#30: Stampede/You Gotta Be A Music Man by Danny Valentino
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: January 1960
Peak Position in London ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Stampede”
Lyrics: N/A
YouTube: “(You Gotta Be A) Music Man”
Lyrics: N/A
Vincent Pacimeo was born in 1941 in Flushing, New York. He was interviewed on the This Is My Story website by and Dik de Heer in 2016. Pacimeo first sang in public when he was five-years-old. Then his career as a musician was launched when he was nine-years-old and appeared “on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour television show playing the drums.” His musical influences were Al Jolson and WWII big bands (like Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman etc.). As he got better at drumming, Vince was invited to “play with older and seasoned musicians. By that time he was tap dancing and singing Broadway and movie musical songs.” Vince was inspired by the great singer and dancer, Gene Kelly. In the early 50s, singer and tap dancer Gene Kelly starred in numbers of musicals, including An American In Paris (1951), Singing In The Rain (1952), and Brigadoon (1954). Vince had a dream that he could be a great singer and dancer like Gene Kelly. In his mid-teens, Vince was captivated by jazz music. And he began to focus more on his vocal skills than his drumming.
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#42: I Promise To Remember by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CFRN
Peak Month: September 1956
Peak Position in Edmonton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver: #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #57
YouTube: “I Promise To Remember”
Lyrics: “I Promise To Remember”
In 1942 Franklin Joseph “Frankie” Lymon was born in New York City. Frankie and his brothers grew up in a musical home in Harlem. Their mother, Jeanette, was a domestic maid. Their dad, Howard Lymon Sr., had a job as a truck driver and was a member of a gospel group called the Harlemaires. Frankie and his brothers, Howard and Lewis, all attended the Harlemaires rehearsals and concerts from an early age. From the age of ten Frankie worked at a grocery store to help the family pay the rent. He also had a sideline hustling prostitutes. When Frankie’s voice developed into a beautiful boy soprano lead singer he joined a group called The Teenagers. The doo-wop groups original lineup consisted of three African Americans: Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Ricans: Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni.
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#31: The Lone Teen Ranger by Jerry Landis
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: February 1963
Peak Position in London ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #97
YouTube: “The Lone Teen Ranger”
Lyrics: “The Lone Teen Ranger”
Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. His dad was a bandleader who went by the name Lou Sims. When he was eleven years old he met Art Garfunkel and were both part of a sixth grade drama production of Alice In Wonderland. By 1954 Paul and Art were singing at school dances. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the name “Tom & Jerry”, a name that was given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.
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#32: It’s Alright by Crack Of Dawn
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJBK
Peak Month: July 1976
Peak Position in London ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “It’s Alright”
Crack of Dawn were an R&B/funk outfit who were quite popular in the live dance clubs. The band was formed in Kingston, Jamaica, consisting entirely of Jamaican musicians. The Crack of Dawn relocated from Jamaica to Toronto, Ontario in the mid-70’s. In 1974 the band attracted interest from Columbia Records of Canada’s head of A&R Bob Gallo. They were signed to the label in January 1975. They were the first Canadian black band to ever sign with a major label.
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#33: Brontosaurus by the Move
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: September 1970
Peak Position in London ~ #11
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Brontosaurus”
Lyrics: “Brontosaurus”
The Move were a British band that formed in 1965. The band consisted of Bev Bevan on drums (born in 1944 in Birmingham), Roy Wood on vocals, guitar, bass guitar, cello, saxophone, oboe, percussion and keyboards, (born in 1946 in Birmingham), Carl Wayne on lead vocals, sitar and bass guitar (born in Birmingham in 1943), Ace Kefford on bass guitar (born in 1946 in Birmingham), and Trevor Burton on guitar, bass guitar and vocals (born in 1949 in Birmingham). Bev Bevan learned to play drums and in 1956 he joined a rock band named Denny Laine & the Diplomats. In 1965 he moved on to join Carl Wayne & the Vikings, and in 1966 The Move.
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#125: Shame, Shame, Shame by Shirley & Company
Peak Month: April 1975
Peak Position #1
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube.com: “Shame, Shame, Shame”
Lyrics: “Shame, Shame, Shame”
Shirley & Company was a disco group that consisted of Shirley Goodman and Jason Alvarez, and an impression group of studio musicians. Bernadette Randle was a soul/funk pianist and songwriter who played or wrote songs recorded by Etta James, Brook Benton, Solomon Burke, Donnie Ebert, Candi Staton and others. Clarence Oliver was a drummer who was also in the recording studio with Bernadette Randle for the same recording acts, as well as for Chuck Jackson. Jonathan Williams was also in the studio with Bernadette Randle and Clarence Oliver, playing bass guitar. Walter Morris was also in the recording studio with Randle, Oliver and Williams, contributing guitar. Randle, Oliver and Williams were all members of Brother to Brother, an R&B band founded in 1974.
