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

Here's Mickey Posner's "Lost":

Then you know one more thing about him than I do.

 

"Control Of Me" is on Volume 2 of the unauthorized Only In Canada series, "Cry Your Eyes Out" is on Volume 3, and "Watching The World Go By" is on Volume 9 (all dubbed from vinyl), but I'm not aware of any of these songs being issued legitimately on anything other than the 45s.

"Control Of Me" reached #51 in Billboard. Of all Five Man Electrical Band/Staccatos singles, only "Sings" and "Absolutely Right" charted higher. It also reached #26 on its Adult Contemporary chart, on which the band never appeared. For a 1973 #51 Billboard hit to never have been issued on an LP or CD is highly unusual.

 

And now the time has come to put RPM's short-lived French language chart to rest.

On March 10, 1973, Michel Pagliaro's "J'entends frapper" was replaced at #1 by Sherbrooke native Michele Richard's "La vie a deux":





The next two issues did not include a French language chart, as RPM devoted most of these two issues to coverage of the Junos.

 

The French language chart returned on March 31, 1973. The #1 song was "Un Matin" by Claire Syril. Born in Italy, she also spent part of her childhood in France and North Africa before moving to Quebec in 1967.



"Un Matin" was the last CanCon #1 on RPM's French language chart. After no chart was published in the April 7 and April 14 issues, a final chart appeared in the April 21 issue, on which the top spot was occupied by Frenchman Michel Fugain.

RPM would continue to exist for another 27 years, but it would never again publish a French language chart.

 

You Are What I Am : I love it but I can see why it didn't become a big pop hit. With the banjo and steel guitar, this might have been a little too country for top 40.

Pretty City Lady : This was a staple on our local oldies station during the 90s. Definitely a departure from the horn driven sound that Lighthouse had been known for. Speaking of Lighthouse.....

You Girl : This is one of the songs that embodies what the band was all about. It has elements of rock, jazz, classical and even some r&b yet it brings these elements together in a cohesive manner.

Follow Your Daughter Home : This has a breezy Caribbean flavor to it.

(Isn't Love Unkind) In My Life : Nice song but it does sound like a conscious attempt to come with "Make Me Do Anything You Want Part II".

 

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Canadian copies of this exist on Lion as well . . .

. . . but here is the U.S. ish, in any case . . .

 

I'd meant to mention that. Huh. Seems I got lost in the labyrinth of a confusing paragraph and couldn't come up for air.

In any case, note it was still distributed by Polydor.

 

And this is the point. In May 1972, MGM sold its records division to PolyGram (parent of Polydor) who had a 10-year window to use the MGM Records name. So, yes, technically Polydor was distributor in both the US and Canada.

 

Ohhhhh... that explains so very much! Thanks for that.

 

Just missing being the top Canadian song for the week of April 14, 1973, "A Touch Of Magic" by James Leroy at #6 In the U.S. it was top ten in Buffalo, top 30 in Detroit.






On Keith Hampshire's Music Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBs-8gFs-yw

The B-side "Comin' On Home"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAqDTUgXEE



James Leroy was from Ottawa. His backing band, called the James Leroy Band, included a couple of people who made the RPM charts with other bands, Gary Comeau (The Esquires) and Val Tuck (Canada Goose). The band would undergo a name change with the release of their debut album, we'll get to that with their next single.

 

That was one of the sides of the GRT Record Pressing (Nashville) copy. Here's both sides from CBS Pitman, NJ:

 

At #9 the same week, "A Good Song" by Valdy.



The B-side "MM-MM-MM-MM"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T18po9fQxsg



Quincy Jones liked "A Good Song" so much he used it (and "A Country Man") in Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway, then recorded a cover version under the title "Just A Man" on his 1974 album Body Heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSBYZBAkD4



A Good Song by Valdy –

 

Exactly. Especially since before 1972, Quality was the Canadian distributor for MGM product.

 

At #24 the same week of April 14, "Ice On The Road" by Fergus.



The B-side "Ride Alone"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpvGC1BZLzE




Both songs were on the second album for Fergus Hambleton, Town Of Fergus (#55 across Canada)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plbWPHRz9gk



Another song from the LP, a cool cover of "The World Turns All Around Her" by the Byrds, had been the previous single before "Ice On The Road"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZvcVNs-iw0

 

At #26 the same week, "You're Still The One" by Copper Penny, #16 at Toronto's CHUM.





