#1418: Dear Abby by Buddy Knox

Peak Month: November 1962
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Youtube: “Dear Abby”

Buddy Wayne Knox was born in 1933 Happy, Texas, a small farm town in the Texas Panhandle a half hour south of Amarillo. During his youth he learned to play the guitar. He was the first artist of the rock era to write and perform his own number one hit song, “Party Doll“. The song earned Knox a gold record in 1957 and was certified a million seller. Knox was one of the innovators of the southwestern style of rockabilly that became known as “Tex-Mex” music.

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#1148: Something Better by Chilliwack

Peak Month: September 1977
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Something Better”
Lyrics: “Something Better”

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. After a half dozen local hits including “Looking At A Baby” and “Lydia Purple” the band disbanded by 1970. Henderson (vocals, guitar), Claire Lawrence (saxophone, keyboards), Ross Turney (drums) and Glenn Miller (bass) were all Collectors bandmates. After Howie Vickers left The Collectors, they changed their name to Chilliwack. The name was a Salish First Nations name that means “going back up” and is the name of a city in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia.

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#1149: Rock ‘N Roll Lover Man by Northwest Company

Peak Month: June 1971
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Rock ‘N Roll Lover Man”

The Northwest Company was a band in the Fraser Valley from the town of Haney, about 25 miles east of Vancouver. The bands members were bass player Gowan Jurgensen, lead vocalist Rick McCartie, lead guitar and vocalist Ray O’Toole, rhythm guitar player Vidor Skofteby and on drums and vocals, Richard Stepp who was a teenager in Sicamous, British Columbia. Before moving to Vancouver in his late teens, Richard Stepp had been a paid musician in two Sicamous area bands called the Esquires and the Rebels. McCartie had been lead vocalist, and Richard Stepp the drummer, with the short-lived Vancouver band, The Questions, in 1965-66 (a group that won the Battle of the Bands in 1965 at the Pacific National Exhibition). The Northwest Company was originally named the Bad Boys. This was named after The Bad Boys Rag Shop, a trendy clothing store in Vancouver back in ’67. However, CFUN deejay Tom Peacock, encouraged the band to come up with another name that wouldn’t strike fear into parents of the groups female fan-base. It was Gowan Jurgensen who suggested to his bandmates the North West Company, based on the Montreal fur trading business founded in 1789. The band agreed, but distinguished themselves from the fur trading company with “Northwest” instead of “North West.”

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#1150: I Turn To You by Spring

Peak Month: February 1972
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart

After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of British Columbia, Terry Frewer did post graduate studies in ethnomusicology, specializing in the music of the First Nations, Japan and India. He also did advanced training in jazz orchestration at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He quickly launched into a highly successful career beginning with playing (along with drummer Ross Turney) as a late addition to the Classics, the CBC Let’s Go house band.* The Classics line-up was fronted by Howie Vickers on vocals, with reed player Claire Lawrence and bass player Glenn Miller. The Classics went on to become The Collectors who then morphed into Chilliwack. Meanwhile, in 1968 Terry Frewer helped found the Vancouver band Spring. This quartet scored a huge local hit in 1971 with “A Country Boy Named Willie”. The song peaked at #2 on CKVN for two weeks. Other primary members of Spring included Bob Buckley (vocals, keyboard, sax, woodwinds), Pete McKinnon (bass), and Kat Hendrikse (drums).

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#1152: Trains And Boats And Planes by Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas

Peak Month: July 1965
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube.com: “Trains And Boats And Planes”
Lyrics: Trains And Boats And Planes”

William “Billy” Howard Ashton was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England, in 1943. He sang in a children’s choir and learned to play guitar. Out of high school he apprenticed as an engineer with British Railways, while playing rhythm guitar on the side. He formed a band and only ended up lead vocalist when his guitar was stolen after a gig. Billy was the highest-ranking non-professional artist in a popularity contest sponsored by the local music newspaper Merseybeat. His manager got him connected to Brian Epstein, the manager of The Beatles. Epstein took over Billy’s management, and got his a contract with George Martin, who was producing The Beatles’ recordings.
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#1400: Time For Everyone by Northwest Company

Peak Month: September 1968
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart

