#1: Don’t Let The Rain Fall Down On Me by the Critters
City: Cranbrook, BC
Radio Station: CKEK
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Cranbrook ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “Don’t Let The Rain Fall Down On Me”
Lyrics: “Don’t Let The Rain Fall Down On Me”
In 1964 there was a group in Plainfield, New Jersey called the Vibratones. The lineup was comprised of Jimmy Ryan on lead guitar, Ken Gorka on bass guitar, Jack Decker on drums, Chris Darway on keyboards, and Bob Podstawski on saxophone. One night a local singer-songwriter named Don Ciccone came by to hear the group. His dad owned Bill Williams Auto Sales, and the Ciccone family lived in a 56-room mansion in Plainfield. Don Ciccone learned to play both guitar and bass guitar. The Vibratones were impressed with Ciccone being both a musician and a singer-songwriter. They asked him to join their group. Ciccone suggested they change their name to the Critters, a riff off of the British Invasion band the Animals who had a number-one hit with “House Of The Rising Sun”.
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#2: She May Call You Up Tonight by the Left Banke
City: Cranbrook, BC
Radio Station: CKEK
Peak Month: August 1967
Peak Position in Cranbrook ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #120
YouTube: “She May Call You Up Tonight”
Lyrics: “She May Call You Up Tonight”
Carmelo Esteban “Steve” Martin Caro was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1948. His birth name was Carmelo Esteban Steve Martin. His father was a Spanish Consul General to the state of New York, but died just six months after taking up his new position. Steve Martin added “Caro” to his surname in the 1980s to avoid confusion with the popular comedian and actor, Steve Martin. Michael David Lookofsky was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. He later took the surname of Brown. The Guardian writes “15-year-old Brown worked as a part time engineer at his father Harry Lookofsky’s recording studio in New York. In photos he looked mournful and out of time, with King Charles spaniel hair. He looked as if he would have felt at home in a Victorian drawing room, but the studio was where he met George Cameron, Tom Finn and singer Steve Martin (not the comedian). They became fast friends, forming the Left Banke in 1965.” Carlemo Esteban Steve Martin had met Tom Finn in front of the City Squire Hotel, in New York, after a Rolling Stones concert in May 1965. Finn told Martin about a mid-town recording studio which needed singers for session play. Before Michael Brown met up with his future bandmates, he had written one song for Reparata and the Delrons, as well as playing piano on some of their recording. Tom Finn had previously been in a group called the Magic Plants.
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#1: Love Like A Man by Ten Years After
City: Chilliwack, BC
Radio Station: CHWK
Peak Month: July 1970
Peak Position in Chilliwack ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube: “Love Like A Man”
Lyrics: “Love Like A Man”
In 1960 a band formed in the Nottingham and Mansfield region called Ivan Jay and the Jaycats. They changed their name to the Jaybirds in 1962, and later to Ivan Jay and the Jaymen. Ivan Jay sang lead vocals from late 1960 to 1961. Original members included Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons. Alvin Lee (born Graham Anthony Barnes) was born in Nottingham in 1944. He began playing guitar at the age of 13. He was one of the co-founders of Ivan Jay and the Jaycats. Leo Lyons was born in 1943 in Mansfield, England. At the age of 16, he joined Ivan Jay and the Jaycats in 1960. The Jaybirds played in Hamburg, West Germany, at the Star Club for over a year. Lyons and Lee were were joined by Ric Lee in August 1965. Ric Lee was born in 1945 in Mansfield, England. Before joining Ivan and the Jaymen in 1965, Lee had been a drummer for Ricky Storm and The Mansfields. In 1966, Chick Churchill joined the band on keyboards, piano and synthesizer. Churchill was born in 1946 in the coal mining town of Ilkeston, in Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England. Churchill began playing the piano at the age of six and studied classical music until he was fifteen. He became interested in blues and rock music, and joined his first band Sons of Adam in Nottingham.
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#1: Somethin’ Else by Eddie Cochran
City: Cornwall, ON
Radio Station: CJSS
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Cornwall ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #32
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #58
YouTube: “Somethin’ Else”
Lyrics: “Somethin’ Else”
Eddie Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, in 1938. His family moved to the Los Angeles area in 1951 where Eddie attended Bell Gardens Junior High. While there he became friends with Connie ‘Guybo’ Smith. Smith was already a promising musical talent who played bass, steel guitar and mandolin. Eddie and Connie began to jam together and gave a concert at their junior high school. Connie “Guybo” Smith went on to become Cochran’s bass player and was one of the musicians heard on most records during Eddie’s brief professional career. In 1953, while still in junior high school, Eddie met another musician named Chuck Foreman. The two experimented with Foreman’s two-track tape recorder. The pair made recordings of a number of songs including “Stardust”, “The Poor People Of Paris”, “Hearts of Stone” and the “Cannonball Rag”. Cochran graduated from Bell Gardens Junior High in 1954.
