#22: Stay Away From My Baby by Lynda Layne
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CHNS
Peak Month: November 1963
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #80
YouTube: “Stay Away From My Baby”
Lyrics: N/A
Hazel McKirdy was born in 1949 in Kitchener, Ontario. McKirdy regularly on CBC TV’s “Music Hop” program in the mid-1960s, starting in 1964. She recorded as Lynda Layne, and in 1963 and her debut single was titled “Stay Away From My Baby”.
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#37: Band Bandit by Tundra
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: January-February 1971
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Band Bandit”
Lyrics: n/a
Tundra was a band formed in from Toronto in 1970. The original line up was Al Manning on guitar, Bruce Manning on bass guitar, Glen LeCompte on drums, Lisa Garber on vocals, and Scott Cushnie on piano. George Scott Cushnie was born in 1938 and was a member of the Toronto band the Suedes (with Robbie Robertson). He also played with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. Cushnie was also a member of the Hamilton based rock band Jerry Warren & the Tremblers who released a local hit in 1960 titled “Rompin'”. In the early 60s Cushnie also played with a band based in Alexandra, called Barry Darvell & the Blazers. He also played with the Ottawa group, The Townsmen, for about a year.
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#23: My Guy by Dianne James
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CHNS
Peak Month: June 1965
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on RPM Top Singles chart ~ #13
YouTube: “My Guy”
Lyrics: N/A
Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Dianne James moved to Edmonton where she started singing with various groups. James became a headliner at The Mayfair Club with a group called the Shamrocks. She appeared regularly on the local CBC-TV show Teen Tempo. James was discovered in Edmonton by manager Don Eckess who signed her to Arc Records. James released her first single “Don’t Go”/ “The Time Has Come”. “Don’t Go” peaked at #12 in Calgary. While “The Time Has Come” was a Top 50 hit in Regina (SK). James also released two other singles at the age of 20. The second of these was “My Guy”, not to be confused with the 1964 same-titled song by Mary Wells from 1964.
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#24: Bust the TV by the Pumps
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: May 1980
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Bust The TV”
The Pumps is a hard rock/AOR band from Winnipeg (MB) that was formed in 1978. Taking their name from a random pick in a Winnipeg phone book, The Pumps centred around friends Chris Burke-Gaffney on vocals and bass, lead guitarist Lou Petrovich, and drummer Terry Norman Taylor. Within a few months, Brent Diamond joined on keyboards. They released an album in 1980 titled Gotta Move.
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#25: Sign Of The Times by Mens Room
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: June-July 1983
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Sign Of The Times”
Lyrics: “Sign Of The Times”
Mens Room was a studio project featuring three well-known Canadian singers. Charity Brown, a Kitchener native who had success in Canada with the group Rain. Charity Brown’s biggest hit was “Take Me In Your Arms” from 1975. Cherrill Rae was half of the successful British-Canadian duo The Raes with her husband Robbie, who released three albums, had a hit television variety show in Canada from 1978 to 1980. Caren Cole was a classical musician and rock singer from Toronto who would later have a Hi-NRG hit with “I Need A Lover Tonight”.
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#50: She Says by 49th Parallel
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: January 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “She Says”
Lyrics: n/a
Singer Dennis Abbott and guitar player Dan Lowe formed a band in the mid-60’s called The Real McCoys. The name was soon discarded in favor of The Shades of Blond. The band consisted of Abbott and Lowe, joined by Bob Carlson on guitar, Dave Petch on organ, Mick Woodhouse on bass guitar, and Terry Bare on drums. The Shades of Blond played covers of British Invasion hits. As well, they began to write some songs and experimented with a fuzz-guitar garage rock sound. This got them a contract to record on International Master Discovery Records, which put out an album featuring four of the new Calgary bands. By ’67 they’d changed their name to 49th Parallel, and had all but outgrown the local circuit. They played the prairies relentlessly for the next year or so, making over a dozen stops in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at The Temple Gardens alone.
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#26: Girls On Film by Duran Duran
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: November 1983
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Girls On Film”
Lyrics: “Girls On Film”
Duran Duran is a band from Birmingham, England, which formed in 1978. Stephen Duffy was born in Birmingham in 1960. In 1978 he was attending the School of Foundation Studies & Experimental Workshop at Birmingham Polytechnic. It was there he met John Taylor and his friend Nick Rhodes. Nigel John Taylor was born in 1960 in the West Midland city of Solihull. As a child, Taylor attended Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic school and the Abbey High School, in Redditch. He wore glasses due to severe myopia, and enjoyed James Bond movies. Taylor was interested in the hobby of wargaming with hand-painted model soldiers. In his early teen years, he discovered music, choosing Roxy Music as his favourite band, and before long was collecting records and teaching himself to play the piano. His first band was called Shock Treatment.
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#27: My Heart Stood Still by Bernadette Carroll
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CHNS
Peak Month: December 1962
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “My Heart Stood Still”
Lyrics: “My Heart Stood Still”
Bernadette Dalia was born in 1944 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Bernadette’s first performance was at the age of seven, given a role in an elementary school play. Soon after her family moved to Linden, New Jersey, she became a bit of a reckless teenager. She’d sneak out late at night to go to local recording studios with her friends. In 1959, she joined with sisters Barbara Allbut, Jiggs Allbut and, Lynda Malzone to form a group called The Starlets. Their first recording, on the Astro label, was “PS I Love You.” The single was a Top 30 hit on WMCA in New York City in 1960. Bernadette graduated from Linden High School in in Linden, New Jersey, in 1962. After The Starlets disbanded, Bernadette made her first solo recording for the Julia label, “My Heart Stood Still.”
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#28: Wot by Captain Sensible
City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: March-April 1983
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Wot”
Lyrics: “Wot”
Raymond Ian Burns was born in 1954 in London, UK. In 1974 he joined the port-punk band Johnny Moped which included Chrissy Hynde. In 1976 he formed punk band The Damned. He was with The Damned on their first five albums from 1976 (Damned Damned Damned) to 1982 (Strawberries). Burns adopted his stage name Captain Sensible ironically because he described himself as a “debauched maniac” who had fun “regardless of the consequences. His first solo release, “Jet Boy, Jet Girl”, was a Top 40 hit in the Netherlands in 1978. He recorded the single while The Damned was on a break.
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#48: Say It Again by Terry Black
City: Calgary, AB
Radio Station: CFAC
Peak Month: February 1965
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Say It Again”
Lyrics: N/A
Terrance Black was born in Vancouver in 1949. Local DJ, Red Robinson, has said about Terry Black: “Back in the British Invasion days, a young Vancouver singer took the city by storm. He was discovered by Buddy Clyde on Dance Party, a teen show on CHAN TV (now Global). Buddy was able to get the attention of the owner of Dunhill records, the same label that the Mamas and Papas recorded for as well as P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and others of the day.” Terry Black’s first single, “Sinner Man,” was a minor hit in Canada in 1964. His vocal style mimicked the sound of many male vocalists who were part of the British Invasion. While he was fifteen years old, Black had a #2 hit in Vancouver with “Unless You Care”. His single was kept out of the #1 spot in September ’64 by Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman”. “Unless You Care” peaked at #2 in Vancouver, and Corvalis (OR), #3 in Winnipeg (MB), #4 in Regina (SK), #8 in Oshawa (ON), and Montreal, #9 in Bakersfield (CA), #11 in Hamilton (ON), and Winston-Salem (NC), #12 in Toronto, and #17 in Los Angeles.
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