Writer Tara Murtha described the scenario. “In July of 1967, Capitol Records released “Ode to Billie Joe,” a spooky wisp of a song by an unknown artist named Bobbie Gentry. Industry wisdom said “Ode” was too dark, too long, too different to get played on the radio. It was a smash hit. With no special promotion, the song unexpectedly climbed up the charts past the Doors, Aretha Franklin and the Beatles, ultimately knocking “All You Need is Love” out of the Number One spot. By August, the mysterious tale of Billie Joe McAllister jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge was ubiquitous, the inescapable sound of the darkening days of the so-called Summer of Love.”
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#619: There Is A Mountain by Donovan
Peak Month: September 1967
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #2 CFUN
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube.com: “There Is A Mountain”
Lyrics: “There Is A Mountain”
Donovan Phillips Leitch was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1946. As a child he contracted polio and was left with a limp. At the age of 14 he began to play the guitar and when he was 16 years old he set his artistic vision to bring poetry to popular culture. He began busking and learned traditional folk and blues guitar. Music critics began branding him as mimicking Bob Dylan’s folk style. Like Dylan, Donovan wore a leather jacket, the fisherman’s cap, had a harmonica cradle and a song with “Wind” in the title. Dylan wrote “Blowing In The Wind” and Donovan had a hit in 1965 titled “Catch The Wind”. Donovan was nicknamed by music critics in the UK as the “British Dylan.”
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