Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

Never showed up on the Cross Canada Chart as well

 

Peaking at #6 on the Cross Canada Chart on February 7, "Love Didn't Die" by The Chessmen. It would make the Top 10 on Vancouver's CFUN chart.

 

The Chessmen would release one more single "What's Causing This Sensation" a couple of months later. In spite of reaching #4 on the CFUN chart, it would not trouble the CanCon chart. The group would break up, and Terry Jacks would go on to much bigger and better things.

 

Ray Hutchinson, formerly of The Beau-Marks, peaked at #12 on the March 14 main chart with his rendition of "Rose Marie". It has never been issued on any legit CD that I know of, only on the third volume of the unauthorized Only In Canada series, mastered from a noisy record. The Youtube audio is from this CD.



According to RPM, the song was recorded in New York with "31 top rated musicians".

 

The same week, at #13, are Vancouver's Tom Northcott Trio (Tom joined by Rick Enns and Chris Dixon). Released on his own Syndrome label, it would reach #7 on the CKLG (Vancouver) charts. At his punkiest as he tells the older generation where to go:



The Trio would open for Jefferson Airplane on their first visit to Vancouver in January 1966. Things are starting to get trippier...

 

Another group from Vancouver: the Nocturnals hit #4 on the Cross Canada Chart on March 7 (#78 on the big chart, #5 on the CFUN chart) with their followup to "Because You're Gone". I love this song so much I own two copies of it.

 

This would be the last appearance by the Nocturnals on any RPM chart. They would release their final three singles in 1967: "Lovin' Blues", "Detroit" and "Uptown".



Not even making the cover of RPM Magazine in October of that year would help.
http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Volume+8-No.+7-October+14,+1967.pdf

 

Some of the hits I posted about are featured here on the final episode of Let's Go for the 1965-66. The lead singers of each group appear (Tom Northcott/ Terry Jacks/ Bill McBeth), along with Howie Vickers of the Classics and Bobby Faulds from Bobby Faulds and the Strangers.

 

Ah, the days when the most important things required to be a successful Canadian frontman were (a) awkward repartee, and (b) the ability to sway or bob your upper body while moving your feet a little as possible while you sing...

 

They were in a tiny space and they had marks they had to be on to be framed for the cameras.

 

Bill McBeth of the Nocturnals was also their drummer.

 

The Nocturnals were one of the greatest groups! All that lip-synching was pretty square though Tom Northcott tried to make something of his spots and send it up in the non-music chat bits. Terry Jacks wasn't a genius yet, probably a good thing the Chessmen folded really. Didn't The Northwest Company chart at all? I think Time For Everyone got played on our am station back about then.

 

"Rock 'N' Roll Lover Man" would be their hit.

 

Peaking at #5 on the CanCon chart on February 14 would be the Young Canadians with "Joker" b/w "Get Together". These Young Canadians were not from Vancouver, nor did they ever sing "Let's go to f***in' Hawaii". Two members of the group were Lois Fletcher from Hamilton and Dan Dalton from tiny Erieau Beach, Ontario. Dalton had moved to Hawaii, gone to university there and started a musical career. He found his way to LA and became a member of Randy Sparks' Back Porch Majority. Another member of the group was Fletcher, and the two would marry in 1965 after leaving the group. They're the two on the top right of the album cover.



They would form the Young Canadians in late 1965 in Los Angeles. The third member was Dan Moore, from Winnipeg, according to RPM. Actually he was not Canadian at all: he was the brother of Matthew Moore of the Matthew Plus Four (and a group member). They did a groovy garage jangle version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Codeine" (spelled "Codyne" on the label). It was produced by Dan Moore and Dalton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOuQ9fz3uUU

Dalton and Fletcher would co-write this garage song in 1965 for Robin Kingsley, who was the brother of Ian Whitcomb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4fM6DNM0IU

The only picture I could find of the Young Canadians was in this issue of RPM (page 2)
http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Vol+4,+No.+16+-+Week+of+December+13th,+1965.pdf

Neither side of the first Young Canadians 45 is on youtube. Nor is either side of Lois Fletcher's debut sing "Winken, Blinken and Nod" which would be released in May, 1966. Note the differing production credits on the label between the U.S. and Canadian versions.



