#128: Train In Vain by the Clash
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: May 1980
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Train In Vain”
Lyrics: “Train In Vain”
The Clash is a band that formed in London (UK) in 1976. John Graham Mellor “Joe Strummer” was born in 1952 in Ankara, Turkey. He began attending a boarding school in London, England, in 1962. He told a reporter years later, “[A]t the age of nine I had to say good-bye to them because they went abroad to Africa or something. I went to boarding school and only saw them once a year after that – the Government paid for me to see my parents once a year. I was left on my own, and went to this school where thick rich people sent their thick rich kids. Another perk of my father’s job – it was a job with a lot of perks – all the fees were paid by the Government.” His brother, David, who also attended the boarding school committed suicide in 1970. This deeply impacted John Mellor. By this time he had been going by the moniker Woody Mellor, with “Woody” a tribute to his hero Woody Guthrie. He was part of a band called the 101ers. By 1975 he took the stage name Joe Strummer.
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#140: Angel In My Pocket by One To One
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: June-July 1986
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #92
YouTube: “Angel In My Pocket”
Lyrics: “Angel In My Pocket”
One To One were a band that formed in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1984. It consisted of vocalist Louise Reny and producer/multi-instrumentalist Leslie Howe. The duo had been in a local rock band since the mid-70s called Mainstream. Tired of playing covers of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s pop tunes, Reny and Howe were inspired to collaborate and release original material. In late 1985 they released “There Was A Time“. The song climbed to #1 on CFRA-AM in Ottawa, and #14 on the Canadian RPM singles chart. According to Canadian Bands.com, the single made the Top 20 in several European record markets.
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#70: Pride (In The Name Of Love) by U2
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: December 1984
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #33
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~#7
Peak Position on Polish Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”
Lyrics: “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”
U2 is a band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in September 1976. Its members include lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player Bono, lead guitar and keyboard player the Edge, synthesizer and guitar player Adam Clayton, and drummer and percussionist Larry Mullen Jr. The band formed when its members were all teenagers. The band had several name changes before they settled on U2 in 1978.
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#32: Goodbye Baby (I Don’t Want To See You Cry) by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: May 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton: #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube: “Goodbye Baby (I Don’t Want to See You Cry)”
Lyrics: “Goodbye Baby (I Don’t Want to See You Cry)”
Sidney Thomas “Tommy” Boyce was born in 1939 in Charlottesville, Virgina. He was one half of the pop duo with Bobby Hart. The two wrote numbers of songs for other recording artists including The Monkees, Jay and The Americans and Little Anthony and The Imperials. Boyce was separately pursuing a career as a singer. After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his father’s suggestion to write a song called “Be My Guest” for rock and roll star Fats Domino. He waited six hours at Domino’s hotel room to present him with the demo, and got Domino to promise to listen to the song. In 1959 the song hit #8 in the US and #11 in the UK, becoming Domino’s biggest hit there in several years, and sold over a million copies.
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#3: Changes by David Bowie
City: Winnipeg, MB
Radio Station: CFRW
Peak Month: February-March 1975
Peak Position in Winnipeg ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #33
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #41
Peak Position on Sweden Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Changes”
Lyrics: “Changes”
David Robert Jones was born in 1947 in Brixton, a suburb in the southern part of London, UK. From an early age he demonstrated talent as a singer and especially through dance and movement. When he was nine years old his father brought home some 45’s by Elvis Presley, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Fats Domino and others. When David Jones heard Little Richard sing “Tutti Frutti” he later said in an interview that he “heard God.” Growing up, David learned to play the recorder, ukulele, piano and baritone saxophone. In 1962, at the age of 15 he formed a band named the Konrads. In 1964 he formed a band named David Jones and the King Bees. They appeared on the variety show Ready Steady Go! to sing their debut single, “Liza Jane”. Jones briefly moved on to join the Mannish Boys before being the front man for Davy Jones and The Lower Third. They released a single in 1965 titled “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving”. Due to the growing popularity of another English recording artist named Davy Jones (who went on to become lead singer for The Monkees), David Robert Jones decided to change his professional name to David Bowie. He chose his surname after a 19th Century American pioneer named James Bowie who invented the Bowie knife.