The Northwest Company was a band in the Fraser Valley from the town of Haney, about 25 miles east of Vancouver. The bands members were bass player Gowan Jurgensen, lead vocalist Rick McCartie, lead guitar and vocalist Ray O’Toole, rhythm guitar player Vidor Skofteby and on drums and vocals, Richard Stepp who was from Sicamous, British Columbia. Before moving to Vancouver in his late teens, Richard Stepp had been a paid musician in two Sicamous area bands called the Esquires and the Rebels. McCartie had been lead vocalist, and Richard Stepp the drummer, with the short-lived Vancouver band, The Questions, in 1965-66 (a group that won the Battle of the Bands in 1965 at the Pacific National Exhibition). The Northwest Company was originally named the Bad Boys. This was named after The Bad Boys Rag Shop, a trendy clothing store in Vancouver back in ’67. However, CFUN deejay Tom Peacock, encouraged the band to come up with another name that wouldn’t strike fear into parents of the groups female fan-base. It was Gowan Jurgensen who suggested to his bandmates the North West Company, based on the Montreal fur trading business founded in 1789. The band agreed, but distinguished themselves from the fur trading company with “Northwest” instead of “North West.”

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#1416: If The Boy Only Knew by Sue Thompson

Peak Month: June 1962
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #112
YouTube.com link: “If The Boy Only Knew”
Lyrics: “If The Boy Only Knew”

Eva Sue McKee was born in Nevada, Missouri on July 19, 1925. By 1932, at the age of seven, she was playing guitar and singing on stage. She got married at the age of 17 in 1942. But by 1945 was divorced and a single mother. Sue‘s first successful fling in show business was with the “Dude Martin Show” on KYA Radio in San Francisco, and KGO TV in 1950. The Dude Martin Show moved to TV station KTTV in Los Angeles in 1951. She performed with Dude at the Palamino Club in Los Angeles. Between 1950 and 1954 she recorded thirteen 78 RPMs as the featured vocalist with Dude Martin and His Roundup Gang. “If You Want Some Lovin” from 1950 is an example of the country records she was releasing under the stage name, Sue Thompson. She was nominated for an Emmy award in 1954 for her work on the Dude Martin Show, but lost out to Lucille Ball.

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Peak Month: December 1966
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Plus 3 weeks on the All-Canadian Top-Ten
YouTube.com: “Remorse”

Mike Campbell was born in Vancouver and attended Burnaby South Secondary School and graduated in 1960. He became a local teen idol on the west coast. During the 1960’s he made around a hundred television appearances on popular CBC shows Let’s Go, Music Hop and Hits A Poppin. He can be seen appearing in a summer 1968 installment of Hits A Poppin, hosted by Terry David Mullugan, singing “Two Bit Manchild” starting at 1:24 with Terry David’s introduction in the above link. Campbell released “Remorse” in 1966 on Tom Northcott’s recently established New Syndrome label. Like many long-forgotten seven-inchers of the time, though, this one bears the distinctive markings of the fab four, especially those silky harmonies and that taut, emotive songwriting.

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#1154: Mary, Mary Lou by Bill Haley

Peak Month: January 1958
4 weeks on Vancouver’s Teen Canteen Chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Mary, Mary Lou”
Lyrics: “Mary, Mary Lou”

Bill Haley was born in Michigan in 1925. His dad played the mandolin and banjo while his mom played the piano. In a story Haley would relate years later in a biography, he recalled as a child when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one. Sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album Rock Around The Clock describe Bill Haley’s early life and emerging career: “Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $1 a night. Very soon after this he formed a group of equally enthusiastic youngsters and managed to get quite a few local bookings for his band.”

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#1155: True, True Happiness by Johnny Tillotson

Peak Month: October 1959
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #54
YouTube.com: “True True Happiness”
Lyrics: “True True Happiness”

In 1939 Johnny Tillotson was born in Jacksonville. He had four Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and ten more in the American Top 40. He took an early interest in appearing on stage and by high school had a talent as a singer. In his teens he got a contract to be in the line-up of regular performers on the Jacksonville TV show, McDuff Hayride,  hosted by Toby Dowdy. And in the mid-50s Tillotson had his own variety TV show, called The Velda Show, on WFGA. In 1957, a local Jacksonville deejay, Bob Norris, sent a recording of Tillotson singing at a Pet Milk talent contest. He ended up performing on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Cadence Records owner, Archie Bleyer, signed Tillotson to a record contract. “Dreamy Eyes” was his first single released in the fall of 1958. It peaked at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would wait three years before appearing on the pop charts in Vancouver in 1961, peaking at #8, as the song enjoyed a more successful re-issue. In 1959, Tillotson graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and Communications, and then relocated to Manhattan in hopes of a break in the new rock ‘n roll music scene.

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