#1249: That’s When Your Heartaches Begin by Elvis Presley
Peak Month: April 1957
3 weeks on Vancouver’s Red Robinson chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #58
YouTube.com: “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”
Lyrics: “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”
On July 18, 1953, Elvis Presley recorded “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” at a Sun Records session in Memphis, Tennessee. He paid $3.98 ($35.26 in 2017 dollars) for studio time to allow recording of a double-sided single. The demo he recorded at the time he was 18 years old. On the A-side, he recorded “My Happiness”, later made famous by Connie Francis in 1958. He would later revisit the song on at least two occasions. The first was as the 38th of 47 songs recorded on December 4, 1956, during the Million Dollar Quartet sessions on December 4, 1956. In these sessions Elvis is one of four musicians playing along with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. His final version of the song was recorded at the Radio Recorders Studio on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles on January 13, 1957. It was the B-side to “All Shook Up”.Continue reading →
#1250: Our Love’s a Chain by Illustration
Peak Month: May 1970
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Our Love’s A Chain”
The Illustration was a Canadian big band jazz-rock ensemble formed in a similar vein to Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, the Ides of March and Lighthouse. Their horn section led the way giving them a jazz-rock and R&B fusion. Norman Burgess, Donald Sanders and Glenn Higgins played saxophone. Leo Harinen, Benoit Perreault and Billy Sheill played trumpet. Roger Homefield played trombone, while Bill Ledster provided lead vocals that rivaled David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Jim Peterik of the Ides of March. Rounding out the dozen musicians in the band were guitarist Garry Beattie, bassist Richard Terry, drummer Claude Roy and John Ranger on keyboards. The band was from St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and formed at the Fontaine Blue in 1969. They were excellent musicians but suffered from poor management causing their star to fade just as they were about to take off.
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#1377: Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot
Peak Month October 1971
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube.com: “Summer Side of Life”
Lyrics: “Summer Side of Life”
Gordon Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario, on November 17, 1938. His parents, Jessica and Gordon Lightfoot Sr., ran a dry cleaning business. His mother noticed young Gordon had some musical talent and the boy soprano first performed in grade four at his elementary school. He sang the Irish lullaby “Too Ra Loo Rah Loo Rah” at a parents’ day. As a member of the St. Paul’s United Church choir in Orillia, Lightfoot gained skill and needed confidence in his vocal abilities under the choir director, Ray Williams. Lightfoot went on to perform at Toronto’s Massey Hall at the age of twelve when he won a competition for boys who were still boy sopranos. During his teen years Gordon Lightfoot learned to play piano, drums and guitar.
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#1251: Rainbows, Pots of Gold & Moonbeams by Studebaker Hawk
Peak Month: September 1975
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Rainbows, Pots of Gold, And Moonbeams”
In 1969 a Canadian band named Motherlode had a Top Ten hit called “When I Die.” Although Canada’s RPM Magazine named them Canada’s first Supergroup, Motherlode disbanded in 1970. However, it was revived and was briefly fronted by Francophone bass player Breen Lebouf, born in North Bay, Ontario. Later in 1970 he went on to form a group called Southcote together with Lance Wright on drums and Joe Ress on keyboards with guitarist Charlie White. After three years of little success, Southcote split. Out of the ashes LeBouf, Wright and Ress got a new guitarist named Steve Cooley and formed Studebaker Hawk. In 1975 they released a single called “Rainbows, Pots of Gold and Moonbeams” written by Cooley.