The B-side "Call Me" had been originally released as the A-side of a single (b/w "Marketplace") in 1972 on Detroit's Luv Records. Here's that version, it was re-recorded for the new single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfBJbIxWYcg

 

Same week of April 14, "Everyday Working Man" by Ginette Reno at #32.





The B-side "Can't Let You Walk Out Of My Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRorFa85i3o

It would be her last release on Parrot.

 

The same week, "Life Line" b/w "Manassas Junction" on G.A.S. Records by John Bennett



Neither song is on Youtube, nor can I find any information about John Bennett. Discogs is wrong, I don't think this John Bennett was the trombonist for Kenny Ball's Jazzmen.

 

At #75 the same week of April 14, R. Dean Taylor with "Shadow".



Here's the original A-sound, "Taos, New Mexico". It made it to #48 in April of 1972, but I managed to miss it because it didn't have a MAPL wheel (but the B-side would later). It was #83 in Billboard and top ten in Vancouver (#4 CKLG, #6 CKVN), #25 at Toronto's CKFH and #27 at Windsor's CKLW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOcZvGCaldw

Taos New Mexico by R. Dean Taylor –

German picture sleeve



Spain



The Netherlands



The lyrics of "Taos, New Mexico" deal with a man in jail, while the lyrics of "Shadow" perhaps explains why he is there. No wonder Indiana wants him.

 

Thanks. This one won't come up for a few weeks, but do you have "Super Do Nothin' Day" by Rick Livingston? I can't find it.

 

I wonder if he wrote his lyrics with an open Atlas of the USA in front of him.

 

Generally, I only have a song if it made the Top 40. I don't know the Rick Livingston song at all, but it peaks my interest enough to try and search for it. With a title like "Super Do Nothin' Day", it's probably either a really great song or something really, really terrible.

The Fergus "Ice On The Road" single runs 3:05 and is simply an early fade of the LP version.

 

It sort of sounds like a song that would have been written for the Brady Bunch to sing.

 

I don't really have a whole lot of material highlighted in the thread, but I have the Town of Fergus LP. Not sure whether the artist really is from Fergus ...

 

135. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS
by SUSAN JACKS
LONDON L. 182
Highest ranking for 3 weeks: April 21 (6) and 28 (3) and May 5 (3), 1973



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The liner notes for the Poppy Family compilation A Good Thing Lost: 1968-1973 were written by Terry Jacks and say the following about this song: "We recorded this song in Vancouver in 1972. This is the last year Susan and I were together. Our marriage started to crumble and so did the Poppy Family. The magic was disappearing."

In other words, he had nothing to say about the song. A gorgeous melody with double-tracked vocals by Susan that are perhaps a bit too redolent of early Poppy Family singles, "You Don't Know What Love Is" was, of course, not a Poppy Family song. Well, in a way at least. As we previously saw with Terry, the Jackses were still a married couple (for a little while longer) and were still musical partners - just not under that particular name. Terry had launched a plan to record music together but release the results under each of their names as solo artists. And so it was that "You Don't Know What Love Is", written by Terry Jacks (together with Bob Nelson) and "produced and arranged by Terry Jacks for Poppy Family Productions Ltd.", came out not as a Poppy Family song but as Susan Jacks' first solo single.

Er... except in the USA. London in Canada and Decca in the UK released the song as a solo single, but in the USA, London gave the artist credit as "Susan Jacks and the Poppy Family". It's a bit of a moot question in any case: in the final days of its existence, the Poppy Family was not a functioning quartet but merely the Jacks family anyway. And both of the people to bear that surname are present and accounted for on this single. So... what difference does it make, right?

In any case, as we can see from Terry's notes above, even if they hadn't yet filed for divorce, Terry and Susan's marriage was in dire straits. So what does it mean when your husband, who you're struggling with, writes a song for you to sing called "You Don't Know What Love Is"? It's all but impossible to read the lyrics as anything but autobiographical. But is Terry describing Susan's shortcomings and then - cruelly - getting her to sing them (regendered)? Or is he attempting to confess his own shortcomings by putting these words in his wife's mouth?

In any case, it was Susan's last single on London before the launch of Goldfish Records. As I mentioned above, only Canada, the UK and the USA released it, and none with a picture sleeve.

 

Only one known variant of the U.S. ish exists, both in promo and stock form, pressed by PRC of Richmond, IN: