#5: The Blob by the Five Blobs
City: Guelph, ON
Radio Station: CJOY
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in Guelph ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #40
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #35
YouTube: “The Blob”
Lyrics: “The Blob”
This “Artists’ Biography for Jockey Programming” was released by Columbia Records.
All Five Blobs Are Bernie Nee
Columbia’s Five Blobs are, one and all, Bernie Nee, an ex-Seabee who got his first taste of show business leading a band o Saipan. When he was discharged from the service in 1946, the Bronc lad re-entered New York University, switching his major from dentistry to music. He was fortunate enough to receive encouragement from his family. Upon graduation in 1948, Nee began playing guitar and bass with small groups at dances and weddings in and around New York. Then in 1951, he began to make demonstration records for song writers. During the same year he also made 30 children’s records, and sang radio and TV commercials with the Goldswan Singers. The tall, brown-haired singer is 32, married, and the father of three children.”
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#11: I’ve Got Bells On My Heart by Jane Morgan
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: June 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #21
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “I’ve Got Bells On My Heart”
Lyrics: “I’ve Got Bells On My Heart”
Florence Catherine Currier was born in 1924 in the suburbs of Boston. Her family moved to Florida when she was four-years-old. When she was five, Florence started taking voice lessons as well as piano. In the summertime, she was a child actor in theater productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Playhouse was founded by her brother. At the age of 17, in the summer of 1941, she was listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse. During her years at school, she competed in singing competitions with other students across Florida and the Southeast. Upon graduating from high school in Daytona Beach, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan. She had plans to become an opera singer, and studied opera at the school.
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#13: Pillow Talk by Doris Day
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: December 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Pillow Talk”
Lyrics: “Pillow Talk”
Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff was born in 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. For most of her life, Day stated that she was born in 1924, but on the occasion of her 95th birthday, the Associated Press found her birth certificate that showed a 1922 date of birth. She was part of a dance duo into the mid-30s, but an October 1937 car accident with a freight train resulted in her having a broken leg. As she recovered, she found herself singing along with variety songs on the radio. She took singing lessons. During the eight months when she was receiving singing lessons, Day secured her first professional jobs as a vocalist on the WLW-Cincinnati radio program Carlin’s Carnival and in a local restaurant, Charlie Yee’s Shanghai Inn. During her radio performances, she first caught the attention of Barney Rapp who was seeking a female vocalist and asked her to audition for the job. According to Rapp, he had auditioned about 200 other singers.
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#10: This Night Won’t Last Forever by Michael Johnson
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: October 1979
Peak Position in Fredericton: #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29 (CKLG Playlist)
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #19
YouTube: “This Night Won’t Last Forever”
Lyrics: “This Night Won’t Last Forever”
Michael Johnson was born in Alamosa, Colorado, in 1944. He began to play guitar at age 13. In 1965, he won an international talent contest. In 1966 he toured with Randy Sparks in the folk group New Society. When the group split in 1967, Johnson joined the Mitchell Trio (formerly named the Chad Mitchell Trio before Chad left in 1965). He co-wrote songs with fellow member John Denver. The trio morphed into Denver, Boise & Johnson. They released a single titled “Take Me Tomorrow” with a B-side titled “The ’68 Nixon (This Year’s Model)”.
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#397: Everything That Touches You by the Association
City: Vancouver, BC
Radio Station: CKLG
Peak Month: February 1968
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #10
YouTube: “Everything That Touches You”
Lyrics: “Everything That Touches You”
Terry Kirkman was born in Salina, Kansas, in 1939. He learned to play a number of brass instruments in his childhood and majored in music in Chaffey College in southern California. He met Frank Zappa in college in 1959, and the pair performed in coffeehouses through to 1961. As a salesman visiting Hawaii in 1962, Kirkman met Jules Alexander, who was in the United States Navy. They planned to meet again when Alexander would be discharged from his military duties. Kirkman moved to Los Angeles with Alexander in 1963. The pair founded a folk group they named the Inner Tubes. At one time The Inner Tubes included both Cass Elliot and David Crosby. The Inner Tubes slowly grew from a small group into a 13-piece band called the Men. In February 1965, when The Men disbanded, Kirkman and five other members formed their own band. To find a new name, they perused a dictionary and chose “the Association” after it was suggested by Kirkman’s fiancée.
