#6: Juliet by the Four Pennies
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: August 1964
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
YouTube: “Juliet”
Lyrics: “Juliet”
The Four Pennies were a beat group from England that formed in November 1963. The members consisted of Lionel Morton (born Lionel Walmsley in 1942), Fritz Fryer (born David Roderic Carnie Fryer in Blackburn, Lancashire in 1944), Mike Wilshaw (born in 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent), and Alan Buck. (born in 1943 in Briefield, Lancashire). Morton sang as a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Prior to the Four Pennies, Fryer and Wilshaw had been part of a popular local singing duo named The Fables, which launched in 1961. Alan Buck had been a drummer doing a few gigs with Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and a few jazz bands. The group’s name was chosen as a more commercial alternative to The Lionel Morton Four. They decided to switch to the Four Pennies after a meeting above a Blackburn music shop which was on Penny Street. The group was discovered by Marie Reidy who owned Reidys Home of Music.
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#7: Come And Join Us by the Dublin Corporation
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: December 1972
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Come And Join Us”
The Dublin Corporation was a group originally named the Pacific Showband and they formed in 1962. This was after several members of the Earl Gill Orchestra left to form their own show band. The Earl Gill Orchestra was a classic orchestra with lots of brass band sound. The members included Sonny Knowles, who had started his career in 1952 as a member of the Johnny Butler Dance band, playing sax and clarinet, and ended up with Earl’s band. Sean Fagan was the lead vocalist of the Pacific Showband. But as with all the Irish showbands, most of the members sang as well with different singers handling different genres with the band. Although Sonny Knowles was mainly the sax player, he also sang and was soon shared equal billing and recording chores with Sean Fagan.
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#1285: My World Fell Down by Sagittarius
Peak Month: July 1967
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
YouTube.com: “My World Fell Down”
Lyrics: “My World Fell Down”
Gary Usher was born in Massachusetts in 1938 and grew up in the community of Grafton. After graduating from high school in 1957, Usher headed to California and was a musician in a few local rock ‘n roll bands. As it happened, Gary Usher’s uncle was a neighbor of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys over in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles. Usher and Wilson ended up co-writing a number of songs for The Beach Boys including “409” and “In My Room”. The latter was a Top 30 hit in America in December 1963. Gary Usher also produced records in the mid-60’s for The Byrds, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Hondells and others. After considerable success as a producer, he eventually became a staff producer for Columbia Records. It was at this position that, during 1967, he produced Chad & Jeremy. They had played him several songs, which he felt lacked any commercial potential.
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#1: Tamiami by Bill Haley and His Comets
City: Fort William, ON
Radio Station: CJLX
Peak Month: March 1960
Peak Position in Fort William ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Tamiami”
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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#4: Ain’t I’m A Dog by Ronnie Self
City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: November 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Ain’t I’m A Dog”
Lyrics: “Ain’t I’m A Dog”
Ronald Keith Self was born in Tin Town, Missouri, in 1938. On the Black Cat website in Europe, Dik de Heer writes “Ronnie Self was his own worst enemy. His self-destructive behavior is probably the main reason why he is no more than a footnote in rock ‘n’ roll history. Hugely talented, both as a singer and a songwriter, he could have been a big star if he hadn’t possessed such an unstable personality. The oldest of five children, Ronnie was born on a farm in rural Missouri. After the war, the family moved to Springfield where his father took a job with the railroad. The signs of instability showed themselves early. On one occasion Ronnie chopped down a tree to block the school bus from getting to his house. Another story has him attacking a teacher with a baseball bat in grade school.”
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#10: You Can Cry If You Want To by the Troggs
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: September 1968
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “You Can Cry If You Want To”
Lyrics: “You Can Cry If You Want To”
The Troggs formed in 1964 and decades later were dubbed by music critics as the “first British punk band.” Never strangers to controversy, many of their records were considered by radio programmers and social conservatives as too suggestive for the masses, and they consequently banned them. The band’s first big hit was “Wild Thing” which is rated by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 500 songs in the rock ‘n roll era. While they racked up their biggest string of Top Ten singles between 1966 and 1968, the band consisted of co-founders Reg Presley and Ronnie Bond, as well as Pete Staples and Chris Britton.
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#11: Cold Turkey by the Plastic Ono Band
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: January 1970
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Cold Turkey”
Lyrics: “Cold Turkey”
The Plastic Ono Band was formed in 1969 by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. On March 20, 1969, Lennon and Ono married, and subsequently hosted their first “Bed-in for Peace” event in at the Amsterdam Hilton (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). During their second bed-in in late May into June 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. On June 1, they invited a number of guests to be part of the Plastic Ono Band to record “Give Peace A Chance” in their hotel room. The guest list included Petula Clark and Timothy Leary (backing vocals), Tommy Smothers (on guitar), André Perry (percussion, production), and on handclaps: US black civil rights advocate Dick Gregory, Quebec separatist Jacques Larue-Langlois, Toronto Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, New York DJ Murray the K, British journalist Derek Taylor, and poet Allen Ginsburg. John Lennon and Yoko Ono provided lead vocals, as he played guitar and she played the tambourine.
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#90: Little Altar Boy by Vic Dana
City: Winnipeg, MB
Radio Station: CKRC
Peak Month: January 1962
Peak Position in Winnipeg ~ #17
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #45
YouTube: “Little Altar Boy”
Lyrics: “Little Altar Boy”
Samuel Mendola was born in 1940 in Buffalo, New York. He told reporter J. T. Crawford “I was nine years old and had just started tap dancing,” he says. “My parents asked me if I wanted to take dancing lessons. I said I didn’t because I thought it was just for girls. I wound up taking some lessons and did some local shows. I went to the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, which, in those days, was like American Idol. They had variety acts, and people wrote in from all over the country and picked the winners. And I won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.” When he was eleven, Samuel Mendola was taken to see Sammy Davis Jr. perform in Buffalo.
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#12: Liquidator by Harry J. All Stars
City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: May 1970
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Liquidator”
The Harry J. All Stars were a group that consisted of Winston Wright on organ and keyboard, Val Bennett on saxophone, Aston “Family Man” Barrett on bass guitar, Boris Gardiner on bass guitar, Jackie Jackson on bass guitar, and Carlton Barrett on drums. The group was also known as The Jay Boys. The group was popularly known as Harry J. All Stars, named after Jamaican reggae producer Harry Zephaniah Johnson.
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#35: After School by Randy Starr
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: June 1957
Peak Position in Hull ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #26
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube: “After School”
Lyrics: “After School”
Warren Nadel was born in 1930 in the Bronx, New York. He successfully completed his dental studies at Columbia College in 1954. Around the same time, he wrote songs that were recorded by Jackie Wilson, Connie Francis, the Kingston Trio, Red Foley, Martin Denny, Cliff Richard, The Browns, Chet Atkins, Santo & Johnny, Kay Starr, Nelson Riddle, and others. In 1957, going by the name Randy Starr, Nadel signed with the small Dale record label.
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