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#35: Canada by the Sugar Shoppe
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: July 1967
Peak Position in London ~ #20
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Canada”
Lyrics: “Canada
The Sugar Shoppe was formed in Toronto by lead singer, songwriter and pianist Peter Mann. Born in 1940 in New York City, Mann grew up in Miami before working as an arranger and relocating to Canada in 1965. There, he met University of Toronto School of Music student and singer Laurie Hood, and singers Lee Harris and Victor Garber, an actor and singer who was also studying in Toronto as well as singing in the city’s clubs. Garber was born in 1949 in London (ON) and began acting at the age of nine in 1958. He enrolled at the University of Toronto’s theatre training program at Hart House when he was 16 years old. In the mid-60s he performed as a folk singer before joining the Sugar Shoppe in 1967. With two male singers (Mann and Garber) and two female (Hood and Harris), they modeled themselves on the Mamas & the Papas and began working in the studio on a project to mark Canada’s Centennial in 1967.
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#1: Sixty Years On by Elton John
City: Lethbridge, AB
Radio Station: CHEC
Peak Month: February 1971
Peak Position in Lethbridge ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Sixty Years On”
Lyrics: “Sixty Years On”
Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in 1947. When he was three years old he astounded his family when he was able to play The Skater’s Waltz by Émile Waldteufel by ear at the piano. When he was eleven years old he won a scholarship as a Junior Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Music. Between the ages of 11 and 15 he attended the Academy on Saturday mornings. In 1962, by the age of 15, he was performing with his group, The Corvettes, at the Northwood Hills Hotel (now the Northwood Hills Public House) in a northern borough of London. While he was playing with a band called Bluesology in the mid-60s he adopted the stage name Elton John. His stage name, which became his legal name in 1967, was taken from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean, and their lead singer, Long John Baldry.
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#2: Awaiting On You All by George Harrison
City: Lethbridge, AB
Radio Station: CHEC
Peak Month: January 1971
Peak Position in Lethbridge ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Awaiting On You All”
Lyrics: “Awaiting On You All”
George Harrison was born in Liverpool in 1943. Harrison remembers cycling past a home in his neighborhood that was playing “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley. The encounter with the song got him hooked on rock ‘n roll. He subsequently was influenced by Little Richard and Buddy Holly. Harrison’s father bought him his first guitar in 1956 when Harrison was 13 years old. After Paul McCartney joined John Lennon’s group, the Quarymen, McCartney suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. They changed their name to the Silver Beatles and then the Beatles in the spring of 1960. They group headed to Hamburg, Germany, on August 17, 1960, for a three-and-a-half month stint. In early 1961 the Beatles returned for more engagements in Germany. On June 22, 1961, Bert Kaempfert produced “My Bonnie”, “Ain’t She Sweet” and eight other songs. Later in 1961, “My Bonnie” climbed to #4 on the Hamburg pop charts and #32 on the German pop charts.
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#1: J’ Entends Frapper by Pagliaro
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: February 1973
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “J’ Entends Frapper”
Lyrics: “J’ Entends Frapper”
Montreal’s Michel Pagliaro was born in 1948. He picked up guitar when he was eleven years old. At the age of 15 he was in a band les Stringmen. They morphed into les Bluebirds and finally les Merseys. Pagliaro got a break at the age of 18 when he was asked to join the Quebec band les Chanceliers. He was lead vocalist for the group which had a succession of singles and a self-titled album in the mid-60s. Their catalogue included “La generation d’aujourd’hui” (Today’s Generation), “Toi jeune fille”, a French version of “White Christmas”, and “Le p’tit popy” (The Little Poppy). In 1968, at the age of twenty, Pagliaro released some singles as a solo artist. His “Comme d’habitude” became a #1 hit in Quebec. Some of the lyrics in French “Tu the deshabillera come d’habitude” meant in English “you’ll take your clothes off as usual.” Nonetheless, the tune was adapted by Canadian pop singer Paul Anka and became the classic “My Way” popularized by Frank Sinatra. It was followed with another number one hit for Pagliaro in French Canada in 1968 called “Avec la Tete, Avec la Coeur”.
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