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#146: Rebel Rebel by David Bowie
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: September 1974
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~#6
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Finnish Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #8
YouTube: “Rebel Rebel”
Lyrics: “Rebel Rebel”
David Robert Jones was born in 1947 in Brixton, a suburb in the southern part of London, UK. From an early age he demonstrated talent as a singer and especially through dance and movement. When he was nine years old his father brought home some 45’s by Elvis Presley, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Fats Domino and others. When David Jones heard Little Richard sing “Tutti Frutti” he later said in an interview that he “heard God.” Growing up, David learned to play the recorder, ukulele, piano and baritone saxophone. In 1962, at the age of 15 he formed a band named the Konrads. In 1964 he formed a band named David Jones and the King Bees. They appeared on the variety show Ready Steady Go! to sing their debut single, “Liza Jane”. Jones briefly moved on to join the Mannish Boys before being the front man for Davy Jones and The Lower Third. They released a single in 1965 titled “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving”. Due to the growing popularity of another English recording artist named Davy Jones (who went on to become lead singer for The Monkees), David Robert Jones decided to change his professional name to David Bowie. He chose his surname after a 19th Century American pioneer named James Bowie who invented the Bowie knife.
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#160: Mimi On The Beach by Jane Siberry
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: September 1985
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #9
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Mimi On The Beach”
Lyrics: “Mimi On The Beach”
Jane Siberry was born in 1955 in Toronto as Jane Stewart. She would take her subsequent surname, “Siberry”, from the family name of her maternal aunt and uncle. Many years later, she would explain this choice by stating “this woman and her husband were the first couple I met where I could feel the love between them and I held that in front of me as a reference point.” Siberry learned piano from the age of four, predominantly teaching herself and developing her own concepts of notation and structure. At school she learned conventional music theory (as well as French horn) and taught herself to play guitar by working through Leonard Cohen songs. In the mid-70s she was performing in folk clubs in Guelph (ON) as part of the folk group Java Jive.
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#198: Night Life by Rusty Draper
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: November 1963
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #57
YouTube: “Night Life”
Lyrics: “Night Life”
Farrell Haliday “Rusty” Draper was born in 1923 in Kirksville (MO). Nicknamed “Rusty” for his red hair, he began performing on his uncle’s radio show in Tulsa (OK) in the mid-1930s. Draper moved on to work at radio stations in Des Moines (IA) —sometimes filling in for sports announcer Ronald Reagan —and in Illinois before moving to San Francisco. He began to sing in local clubs, becoming resident singer at the Rumpus Room in San Francisco. By the early 1950s, he had begun appearing on national TV shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show and Ozark Jubilee.
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#161: The Whole Of The Moon by the Waterboys
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: April 1986
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #10
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #12
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #19
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #19
YouTube: “The Whole Of The Moon”
Lyrics: “The Whole Of The Moon”
The Waterboys were formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. He was born in 1958 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Scott was interested in music from an early age. At the age of ten, he was turned onto pop music from hearing hits in the UK by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. At age 12, after the family had moved to Ayr, he began a serious interest in learning guitar. He later studied the poetry of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, and Scottish poets Robert Burns and George MacDonald in university. Lines from their poetry was worked into arrangements in some of the songs Mike Scott later composed on albums for The Waterboys. In 1978, Scott formed a punk band called The Bootlegs. By 1979, the band morphed into Another Pretty Face and released an album and four singles. New Musical Express (NME) reviewed their single All the Boys Love Carrie”. Mike Scott was also with DNV who in 1979 released the single “Death In Venice”. Meanwhile, Another Pretty Face changed their name to Fun House in 1981. But by the end of the year, Scott was underwhelmed by Fun House and began writing songs that would become tracks for The Waterboys self-titled album release in 1983.
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#166: Everyday I Write The Book by Elvis Costello
City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: November 1983
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Everyday I Write The Book”
Lyrics: “Everyday I Write The Book”
Declan Patrick MacManus was born in London, England, in 1954. He learned to play guitar at age 14. In 1972, he got a job as a computer operator at the Midland Bank data centre in Merseyside. That year he also joined the folk group Rusty. He began to go by the name Declan Costello as his musician father had once gone by Ross Costello on a record he made. In 1973, Declan Costello contributed vocals for the R. White “Secret Lemonade Drinker” commercial. That year Costello formed a pub band called Flip City. In 1975, he began to go by the name D.P. Costello, and in 1976 began performing solo.
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