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#1252: Blue Turns to Grey by Cliff Richard and the Shadows
Peak Month: May 1966
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Blue Turns To Grey”
Lyrics: “Blue Turns To Grey”
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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#1256: Fly Little White Dove by The Bells
Peak Month: November 1970
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #95
YouTube.com: “Fly Little White Dove”
Lyrics: “Fly Little White Dove”
The mid-60s Montreal duo, Cliff Edwards and Anne Ralph, were persuaded to form a group. They added Anne’s sister Jacki Ralph on vocals, drummer Doug Gravelle and keyboard player Gordie McLeod. They named themselves The Five Bells. Shortly afterward Gordie McLeod left the group and Mickey Ottier became the groups drummer. In 1969 they released their first single called “Moody Manitoba Morning“. They continued to play clubs in Canada and landed an 11-week run at the Copacabana in New York. The group shortened their name to The Bells and Anne Ralph left the group, leaving Jackie Ralph as the featured female vocalist and Cliff Edwards the lead male vocalist.
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#1257: Pink Chiffon by Mitchell Torok
Peak Month: July 1960
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #60
YouTube.com: “Pink Chiffon”
Lyrics: “Pink Chiffon”
In 1929 Mitchell Torok was born in Houston, Texas. His parents were immigrants from Hungary. Torok learned the guitar at the end of elementary school. A natural athlete, Mitch went to university in Nacogdoches, Texas, on a football and baseball scholarship. While at university he was hired to write a song to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Cononco Oil Company. He also cut his first record in the late 40s while hosting a radio show in Lufkin, two hours northeast of Houston, and another radio show in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg.
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#1258: The Mansion You Stole by Johnny Horton
Peak Month: December 1960
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #8 CFUN
Peak Position #7 CKWX
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “The Mansion You Stole”
Lyrics: “The Mansion You Stole”
John LeGale Horton was born on April 30, 1925, in Los Angeles, born to migrant fruit pickers. He spent most of his life growing up in East Texas when the family wasn’t back in California picking fruit. A great athlete, twenty-six colleges offered him basketball scholarships after his graduation from high school. Horton chose to study geology for a while in Seattle. Then in 1948 he went north to Alaska to pan for gold. While there he began to write songs. Back in the lower forty-eight, Horton was a winner at a talent contest in Henderson, Texas. This prompted him to move back to California and seek a career in music. He was a guest on Cliffie Stone’s Hometown Jamboree on KXLA-TV in Pasadena. This spawned The Singing Fisherman, Horton’s own half-hour show. He got married to a girl he met in Hollywood named Donna Cook. In high demand to perform on the Louisiana Hayride, they relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana. Touring was hard on the newlyweds and Horton got divorced.
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#1259: If Only by Jack Scott
Peak Month: December 1962
9 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “If Only”
Lyrics: “If Only”
Giovanni Dominico Scafone Jr. was born in 1936 in Windsor, Ontario, and spent some of his years growing up in the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park, Michigan. In 1954 he formed a band called the Southern Drifters. In 1957 he got a record deal with ABC-Paramount. He scored four Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two more in the Top 30 in the USA. In Vancouver Jack Scott was a teen idol with his good looks and classic rock ‘n roll. He enjoyed eight Top Ten hits on the Vancouver charts including “What In The World’s Come Over You” and his most successful hit in town, “Goodbye Baby” that peaked at #2 and spent 17 weeks on the CKWX charts in 1958. At the time, Scott had more US singles in the Billboard Hot 100 (19), in a shorter period of time (41 months), than any other recording artist – with the exception of The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and Connie Francis. Scott charted twenty songs on the local record surveys in Vancouver between July 1958 and November 1962.
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#1311: I’m Running After You by Major Hoople’s Boarding House
Peak Month: October 1975
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “I’m Running After You”
In their early promotional material Kitchener, Ontario’s, Major Hoople’s Boarding House said of their young quintet: “Over 69 years of musical experience comprise the Boarding House Band. The Band started when Major Hoople got himself a set of drums, and with his nightly practice, kept everybody else awake all night. As the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” And so other boarders got instruments and started singing and making sounds all night long, too. Freddie Fritz, basement dweller, still three years behind with the rent, plays lead guitar. Peter Patter, third floor apartment, plays rhythm. Pop’s thumbs base guitar… And Ma Hoople plays organ. And what a voice. You should hear her call the boarders for supper.”
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