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

Rich Little had a picture sleeve too. Given the rarity of picture sleeves at the time, I was going to mention that both had them, but my sentence was already too heavy. Another tangential observation: when we were talking about "Off to Dublin in the Green", I mentioned that Casl Records only released three singles that weren't on the Carlton Showband. This was one of them.

 

Moving into the #1 spot on the RPM country chart for a three-week stay on April 22, 1967, we have "Irena Cheyenne" by Jimmy Ordge from Donalda, Alberta. I think the public would not be as comfortable today with such a song about a "pretty Indian maiden" (or, for that matter, his other #1 country song, 1970's "The Ballad Of Mud-Tuk Annie").






Released in Canada on Apex, it was released in the US on Decca, credited to Jimmy Arthur Ordge. Apex was the in-house label of Compo, owned by Decca. Compo would eventually evolve into MCA Canada.





The version currently available on iTunes is a re-recording.

Jimmy Arthur Ordge made the Billboard country chart once, fourteen years later.

Just as RPM did not chart artists like Lorne Greene, Paul Anka, or Robert Goulet on its Cross Country/Canadian Hits chart, they also did not chart Hank Snow on its country chart during the time from late 1964 to late 1967 when it was a CanCon only chart. During this time period, Hank Snow made the Top 30 of the Billboard country chart seven times.

 

At #4 on April 11 are the Quiet Jungle with "Ship Of Dreams". It would peak at #43 on the top 100 the next week.



Here's the B-side "Everything"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQYE3f-RwJ4

We heard from this Toronto group earlier when they were the Secrets, clearing the track for Eddie Shack and releasing a garage 45 on Arc. They changed their name to avoid being typecast from their hit.


Even though they were now on the Yorkville label, they still did work for Arc Records as one of their go-to artists when it came to churning out quickie exploitation LPs.



Here's their versions of "Mary Mary" and "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wbxo4sW_A

We'll hear more from them with their next single.

 

If thats what their Monkees knockoff sounded like I have GOT to find a copy

 

At #11 on April 8 is some rare Saskatchewan content, the return of Regina's Mel West & The Meteors with "Seventh Saint" b/w "Marilyn". It would reach #58 on the big chart. It would be their only recording on Red Leaf.





It would appear on the group's only LP, What A Wonderful World, which came out in the fall of 1969 on Soundaround International . Eat your hearts out, the Mandala!

 

At #17 on April 22 are The Plague with "Love And Obey"



Here's the B-side "High Flyin' Bird"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq5jhJznYso

The Plague hailed from up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They had released their first single in 1966 on Reo, "The Face Of Time" b/w "We Were Meant To Be". It also got a release in the U.S. on Challenge and in Australia on W & G. The group would evolve into the Jarvis Street Revue (we'll hear from them later).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgXbBPKgwYk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z24Oi0e3QDI

 

"Ship Of Dreams" is on the third volume of the unauthorized Only In Canada series.

 

"The Seventh Saint" is one of four Mel West & The Meteors songs on the oft-mentioned SuperOldies CD, Canada Rock Archives Volume 1.

 

I was six in 1967 and "Ca-na-da" and the year itself was magical for a young person. I play the Bobby Gimby version and the "other" version (which I put up on Youtube 9 years ago) every Canada Day!

 

49. HALF PAST MIDNIGHT
by THE STACCATOS
#1 for 2 weeks: May 6 and 13, 1967




​

By far Les Emmerson's band's biggest hit before "Signs", "Half Past Midnight" hit number eight on the RPM 100. It was so beloved to the band that in 1969, three years after recording their début album and after having made a history-expunging name change to Five Man Electrical Band, they still found space for this two-year-old song (albeit in a rerecorded version that sounds almost identical).

With massive 12-string chords, a clock-aping tick-tock rhythm, a dynamic string arrangement, and a barrelful of group harmonies, it's an attractive sounding single, attractive enough to nab the RPM Annual Music Poll award for Best Produced Single (the Stacattos' second in a row), beating out "Canada" and a lush Ronnie Hawkins single that we'll be getting to in due time. The lyrics are a slightly more adult take on the story of Cinderella (they weren't dancing) that also reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.

Three countries took a chance on "Half Past Midnight": Tower Records put it out in the USA, while Capitol seems to have released it in the UK only as a promotional single. It didn't do much in those other two countries.

Apparently, it was this song that caught Coca-Cola's ears, causing them to move past Bobby Curtola to what is probably the most interesting pop/pop cross-promotion in Canadian history. But we'll get to that in due time.

