#1128: We Love You by Rolling Stones
Peak Month: September 1967
6 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #50
YouTube.com: “We Love You”
Lyrics: “We Love You”
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943, some 18 miles east of London. Though his father and grandfather were both teachers by profession, and he was encouraged to be a teacher, the boy had different aspirations. “I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio–the BBC or Radio Luxembourg –or watching them on TV and in the movies.” In 1950 Mick Jagger met Keith Richards while attending primary school. They became good friends until the summer of 1954 when the Jagger family moved to the village of Wilmington, a mile south of Dartford. The pair bumped into each other at a train station in 1961 and resumed their friendship.
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#1130: Oh Pretty Lady by Trooper
Peak Month: March 1978
8 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Oh Pretty Lady”
Lyrics: “Oh Pretty Lady”
In 1967 Ra McGuire and Brian Smith played in a Vancouver band named Winter’s Green. The band recorded two songs, “Are You a Monkey” and “Jump in the River Blues”, on the Rumble Records Label. “Are You A Monkey” later appeared on a rock collection: 1983’s “The History of Vancouver Rock and Roll, Vol. 3.” In the early seventies Winter’s Green changed their name to Applejack and added drummer Tommy Stewart and bassist Harry Kalensky to their lineup. Applejack became a very popular band in the Vancouver area, and began touring extensively in British Columbia. The band played a few original tunes such as “Raise A Little Hell” and “Oh, Pretty Lady”, as well as Top 40 songs by artists such as Neil Young, and Chicago.
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#1423: Believe Me by The Guess Who?
Peak Month: March 1966
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Believe Me”
Allan Kowbel was born in Winnipeg in 1943. By the age of fifteen, in 1958, he was singer and guitarist who went by the stage name of Chad Allan. He formed a group that year named The Rave Ons, as a tribute to Buddy Holly. By 1960 the band was known as Allan and the Silvertones. Another name change took place in 1962 when they billed themselves as Chad Allan and the Reflections. At this time their lineup, in addition to Allan, consisted of consisted of keyboard player Bob Ashley, guitarist Randy Bachman, bass player Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson. Bachman, Kale and Peterson all provided backing vocals. The group chose the name, The Reflections, to resemble the popular backing band for Cliff Richard called The Shadows. Another name change took place in 1965. A pop group from America, called The Reflections, had a top ten hit called “Just Like Romeo & Juliet”. Their popularity became problematic for Chad Allan and The Reflections. Now they billed themselves as Chad Allan & the Expressions.”
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#1131: Reflections of Charles Brown by Rupert’s People
Peak Month: November 1967
7 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Reflections Of Charles Brown”
Lyrics: “Reflections Of Charles Brown”
Rupert’s People sprang into confusing existence in 1967 although the seed was actually sown in 1964 when Rod Lynton (bass, acoustic and electric guitar) teamed up with Steve Brendall (drummer) to form The Extraverts. The reputation of Brit Sixties never-were’s, Rupert’s People, rests on two things: the stunning 1967 single “Reflections Of Charles Brown”, a “Whiter Shade of Pale” sound-alike, and it’s B-side, “Hold On,” a scorching slice of guitar-driven frenzy. Rupert’s People only released three singles in 1967-68. Prior to becoming Rupert’s People they were billed as The Sweet Feeling and issued one single under that name in 1966. So that’s eight tracks in total. Rupert’s People are now considered in Britain to be real Sixties stuff, “mods-gone-freaky, with touches of the Small Faces and Hendrix.”
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#1132: Tattoo Man by Denise McCann
Peak Month: January 1977
9 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Tattoo Man”
Lyrics: “Tattoo Man”
Denise McCann was born in 1948 in Iowa. Albert Hews McCann Sr., her grandfather, was a cornet player and singer in Shreveport, Louisiana. The McCann Family Orchestra included various children of McCann Sr. and one of his brothers. He and his brother played for touring vaudeville acts that came to Shreveport between 1910 and 1930. Denise’s family moved to Castro Valley, California, while she was in her youth. During the Summer of Love, Denise moved up to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where she became a hippie. She 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 wrote this website to add “I actually spent the entire night with Jimi Hendrix the night of his guitar-burning performance at Monterey Pop!” McCann appears in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary Monterey Pop!
