#1293: It Won’t Be Wrong/Set You Free This Time by The Byrds
Peak Month: March 1966
7 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #10
CFUN Pick of the Week ~ January 29, 1966
“It Won’t Be Wrong”
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #63
YouTube.com: “It Won’t Be Wrong”
Lyrics: “It Won’t Be Wrong”
“Set You Free This Time”
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #79
YouTube.com: “Set You Free This Time”
Lyrics: “Set You Free This Time”
Around 1963 a folk trio that named itself the Jet Set, consisted of Roger McGuinn on vocals and lead guitar, Gene Clark on vocals tambour and rhythm guitar and David Crosby on vocals and rhythm guitar. In 1964 the trio released a single that was a commercial failure and credited to The Beefeaters. They added bass (and mandolin) player Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke and became The Byrds. They offered up a fusion of folk-rock and became an instant hit with two #1 hits in Vancouver and the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965: “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn, Turn, Turn”. The former was written by Bob Dylan and the latter by Pete Seeger. A single between their #1 hits was another Dylan tune titled “All I Really Want To Do”. The Byrds were perennial favorites in Vancouver who consistently had better chart runs in Vancouver than back in their home country of America. Aside from their two #1 hits, they failed to chart other songs into the Billboard Hot 100. But in Vancouver they charted ten songs into the Top Ten.
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#710: Terry by Leigh Bell and The Chimes
Peak Month: February 1960
8 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Terry”
Lyrics: “Terry”
Leigh Bell and the Chimes were a group from Toronto. Leigh Bell’s actual name was Helen Baird. This is according to the CHUM Chart book. The Chimes consisted of Jim Clark, Myles Devine and Don Murray. Scotland born Clark and Devine were friends from the old country. They got reacquainted when they crossed paths later in Toronto. They met another high school classmate named Don Murray and formed a trio. In 1959, a local songwriter named Dick Taverner got in contact with the boys. He pitched two songs he’d co-written with Sidney Wright. After listening to the songs and they suggested they would be a better fit for a female lead singer.
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#711: A Good Heart by Feargal Sharkey
Peak Month: March 1986
9 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #74
YouTube.com: “A Good Heart”
Lyrics: “A Good Heart”
Sean Feargal Sharkey was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1958. He was the sixth of seven children. In 1976, his final year in high school, Sharkey formed a punk band that was later named The Undertones. In 1978, they released their first single, “Teenage Kicks”. This led to the release of a self-titled album in 1979. The album included the Top 20 UK single, “Jimmy Jimmy”. In 1980, The Undertones released Hypnotized, and had their biggest hits on the UK charts: “My Perfect Cousin” (#9) and “Wednesday Week” (#11). The albums, Positive Touch and Sin Of Pride were released in 1981 and 1983. But after eight years as lead singer for The Undertones, Feargal Sharkey was tiring of the band. At the end of the year he decided to go solo.
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#712: Tall Cool One by The Wailers
Peak Month: April 1964
9 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube.com: “Tall Cool One”
In 1958, a rock band called The Nitecaps was formed in Tacoma, Washington. The band was composed of five schoolmates. John Greek played rhythm guitar and trumpet, Richard Dangel was on lead guitar, Kent Morrill played keyboards and sang vocals, Mark Marush played tenor saxophone and Mike Burr was the bands drummer. Greek and Marush were born in 1940, Morrill in 1941 and Dangel and Burk in 1942. In 1958, the group made a demo of an instrumental whose title, “Scotch On The Rocks.” It was re-recorded in 1959 as “Tall Cool One,” a titled suggested by Kent Morrill’s mother. The recording happened after a dance where the Wailers were performing in Tacoma.
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#1213: Gimmie Your Money Please by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Peak Month: October 1976
8 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
YouTube.com:”Gimme Your Money Please”
Lyrics: “Gimme Your Money Please”
Randolph Charles Bachman was born in 1943 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When he was just three years old he entered the King of the Saddle singing contest on CKY radio, Manitoba’s first radio station that began in 1923. Bachman won the contest. When he turned five years he began to study the violin through the Royal Toronto Conservatory. Though he couldn’t read music, he was able to play anything once he heard it. He dropped out of high school and subsequently a business administration program in college. He co-founded a Winnipeg band called The Silvertones with Chad Allan in 1960. In 1962 the band became Chad Allan and the Expressions, and was renamed The Guess Who? in 1965 with their first big hit, “Shakin’ All Over”. The Guess Who dropped the question mark in their title a few years later.
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#1217: Sound Of Love by The Five Americans
Peak Month: July 1967
5 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
1 Week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube.com: “Sound Of Love”
Lyrics: “Sound Of Love”
The Five Americans were originally a group called The Mutineers. They consisted of guitarist Mike Rabon, keyboard player Jim Durrill, guitar and harmonica player Norman Ezell, bass player Jim Grant and drummer Johnny Coble. From Durant, Oklahoma, they graduated as students from the local Southeastern State College and moved to Dallas, Texas. Coble was replaced by Jimmy Wright. Once in Texas their style shifted from mostly instrumental versions of tunes by Duane Eddy to a garage band sound. They recorded “I See The Light” in 1965 and it became a Top 30 hit in the USA the following year. It featured the Vox Continental electric organ and shouting out lyrics such as “you tried to fool me, but I got wise, now I won’t listen to none of your lies…. From now on baby, I’m gonna beware. I’ll be sorry baby, but I don’t care…”
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#861: Look What You’ve Done by The Pozo Seco Singers
Peak Month: January 1967
7 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #6
1 Week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #32
YouTube.com:”Look What You’ve Done”
Lyrics: “Look What You’ve Done”
In 1964, baritone singer Don Williams and tenor Lofton Kline were a Corpus Christi singing duo that went by the name of The Strangers Two. They heard 17-year-old Ray High School student, Susan Taylor, performing solo at the Del Mar Hootenannies. Lofton recalls, “Don was married and had a little one to support, and was working at Pittsburgh Plate Glass. I was going to Del Mar College in Corpus. The college had a hootenanny scheduled and Don and I were asked to entertain.” After they met Susan Taylor, as Lofton tells it, ““We asked her to come over and practice with us the following week. She did…and the rest is ‘history.’” Susan’s alto voice blended perfectly with Don’s baritone and Lofton’s tenor.
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#714: Fire by Platinum Blonde
Peak Month: April 1988
10 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Fire”
Lyrics: “Fire”
Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards. But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You”, a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.
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#715: It’ll Be Me by Cliff Richard
Peak Month: August 1963
11 weeks on CFUN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “It’ll Be Me”
Lyrics: “It’ll Be Me”
Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line.”
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#915: C’mon by Poco
Peak Month: May 1971
8 weeks on CKVN’s Vancouver Charts
Peak Position ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube.com: “C’mon”
Lyrics: “C’mon”
Paul Richard “Richie” Furay was born in 1944 in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He is a singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member. Furay is best known for forming the band Buffalo Springfield and later forming the band Poco. Prior to forming Buffalo Springfield, Furay was a member of the nine member group called the Au Go Go Singers who performed at New York City’s Cafe Au Go Go. In 1967, one of the production engineers for the album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was Jim Messina. He was the producer for the bands final album in 1968, Last Time Around. Messina was born in Maywood, California, in Los Angeles County, in 1947. While still 16 years of age in 1964, Messina recorded his first record credited to Jim Messina And His Jesters, primarily a surf guitar album.
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