ON THE PAGES OF RPM: Two things to note. The first is an interesting little passage about censorship:

Well radio stations have entered the censorship business and they should be the last ones to start the ball rolling because it could roll back. A few weeks ago, the controversy began regarding what record companies are allowing out on singles and by playing certain discs BACKWARDS, SLOWER, UPSIDEDOWN or by taping a single and cutting small pieces of the music out, words could be formed that weren't in the best interest of their listeners. I guess if you spend enough time you can read anything into a line on a record. With this as a key, some of the worlds great poetry being taught in grammar school would be lewd and pornographic. Certainly I can think of one station that might examine some of the off colour remarks of their own disc jockeys before they begin dissecting recordings.

The onus of good taste should still remain with the record company. To go further, the onus should go back to the group. If the group does in fact threaten the morality of their fans, then PLAYING THE OTHER SIDE does not make the station any more virtuous. They are then concealing their part in PEDDLING PORNOGRAPHY.

From the standpoint of RPM, we report the action. We are neither critics nor censors. In the communication field, we would not endorse any censorship of any kind because we aren't interested in BEING censored. Stations might find the same philosophy an advantage. Meanwhile record companies must stand behind what they release. They manufacture and distribute the product and they have a great deal more to lose. Finally, the artist and the producer know what they are doing and a good example is the "banana bit" which only came to the attention of many young people when NEWSPAPERS CHOSE to print the story and the RECIPE and THAT was in bad taste. Up till that time I had thought an "electric banana" was a new amplified instrument. I still prefer to think that "PUFF" was just a very catchy song about a dragon.

And secondly... for perhaps a year now, RPM has been issuing their weekly trade journal, but they have also been issuing the RPM 100 separately in the brochure format that was popular for record charts at the time. I don't believe there are any online archives of those, and I wouldn't have thought it would be worthwhile anyway: the RPM 100 is in the trade journal as well, of course. However, it appears that the brochure also featured an article or two, seemingly not in the trade journal. I only know this at all because the cover of the April 29th brochure is reproduced in an advertisement in the May 6 trade journal. And it's a blurb about Jackie Shane, who we've mentioned a few times. I reproduce it here. Note the pronouns, which I leave intact from the original. I do note, however, that in the accompanying image, she is wearing a dress and a very feminine haircut:

Although currently touring in California, Jackie calls Toronto his home. His recording of "Any Other Way" still rates as one of the top selling R&B singles of all time in the Toronto area. Jackie Shane's live performances will long be remembered by thousands of Torontonians who saw him during his ten week engagement at the Saphire Tavern. If R&B fans in Toronto have any say, you can bet your bottom dollar that Jackie Shane will be back in Canada shortly, satisfying souls and handing out soul blessings. Sales of his latest MODERN recording prove that!

 

For a time The Friendly Giant was shown on some U.S. stations (I.I.N.M., it originated in the States before Bob Homme moved up North), as of 1969 then-WNDT (now WNET) Channel 13 in Newark, NJ/New York City. Its last NY metro home, in 1971, was WOR-TV (Channel 9). It disappeared from Channel 13's airwaves around the same time a new type of children's program debuted - Sesame Street.

Meanwhile, another guy who hosted a children's show for a time in Canada came back to his native land to debut a show - first local (Pittsburgh) area, then nationally via NET first and then PBS - Fred Rogers, with what started out as MisteRogers' Neighborhood, then changed after 1970 to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The format was pretty much worked out during his days hosting MisteRogers in Canada.

 

During 1961 and part of 1962, New York's Times Square was home to a promo film for Canada that ran in a loop over the EPOK screen on the northeast block of Broadway and West 46th Street. By 1967, however, that EPOK was taken up by Bulova's Accutron watch (with a time display near the bottom of the EPOK screen). There was an article online about that Canada film, and how it served to stimulate tourism Up North.

 

That label indicates a pressing by Decca's Pinckneyville, IL plant. Gloversville, NY would have had a way different layout. And the Apex single was pressed in Cornwall, ON.

 

There is, of course, a third player in the triptych of great American/Canadian childrens' entertainers: Ernie Coombs, who worked as Fred Rogers' assistant, followed him to Canada for Misterogers, and decided to stay in Canada when his boss returned to the USA. He went on to a decades-long career as Mr. Dressup, my personal childhood favourite (if not the Polka Dot Door).