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#1134: Red Hot by Billy Riley
Peak Month: November 1957
4 weeks on Teen Canteen chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Red Hot”
Lyrics: “Red Hot”
Billy Lee Riley was born in in Pocahontas, Arkansas in 1933. His father was a sharecropper, which means he rented land from a landowner and used the land in return for giving a portion of the profits of the crops produced to the landowner on their portion of land. Though Riley’s father was a house painter by trade he would work in the cotton fields to feed the family during lean times. Young Billy Lee began playing harmonica at age six, and learned blues guitar in his early teens. “Blues is the music I grew up hearing on the plantation. There were black families and white families all living together, far from town. We were poor, and playing music was our main form of entertainment,” he recalled. In 1957 Riley recorded “Red Hot,” included in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Song’s that Shaped Rock n’ Roll.
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#1135: Stormy by Donnie Owens
Peak Month: March 1961
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Stormy”
Donald Lee Owens was born October 30, 1932, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Out of high school Owens went into the U.S. Air Force where he served as Airman First Class. He was a veteran of the Korean War. Taking the stage name, Donnie Owens, for five years Donnie Owens and the 4 Jacks played at a Harry’s Capri Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona. Owens recorded three 45’s on the Guyden Records label. Each featured Duane Eddy on guitar. Owens was a pop singer and guitarist. He played guitar for Duane Eddy’s backing band, the Rebels. In that capacity, Donnie Owens was one of the guitarists heard on “Because They’re Young” and other hits by Duane Eddy. Though he was American, Donnie Owens only had one hit record in the USA. On October 6, 1958 Owens made his Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Need You”. The record peaked on the Hot 100 at #25 and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks. It peaked in Vancouver on CKWX at #26 and spent 9 weeks on the charts. Duane Eddy is heard playing acoustic guitar on the record. The hit resembled the plodding pace of the more popular hit by Jack Scott, “My True Love.”
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#1136: So Young by Ray Smith
Peak Month: October 1958
4 weeks on Vancouver’s Teen Canteen chart
Peak Position #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “So Young”
Ray Smith was born in 1934 in the hamlet of Melber, Kentucky, thirteen miles from the town of Paducah where the Ohio River and the Tennessee River meet. Smith was the seventh son of a sharecropper who, in turn, was also the seventh son in Smith’s grandfather’s family. His dad later worked at the atomic bomb plant in Paducah. Smith left his home at the age of twelve. He worked as a gopher on a Coca-Cola Truck and then operated an oven at Kirchoff’s Bread plant in Paducah. As he grew up Ray Smith worked as a curb hop at Price’s Barbecue at 34th and Broadway where he would serve U.S. (KY) Senator Alben W. Barkley, who later became President Harry Truman’s Vice-President. Next he worked as a sole back tacker and tack machine operator at the International Shoe Company.
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#1421: Long Long Way by Ian Thomas
Peak Month: September 1974
7 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Long Long Way”
In 1950, Ian Thomas was born in Hamilton, Ontario. Once he began to play piano at the age of six Thomas fell in love with the world of music. He later learned the guitar. By 1969 he was in a folk group called Tranquility Base which began to tour across Canada. They had a #3 hit in Hamilton in 1970 called “If You’re Looking”. This led to an album, but further success eluded them. Thomas became a producer at the CBC. By 1973 he got his own record deal with GRT Records and released “Painted Ladies”. The song climbed to #9 in Vancouver and #34 on the Billboard Hot 100. His self-titled album went Gold. Thomas won the 1974 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist and toured with April Wine. He got exposure on a number of TV variety shows in Canada which included both his musical and comedic talents.
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#1137: Disco Queen by Copperpenny
Peak Month: June 1975
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Disco Queen”
Vocalist Ken Hollis and keyboardist Rich Wamil were friends in high school in Kitchener, Ontario. They began playing music together in a garage in 1965. Inspired to form a band, they called themselves the Penny Farthings. The name was a reflection of the British Invasion with so many pop tunes by the Dave Clark Five, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Petula Clark, the Kinks and others. The Penny Farthings soon got a lot of gigs in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. They landed a record contract with Columbia Records who suggested a name change to Copperpenny. The name was taken from the B-side to The Paupers’ hit in southern Ontario, “If I Call You By Some Name”.
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