#255: You Mostest Girl by Bob Lee
Peak Month: September 1961
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “You Mostest Girl”
Lyrics: “You Mostest Girl”
Bobby Lee Trammell was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1934. His parents were cotton farmers. His mother played the church organ at a Pentecostal Church, and his dad played the fiddle. In 1957, Trammell heard Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash in concert in Jonesboro. He was invited to sing a song, and was subsequently put in touch with Sam Phillips of Sun Records. Though he didn’t get a record contract, Bobby Lee Trammell kept dreaming about being a recording star. He moved to California and got a job at a Ford Motors manufacturing plant in Long Beach. He heard Bobby Bare in concert and got a chance to sing on stage. He ended up getting a gig to perform regularly at the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park, in suburban Los Angeles. Trammell soon got a reputation for Elvis Presley-like spastic gyrations and wildness on stage that occasionally caused controversy. Trammell said: “I was much wilder than Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard.”
Continue reading →
#256: I Was Only Joking by Rod Stewart
Peak Month: July 1978
13 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “I Was Only Joking”
Lyrics: “I Was Only Joking”
Roderick David Stewart was born in London, England, in 1945. In 1956 he got introduced to rock ‘n roll when he saw Bill Haley and His Comets in concert, and heard Little Richard’s “The Girl Can’t Help It”. He was given a guitar by his dad in 1959, and he learned to play the Kingston Trio’s “A Worried Man”. He quit school at age 15 and worked as a newspaper boy. He auditioned with Joe Meek in 1961, but didn’t get a record deal. By 1963 he was part of an R&B band called The Dimensions. In 1965 he teamed up with Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger to form a blues band called Steampacket. This lasted another year. Eventually, Stewart became part of the Jeff Beck Group in 1967. When that band broke up in the fall of ’68, Rod Stewart got invited to join the reformed Small Faces, who were now just called Faces.
Continue reading →
#257: The Inner Light by the Beatles
Peak Month: March 1968
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #96
YouTube: “The Inner Light”
Lyrics: “The Inner Light”
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool in 1942. He attended the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and met fellow classmates George Harrison on a school bus. When Paul was 14 his mom died from a blockage in one of her blood vessels. In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. Other original members of the Quarrymen, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Pete Shotton left the band when their set changed from skiffle to rock ‘n roll. John Duff Lowe, a friend of Paul’s from the Liverpool Institute, who had joined the Quarrymen in early 1958 left the band at the end of school. This left Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as remaining trio. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident.
Continue reading →
#258: Don’t It Make Ya Feel by the Headpins
Peak Month: February 1982
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #2 ~ CFUN
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Don’t It Make Ya Feel”
Lyrics: “Don’t It Make Ya Feel”
The Headpins are a Vancouver hard rock band. They were formed by Chilliwack bandmates Ab Bryant and Brian MacLeod. Bryant and MacLeod had so much energy, they continued to play with Chilliwack as they got Headpins founded. Macleod was introduced to local Vancouver singer named Denise McCann. Born in Iowa in 1948, after being raised in the Castro Valley in California, during the Summer of Love, she moved to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where she became a hippie. McCann got a job with the Magic Mountain Festival on Mount Tamalpais and also at the Monterey Pop Festival. At the festival she became friends with Jimi Hendrix. McCann appears in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary Monterey Pop! Brian MacLeod invited McCann to join the Headpins as they were forming in 1979.
Continue reading →
#1263: Friends Forever by Candi & The Backbeat
Peak Month: July 1991
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Friends Forever”
In the mid-80s, Candita Pennella fronted an Italian wedding band in Toronto named Sensation. Her nickname was Candi. The band consisted of bass player Nino Milazzo, drummer Paul Russo, keyboard player Rich Imbrogno and singer Candita Pennella. The band decided to change their name to Candi. They recorded an album in 1988 titled Candi. They released a single titled “Dancing Under A Latin Moon,” which made the Top 30 across Canada on the RPM singles chart and #68 on the Billboard Hot 100. Several follow up singles made the pop charts in Canada. Among these, “Missing You” and “Love Makes No Promises” made the Top 30 on the CKLG charts in Vancouver in early 1989.