 

I could listen to this song all day! I much prefer the mono mix over the stereo, which IMHO loses a lot of the 'oomph'. "Half Past Midnight" was recorded partly in Montreal and partly in Toronto over a total of four recording sessions. The Staccotos performed the song in the presence of the 41-year old queen at Ottawa's Landsdowne Park during her centennial year visit.

Even though "Half Past Midnight" was shown as the #1 song for two weeks on RPM's 'Canadian Hits' chart, it was never the top ranked Canadian song on the main RPM 100 chart, thanks to Bobby Gimby. In fact "Ca-Na-Da" was the highest ranked Canadian song on the RPM 100 for an astounding seventeen weeks, from March 11 until, appropriately, July 1 (although it was only #48 that week, no other Canadian song was ranked higher). During that seventeen week timeframe, three partially-Canadian acts did at various times rank higher (Mamas & Papas, Lovin' Spoonful, Buffalo Springfield).

"Canada" and "Half Past Midnight" were the only two Canadian songs to peak on the main RPM chart at a position higher than #17 during the entire calendar year of 1967. As an indication of how times have changed, there are five songs by Canadians in the top 17 of the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 right now.

I've been trying to think of even one Canadian song that make the US Billboard Hot 100 during the entire year of 1967, and I can't think of one.

 

On the May 13, 1967, RPM country chart, "Uncle Tom" by The Mercey Brothers moved into the #1 spot. After three weeks, it fell out of the #1 spot, only to return to the summit two weeks later for an additional three weeks.

 

It is rather odd that the two main stars of Canadian children's television during my childhood, The Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup, were both Americans.

 

And several of the most popular children's musical entertainers of the same era - Raffi; Sharon, Lois and Bram; Fred Penner; and even Anne Murray (There's a Hippo in My Tub) were Canadian. When you add animation studios like Nelvana and the NFB into the picture, there's probably an interesting book to be written about Canadian/American co-operation in children's entertainment.

 

On the May 6, 1967, main RPM chart, The Paupers peaked at #21 with "Simple Deed". It had spent the previous two weeks at its peak position of #3 on the 'Canadian Hits' chart.





Its parent album, Magic People, would be released on July 1, 1967. I guess there was nothing else going on that day. The album reached #178 on the Billboard album chart. It has been issued on CD (with two bonus tracks) by Pacemaker:
Paupers - Magic People - Pacemaker Entertainment

 

"Simple Dee" would be the last Paupers single to chart in Canada on the Top 100, Top Canadian singles, or CHUM chart. The next three singles would contain songs from Magic People. The second of these, the title song of the album, would make the Top 30 in San Francisco (on KYA and KRFC). It would be released in a picture sleeve in the U.S.





Two singles from their second LP Ellis Island would get the picture sleeve treatment in Europe. "Cairo Hotel" (Germany) and "South Down Road" (France).



The Paupers story is covered in depth here:
The Paupers | Garage Hangover

 

At #5 on May 13 (peaking at #43 on the big chart the same week) is Susan Taylor with a cover of Tim Hardin's "Don't Make Promises" on Yorkville Records.





She made appearances on the TV show After Four and worked as the record librarian at Toronto's CKFH (owned by hockey announcer Foster Hewitt).


She released one more single, "If You Love Me" with another Tim Hardin cover on the flipside ("Reason To Believe"). It didn't chart, and she disappeared from the music scene (according to a Youtube comment, becoming a schoolteacher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWKU6GkqcQ

 

On May 13, at #20, is another garage band from Ottawa, the Skaliwags with "Me Minus More" b/w "Broken Man Am I". Neither is on Youtube, they can be found here:
Skaliwags - Broken Man I Am b/w Me Minus More (green label)



This was their second 45, the first, "365 Days A Year" was released on the tiny local Excellent label the previous year.



The B-side was "Turn Him Down"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8gQZDpJc8

"Me Minus More" , originally the B-side, was a out of character from their usual sound. But local DJ's liked it better, and it charted at #35 at CFRA. (Hmm... one week in the Top 40 at one station gets you in the Canadian Top 20, but a month in the Top 10 in Vancouver doesn't do the trick for the Painted Ship.)

The Skaliwags | Garage Hangover

 

Hearing this again nearly made me cry. As I may have mentioned, I moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from the States with my parents and late brother in 1966. The Centennial was indeed a very big deal during my first full year in Canada. I now live in the States and, since I am not a dual citizen, figuring out how to get across the border to see my aged mother during the pandemic has been difficult. I don't know that I could ever live in SK again, but it will always live in me.

 

You know who Foster Hewitt is, right? Only the man who gave us those immortal words "he shots, he scores"!