The Young Canadians will chart again on the CanCon chart in 1966, I will pick up the rest of the story then. It has everything: Sammy Hagar, the Brady Bunch, a foul mouthed Mazda commercial parody...

 

Still, how hilarious is it that the other Young Canadians had a member who did go to "f***in' Hawaii"? I wonder if Art Bergmann knew about these guys?

 

One thing I'm really enjoying about this thread is learning about the interconnections between various acts. I did not know Lois Fletcher had been in The Young Canadians (I had never noticed her name in the writing credits of "Joker").

 

I have been neglecting the RPM country chart (which at the time was still CanCon only), so I've got some catching up to do.

On November 22, 1965, Jimmy James started a six week stay at the top of the RPM country chart with "Marjolaina". It was not the first time that James had had a hit with a recording of this song.

Jimmy James hailed from Montreal and recorded and performed in both English and French. In the spring of 1958, he placed two songs on the CHUM chart, recorded with his backup band The Candy Canes. "Teen-Age Beauty" reached #26 and "Marjolaine" reached #38. I don't know how well these songs did in the rest of the country. In Canada, Columbia Records issued the two songs on separate singles. In the US, the two songs were issued back to back on the same single. The label's writing credits on the Canadian "Marjolaine" single read "F. Lemarque - R. Revil". At least some US pressings add "Eng. lyrics: S. Skylar". So this is an English version of what was originally a French song. I don't know if Jimmy James ever recorded a French version. I have been unable to find a French version by him or by anyone. At least some US pressings give the title as "Marjolaina". When you listen to the song, James sometimes sings "Marjolaina" and sometimes "Marjolaine" (when the extra syllable doesn't fit the music).

Like many rock 'n rollers, Jimmy James eventually switched to country music. While signed to Arc Records in 1965, he recorded a new version with a more country-style arrangement. Released under the title "Marjolaina", this is the version that was the #1 RPM county song the last six weeks of 1965.

 

Here is the 1958 rock 'n roll version of "Marjolaine":



It's on Volume 4 of the unauthorized Only In Canada series.

 

Jimmy James was replaced at the #1 spot on the RPM country chart on January 3, 1966, by Diane Leigh's "Shadows Of Your Heart", which would reign for two weeks. It was written by Ray Griff who had had a pop hit the previous year with "That Weepin' Willow Tree" .

 

On the January 17, 1966, RPM country chart, Diane Leigh was replaced at the top by The Rhythm Pals, who often backed up Tommy Hunter. "Iron Town" was #1 for five weeks.

 

"Iron Town" was replaced at #1 on February 21, 1966, by Lucille Starr and Bob Regan who, as The Canadian Sweethearts, would reign for one week with "Don't Knock On My Door", written by Regan.

 

After knocking The Rhythm Pals' "Iron Town" out of the #1 spot on the RPM country chart, The Canadian Sweethearts were themselves displaced from the summit by the flip side of "Iron Town" on February 28, 1966. "This They Say Is Me" would reign for two weeks.

 

On March 14, 1966, The Rhythm Pals were dethroned from their RPM country chart summit by North Bay, Ontario's Irwin Prescott and his version of the 1957 Leroy Van Dyke hit "The Auctioneer".




And then the following week (the same week that they lengthened their main chart from 40 positions to 100), RPM discontinued both its country chart and its 'GMP Guide' adult contemporary chart. The country chart would return on December 5 of that same year. An adult contemporary chart would not return until March of 1969.

 

You know what a rare Rhythm Pals record is? An unsigned copy.

 

Probably the best indication of its French origin, where this seems to be a thing you can do with every name if it's metrically useful (c.f. Frère Jacques.)