#38: Mind Games by John Lennon
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: February 1974
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #8
YouTube: “Mind Games”
Lyrics: “Mind Games”
John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool in 1940. His middle name was after Britain’s current Prime Minister Winston Churchill, during World War II. In 1957, Lennon wrote his first song titled “Hello Little Girl”. It became a Top Ten hit in the UK in 1963 for the Merseybeat band the Fourmost. He became part of the Quarrymen, along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe, each on guitar. The latter was replaced by Ringo Starr, who was a drummer, after the band had already been renamed the Silver Beatles and finally the Beatles. In the Sixties, Lennon and McCartney became the most successful singer-songwriting team for the Fab Four (as the Beatles were known).
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#18: Mister Nico by Four Jacks and a Jill
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube: “Mister Nico”
Lyrics: “Mister Nico”
Clive Harding was born in South Africa in 1944. At the age of eighteen he met Graham Woods in October 1962. Woods was in a band called The Atoms. Harding agreed to join the band if he could be the leader. The band changed their name to the Nevadas just before Graham Woods died from injuries sustained in a car crash in January 1963. Till Hannemann and Tony Hughes were among the new members of the ever-changing lineup in the Nevadas. The band changed their name again to the Zombies (different from the Zombies in the UK who had a hit called “She’s Not There”). The South African Zombies wore Beatles haircuts. At a concert in Cape Town the Zombies met Glenys Lynne Mynott who was a solo recording artist. She soon became a member of the Zombies, and shortly they changed their name to Glenys & the Zombies.
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#39: My Male Curiosity by Kid Creole and the Coconuts
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: November 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #110
YouTube: “My Male Curiosity”
Lyrics: “My Male Curiosity”
Thomas August Darnell Browder was born in 1950 in The Bronx (NY). Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder Jr., in 1965. The band disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. He taught at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead (NY). He later claimed that he established a musical career because he was a “frustrated actor.” In 1974, again with Stony Browder, he formed Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, becoming its lyricist and bass player. The band combined swing and Latin music with disco rhythms. They had their biggest hit in 1976 with “Cherchez La Femme”. The single topped the Billboard Disco Action Top 30 chart, and peaked at #2 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s self-titled debut release was a Top 40-charting album. It was certified gold and was nominated for a Grammy.
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#15: Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Denmark Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Puerto Rico Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Sweden Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “Domino Dancing”
Lyrics: “Domino Dancing”
The Pet Shop Boys are a duo formed in 1981 by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. Tennant was born in 1954 in North Shields, Northumberland, England. He attended an all-boys’ Catholic school in Newcastle upon Tyne. He would later write several songs, including “It’s A Sin”, referencing his days at the Catholic school. He taught himself to play guitar and piano, and learned cello in school. In his teens, he played in a folk group named Dust. In the mid-70s, Neil Tennant worked as a production editor with Marvel (Comics) UK. He was responsible for anglicizing the dialogue to suit British spelling. He was offered a job at Smash Hits as news editor of the British teen pop magazine in 1982. He went on to edit The Smash Hits Yearbook from 1982 to 1985. Continue reading →
#40: Situation by Yazoo
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1982
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #73
Peak Position on Belgium Singles chart ~ #7
YouTube: “Situation”
Lyrics: “Situation”
Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet was born in 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England. After leaving school at 16, she worked as a shop assistant and trained as a piano tuner. She was involved in a number of punk rock, pub rock and blues bands in the South East Essex area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Vandals, the Screamin’ Ab Dabs, the Vicars and the Little Roosters. At the age of 21, Moyet’s mainstream pop career began in 1982 with the formation of the synth-pop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke.
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#21: You Were On My Mind by Crispian St. Peters
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1967
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “You Were On My Mind”
Lyrics: “You Were On My Mind”
Robin Peter Smith was born in 1939 in Swanley, in Kent, UK, adjacent the the boundary of Greater London. At the age of fifteen, he learned the guitar and left school in 1954 to become an assistant cinema projectionist and also worked in a paper mill. In 1956, he gave his first live performance, as a member of The Hard Travellers. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as undertaking National Service, he was a member of The Country Gentlemen, Beat Formula Three, and Peter & The Wolves. While a member of Beat Formula Three in 1963, he was heard by David Nicholson, an EMI Record publicist who became his manager. Nicholson suggested he use a stage name, initially “Crispin Blacke” and subsequently Crispian St. Peters.
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#48: Hang On To Your Love by Sade
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: April 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #102
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #18
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #20
YouTube: “Hang On To Your Love”
Lyrics: “Hang On To Your Love”
Helen Folasade Adu was born in 1959 in the city of Ibadan on southwestern Nigeria. At the age of four her parents separated, and she moved with her mother and brother to Essex, England. Growing up, she remembers three albums being played in her home in Essex: Dinah Washington’s Greatest Hits, Sinatra and Basie, and the soundtrack to Oliver. In the late 1970s she gained modest recognition as a fashion designer and part-time model, prior to joining the band Pride in the early 1980s. In 1988 she told Interview Magazine, “I don’t like fashion, but I do like clothes.” Adding, that she regards the fashion industry as more “cutthroat than the music business.” In 1982 Sade Adu formed her band, Sade, with bass guitarist Paul Denman; saxophonist, keyboard and guitar player Stuart Matthewman; keyboard player Andrew Hale; And drummer Paul Cooke.
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#53: 19 by Paul Hardcastle
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
Peak Position on singles charts in Austria, Belgium,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany ~ #1
YouTube: “19”
Lyrics: “19”
Paul Hardcastle was born in 1957 in London, England. He told the Guardian in a 2012 interview, “All my life I wanted to be a motorbike racer, until I had a bad crash and ended up in hospital for four months. While I was bedridden I listened to the radio all the time, especially clubby stuff, and thought: “I can do that.” So I swapped my video camera for a friend’s synthesiser and did.” Hardcastle began his career in 1981 when he became the keyboard player for British soul band Direct Drive. In 1982, Hardcastle and lead vocalist Derek Green left the band to form a duo under the name First Light. They achieved some minor success in the UK chart, but during 1984 Hardcastle moved on to pursue a solo career.
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#55: Twist In My Sobriety by Tanita Tikaram
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: April 1989
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on the Israeli Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Austrian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Twist In My Sobriety”
Lyrics: “Twist In My Sobriety”
Tanita Tikaram is of Malaysian and Indo-Fijian parentage and is the sister of actor Ramon Tikaram. She was born in 1969 in Münster, West Germany. Her father was in the military, and her family moved to the UK when she was in her early teens. Tikaram started singing in nightclubs while she was still a teenager and came to the attention of WEA Records. Her debut album Ancient Heart was released when she was 19 and was produced by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hoote. The debut single from the album was “Good Tradition”. The song peaked at #3 in the Netherlands, #4 in Sweden, #9 in Ireland, and #10 in the UK.
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#25: Fox On The Run by Manfred Mann
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: February 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “Fox On The Run”
Lyrics: “Fox On The Run”
Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1940. Raised in a Jewish family, Manfred studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and formed a rock ‘n roll band called The Vikings in 1959. Lubowitz was against the South African system of Apartheid, first introduced in 1948, and becoming entrenched and expanded under the leadership of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. So Manfred Lubowitz moved to Britain. He began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym, Manfred Manne. In time he shortened his adopted surname to Mann. In 1962 he met Mike Hugg at a holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea. (Mike Hugg was born in Hampshire, England, in 1940, and had studied jazz growing up). They decided to start a band and named it the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. They added Paul Jones and Tom McGuiness to the band, the latter who was with Eric Clapton’s band The Roosters.
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