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#14: Waltzing Matilda by David Carroll & Orchestra
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: January-February 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #112
YouTube: “Waltzing Matilda”
Lyrics: “Waltzing Matilda”
David Carroll (given the birth name Rodell Walter Schreier) was born in Taylorville (IL) in October 1913. There is very little to find in a search online about his background. By the time he was an adult, David Carroll was becoming an accomplished musician, able to arrange, direct and conduct music. In 1952, by the age of 28, Carroll conducted the orchestra backing Vic Damone on his #13 hit “Sugar”. Carroll was back in the recording studio the following year with Damone to craft the #10 hit “April In Portugal”. As well, he conducted two Top Ten hits in ’53 for Rusty Draper: “No Help Wanted” and “Gambler’s Guitar”. In 1954, he conducted the number-one hit, “Sh-Boom”, for the Crew Cuts. (The song was a ‘white cover’ of the original by the R&B group The Chords. Carroll was in the studio for the Crew Cuts subsequent mid-50s hits: “Earth Angel”, “Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)”, “Gum Drop”, “Angels in the Sky”, “A Story Untold”, “Don’t Be Angry” and “Young Love”.
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#15: Love Is A Thing by Debbie Reynolds
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: July-August 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Love Is A Thing”
Lyrics: N/A
Mary Frances Reynolds was born in 1932 in El Paso, Texas. He father was a carpenter. Her mother took in laundry for income, while they lived in a shack on Magnolia Street in El Paso. “We may have been poor,” she said in a 1963 interview, “but we always had something to eat, even if Dad had to go out in the desert and shoot jackrabbits.” When she was seven, her family moved to Burbank, California. Attending public school, Reynolds recalled later, “when I started, I didn’t even know how to dress. I wore dungarees and a shirt. I had no money, no taste, and no training.” In 1948, Reynolds was a 16-year-old student at Burbank High School, and she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest. Soon after, she was offered a contract with Warner Brothers and was given the stage name “Debbie” by studio head Jack L. Warner.
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#9: Dancin’ Shoes by Nigel Olsson
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: March 1979
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
YouTube: “Dancin’ Shoes”
Lyrics: “Dancin’ Shoes”
Nigel Olsson was born in Cheshire, England, in 1949. He began his musical career playing the guitar in small bands, and took up the drums at a gig where the drummer did not show up at the last minute. His first appearance on a record album was in the band Plastic Penny, which released Two Sides of a Penny in 1968. Olsson was spotlighted on one song on that album, “I Want You,” performing both lead vocals and a drum solo. In 1969 he played drums on the flower power pop single “Mr. Boyd” by Argosy, a one-off group which also included Reginald Dwight (later known as Elton John), and future Supertramp band member Roger Hodgson. Olsson also had a brief stint with the English hard rock band Uriah Heep, playing drums on two songs on their 1970 debut album, Very ‘easy… Very ‘umble.
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#17: Baciare Baciare by Dorothy Collins
City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: February 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #41
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “Baciare Baciare”
Lyrics: “Baciare Baciare”
Dorothy Collins (birth name Marjorie Chandler) was born in 1926 in Windsor, Ontario. She adopted her stage name in her mid-teens. From late childhood, she sang on radio stations in Windsor and Detroit. In 1940, at age 14, she and her family were introduced to bandleader/composer Raymond Scott in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she became Scott’s protégée. In early 1942, at age 15, she became a featured vocalist with Scott’s orchestra, performing on radio and on tour. Scott groomed her for stardom, which included coaching her vocals (pitch, phrasing, and delivery) and mentoring her performance skills. In the late 1940s, she contributed vocals to the revived Raymond Scott Quintette, a sextet that released records on the bandleader’s own Master label and served as house band on the radio program Herb Shriner Time.
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#19: Starlight Starbright by Jimmy Dean
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: April 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Starlight Starbright”
Lyrics: N/A
In 1928 Jimmy Ray Dean was born in Plainview, Texas. His mother taught him to play piano. He dropped out of high school to work to help his mother. Next he joined the U.S. Air Force. He later and a professional entertainer around the time Dean married his first wife Mary Sue (Sue) in 1950. He had his first Top Ten hit on the Billboard Country charts in 1952 called “Bumming Around.” In 1954, Jimmy Dean became the host of radio program Town and Country Time on WARL in Washington D.C. Dean and his Texas Wildcats grew in popularity across the Mid-Atlantic region. Among the singers who got their start on the show were Patsy Cline, Roy Clark and Billy Grammar. He gained more fame with several more radio shows in Maryland and Virgina. In 1957, Dean had a minor country hit titled “Little Sandy Sleightfoot”. That year Jimmy Dean released the album Jimmy Dean Sings His Television Favorites.
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