Continue reading →
#259: Love Me Love Me Love by Frank Mills
Peak Month: February 1972
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #46
YouTube: “Love Me Love Me Love”
Lyrics: “Love Me Love Me Love”
In 1942, Frank Mills was born into a musical household in Montreal, and grew up in Verdun, Quebec. His older sister and mother both played the piano. Young Frank learned to play piano by ear. He also learned to play trombone in high school and played in a school band. His parents both died of cancer by the time Frank was seventeen. Initially, he entered McGill University in pre-med. However, his marks weren’t good enough to continue. When he scored 98% on a Music Department entrance exam, his direction was certain.
Continue reading →
#260: Robot Man by Jamie Horton
Peak Month: September 1960
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Robot Man”
Lyrics: “Robot Man”
Gayla Rienette Peevey was born in Oklahoma City in 1943. She moved with her family at the age of 5 to Ponca City, Oklahoma. When she was ten years old she recorded “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”. In October 1953, Peevey performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in an episode that aired on November 15, 1953. As a result of her song’s release, a local promoter picked up on the popularity of the song and Peevey’s local roots. A campaign was launched to present Peevey with an actual hippopotamus on Christmas. The campaign succeeded, and Peevey was presented with a hippopotamus named Matilda, which she donated to the city zoo. Matilda the hippopotamus lived to the age of 47 and died in 1998.
Continue reading →
#261: In The Mood by the Wildroot Orchestra
Peak Month: August 1981
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “In The Mood”
Lyrics: “In The Mood”
Around 1971 a band called Wildroot formed in Vancouver (BC). An article by Canadianbands.com identifies Howie Vickers was the lead vocalist, Frank Allison was on guitar, Ian Berry was on keyboards and saxophone, Charles Faulkner was on bass guitar and Jim McGillveray was on drums. who formed in the 70s. Charles Faulkner was previously a member of Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck, a psychedelic rock band from Vancouver (1967-71). Jim McGillveray is credited with being one of the last members of the Painted Ship, a Vancouver (BC) band that folded in 1968. McGillveray, Ian Berry and Frank Allison were all previously members of Vancouver’s New Breed, a band that formed in 1966.
Continue reading →
#262: Jesse by Carly Simon
Peak Month: November 1980
12 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN Chart
Peak Position ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
YouTube: “Jesse”
Lyrics: “Jesse”
Carly Elisabeth Simon was born in 1945 in The Bronx. Her father was from a German-Jewish family, and her mother was from a German family. In 1964, with her sister Lucy, she formed the Simon Sisters. They had a minor folk-pop hit with the nursery rhyme – lullaby “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod”. It was a Top 50 hit in Vancouver (BC) in April ’64. The Simon Sisters released three albums between 1964 and 1969 in the folk and children’s folk genres. This included recordings of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and The Pussycat”, and Lewis Carroll’s “The Lobster Quadrille”. Lucy went on to write music for the 1991 Tony Award winning musical, The Secret Garden. In 1971 Carly Simon appeared in the film Taking Off, where she was cast as an audition singer.
Continue reading →
#263: Shapes Of Things by the Yardbirds
Peak Month: April 1966
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #11
Billboard Year-End 1966 ~ #93
YouTube: “Shapes Of Things”
Lyrics: “Shapes Of Things”
The Yardbirds are an English rock band that had a string of hits in the mid-1960s, including “For Your Love” and “Heart Full Of Soul.” The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock’s most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. During their brief five years, from 1963 to 1968, they set the pace for a lot of the innovations to come in rock ‘n roll into the 1970’s. The Yardbirds experimental explorations also provided the crucial link between British R&B, Psychedelic Rock, and Heavy Metal, while pioneering the use of innovations like fuzz tone, feedback and distortion. With this fusion, and harmonica riffs, they inspired the musical styles of contemporary American bands like The Count Five who had a #1 hit in Vancouver in 1966 called “Psychotic Reaction.” When Jimmy Page left The Yardbirds to form the New Yardbirds, that band was quickly renamed Led Zeppelin.
Continue reading →