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#10: Rain-O by Chilliwack
City: Chilliwack, BC
Radio Station: CHWK
Peak Month: January 1971
Peak Position in Chilliwack ~ #12
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Rain-O”
Lyrics: “Rain-O”
Bill Henderson was born in Vancouver in 1944. He learned guitar and became the guitarist for the Panarama Trio that performed at the Panarama Roof dance club on the 15th Floor of the Hotel Vancouver. He formed the psychedelic pop-rock Vancouver band, The Collectors, in 1966. The Vancouver rock band The Collectors, was formerly named The Classics who were a Vancouver group led by Howie Vickers in the mid-60s who often appeared on CFUN. The Classics were part of the regular line-up on Let’s Go, a show on CBC TV. Though the Classics released several singles the group needed room to grow and reformed as The Collectors. They would become one of the most innovative of Vancouver’s recording acts through the rest 60s. In the spring of 1966, Vickers was asked to put together a house band at the Torch Cabaret in Vancouver. Along with Claire Lawrence on horns, they recruited guitarist Terry Frewer, drummer Ross Turney and Brian Newcombe on bass. Within a couple of months, fellow Classics member Glenn Miller replaced Newcombe on bass and Bill Henderson, a student at UBC, replaced Frewer on guitars. With Vickers now handling vocals, their sound changed from doing covers of R&B tunes to psychedelic rock. This led them to gigs along the Canadian and US west coast. Their strongest fan base in America was in California.
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#1: I’m So Lonely by Bobby Jameson
City: Chatham, Ontario
Radio Station: CFCO
Peak Month: September 1964
Peak Position in Chatham ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “I’m So Lonely”
Lyrics: N/A
Robert Parker Jameson was born in 1945 in Geneva, Illinois. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona. He and his brother began to learn guitar and entered talent contests, before his parents divorced. In 1963, at the age of 17, he began to record under the name Bobby Jameson. His first single was “Let’s Surf”. In 1964, Jameson met Tony Alamo, who became his manager and promised to make him a star. Alamo mounted a major promotional campaign in the music press, describing the 19-year-old Jameson as “The Star Of The Century” and “The World’s Next Phenomenon”.
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#2: Poor Man’s Son by the Reflections
City: Chatham, Ontario
Radio Station: CFCO
Peak Month: March 1965
Peak Position in Chatham ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube: “Poor Man’s Son”
Lyrics: “Poor Man’s Son”
The Reflections were a group from Detroit. Tony Micale, born in the Bronx, New York, in 1942, was the lead vocalist. Detroit native, Phil Castrodale, was born in 1942 and was the first tenor. Dan Bennie was born in 1940 and born in Scotland, he was a second tenor with the Reflections. Baritone Ray Steinberg, born in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1942. In 1941, bass singer John Dean was born in Detroit. Prior to the Reflections forming, Tony Micale was in a group called the Parisians. They They released their first single in 1963 titled “Helpless” on Kay-Ko Records. In January 1964, the Reflections released “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet”. Soon after, they appeared on American Bandstand. In Canada, the single peaked at #1 in Windsor (ON), #2 in Winnipeg (MB), #3 in Peace River (AB), #4 in Hamilton (ON), #8 in St. John (NB), #10 in Revelstoke (BC) and #17 in Vancouver (BC). In the USA “Romeo & Juliet” climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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#2: Mary Lou by Ronnie Hawkins
City: Cornwall, ON
Radio Station: CJSS
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Cornwall ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #26
YouTube: “Mary Lou”
Lyrics: “Mary Lou”
Ronnie Hawkins was born in Huntsville, Arkansas, on January 10, 1935, two days after Elvis Presley. Hawkins’ mother was a teacher; his father, a barber. Known affectionately over the years as “Mr. Dynamo,” “Sir Ronnie,” “Rompin’ Ronnie,” and “The Hawk,” Hawkins’ love of music started in high school. He formed the first version of his band The Hawks while studying at the University of Arkansas in the 1950s. Ronnie remembers, he’d commandeer an old gas station on Dickson street for rehersals. “We’d unplug their outside Coke machine and plug in our instruments,” Hawkins said. “They had the warmest Cokes in town.” In 1958, on the recommendation of Conway Twitty – who considered Canada to be the promised land for a rock’n roll singer – Hawkins came to Hamilton, Ontario to play a club called The Grange. He never left. Adopting Canada as his home, Hawkins became a permanent resident in 1964. In 1958 he released his first single, “Hey, Bo Diddley”.
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#1: Happy Feeling/If There’s A Thought by the Happy Feeling
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: November 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ Hit-bound #36
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Happy Feeling”
Lyrics: N/A
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: March 1969
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
B-side: “If There’s A Thought”
Happy Feeling was a band from Calgary, Alberta. They formed in the late 60s. Gordie Moffat played bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica, lead and backing vocals. Bob Moffat played rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards, percussion, and backing vocals. Jim Aiello played keyboards, and was the frontman and lead vocalist for the band. Bruce Frost played bass guitar. Gerry Mudry was the bands’ drummer, and Dan Ferguson played lead guitar, and shared lead and backing vocals.
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#2: Blue Bonnie Blue by 49th Parallel
City: Calgary, Alberta
Radio Station: CKXL
Peak Month: February 1968
Peak Position in Calgary ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Blue Bonnie Blue”
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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