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

It was in 1974 that Big Tree Records switched distribution from Bell to Atlantic. Big Tree's founder, Doug Morris, was credited as producer here.

 

Yeah, not the April Wine. But most of these are completely unknown to me. Not unusual in this thread but not being on CKLW was usual.
Beaver hours eh?

 

Wow, there's a person with an illustrious career. The MAPL logo says it was produced in Canada. I wonder if he was active as actual producer or just more of an "executive producer" capacity.

 

Well it's right up there with Charlene & Stevie Wonder "Used To Be"

 

Was it popular in Korea?
I have a CD of the Craig Ruhnke Band with this track on it - from South Korea. Probably didn't chart in the North.

 

Notice I said he was credited. This does not necessarily mean he actually produced it, given what you said about where it was produced.

 

I heard that one for the first time just yesterday.

 

Is it safe?

 

Not necessarily those connotations. Probably more refers to:

but not necessarily

 

​

Ick. 'Nuff said.

 

Another 45 I went out and bought. Those upwards-flying guitar motifs always reminded me of (from a few years earlier) No Time by the Move as well as (from a few years later) Like One Thousand Violins by One Thousand Violins.

I just listened to the B-side -- maybe even for the first time -- and it's very nice!

 

At #66 the same week of August 24, "Good Day" by Lighthouse



The B-side "Going Downtown"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLjn-fWgwhQ



Both songs were from the final Lighthouse album Good Day. It would reach #40 during a 15 week stay, the first LP of theirs not to make the top twenty since they left RCA Victor. Skip Prokop (now on guitar rather than drums) would be the only band member on the cover of the Canada edition, the rest of the world got a different cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiExg32kQWw&t=2178s





Only three original members were still in the band (Prokop, Ralph Cole and Don DiNovo; Paul Hoffert now served as Executive Producer), the lineup including the two Australian immigrants (Terry Wilkins and Sam See) from Flying Circus. Skip Prokop, tired of life on the road, would leave the band later in the year. Ralph Cole would re-form Lighthouse at the start of 1975, retaining only himself and Dale Hillary from the Good Day lineup. Previous members Ian Guenther and Louis Yachnin would return, Billy Ledster (Illustration, Man Made) was the new lead singer, plus some local musicians. The band would last to the end of 1975.



Ralph Cole would re-form the band again (debuting in Kitchener May 1, 1978) with Hillary, Yachnin, and others including lead singer Alan Staniforth and Moe Koffman's son Herbie on trumpet. This version lasted about a year. The most famous lineup would reunite at Ontario Place in September of 1982 (One Fine Weekend):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1BtwoDVSqQ&t=2569s

Skip Prokop will return in this thread as part of one of the biggest instances of hype in the Canadian music industry during the 1970s.

 

At #27 for the first of two weeks the week of August 31, Scotland's Nazareth with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight"





French picture sleeve



Yugoslavia



Germany and Austria



It didn't chart in the U.S. like it did in Canada, but was a smash in Europe: #1 in Germany, #2 in Austria, #5 in Switzerland, #11 in the U.K.

This Flight Tonight - Wikipedia

Nazareth's version would also inspire another "CanCon" hit:
https://youtu.be/7MR28NW1sLM?t=148

 

At #66 for the first of two weeks the week of August 31, Susan Jacks with "I Want You To Love Me". It was #7 on the Pop Music Playlist and a top twenty hit at Ottawa's CFGO. The B-side "I Thought Of You Again" was the previous A-side, it later would be recycled again.

 

At #52 the week of September 7, Tinker's Moon with "Shang-A-Lang". It had substantial regional action despite its nation wide showing (this is starting to become a theme): #6 at CKLG, #23 at CHUM, #24 at CKLW. In the U.S. it reached #111 in Record World



The B-side "I'm Sad"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHCBQrRx0k



"Shang-A-Lang" was originally a U.K. #2 hit for the Bay City Rollers in the spring of 1974. Tinker's Moon was a collection of Montreal studio musicians, produced by Ben Kaye. The follow-up tried to mine the same formula, "Ting A Ling Ding" b/w "Now That Summer's Over" but didn't chart. The one after that one would.



Shang-A-Lang by Tinker's Moon - 1974 Hit Song - Vancouver Pop Music Signature Sounds

 

At #70 the week of September 7, "A New Rock And Roll" by Mahogany Rush. It reached #24 at Windsor's CKLW and #37 at KIMN in Denver.



B-side "Child Of The Novelty"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVfpcHMxWg



Child Of The Novelty was the title of the band's second album (two weeks at #83 in Canada, #74 in Billboard)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbTpBAn1kwA



Mahogany Rush was led by Montreal guitarist Frank Marino:
Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush -Band History

They would release their first album Maxoom in 1972 when Marino was still just 17 years old on the local Kot'Ai label (#76 in RPM, #159 in Billboard)



This was their one and only time on the top 100, they would release several more albums that would chart in both Canada and the U.S.

 

At #76 the same week of September 7, Charity Brown with a cover of the Martha & The Vandellas hit "Jimmy Mack"





The B-side "Elijah Stone"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NsEjeTOlmQ

"Elijah Stone" was originally the B-side of "More Than Missing You" which had ben released in 1973 under the name Phyllis Brown




She came from Kitchener ON with the name of Phyllis Boltz, changing her last name to Brown when she began singing with a local band Rain, known for the #22 hit "Out Of My Mind"

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


She will have many more hits.

 

At #82 the same week of September 7, for the first of two weeks, Bolt Upright with "Love You Back To Georgia". The 92nd biggest song of 1974 in Sydney, NS







In the U.S. A&M was so scandalized by the group's name they were renamed Savannah



The B-side "Love Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFa_IbEH46M

The bands full name was Bolt Upright and the Erections, Bolt Upright was Mike O'Reilly who was an Ottawa disk jockey. The band did 1950s parodies.
Mike O'Reilly Retires as Mc at the Tottenham Bluegrass Festival - The Tottenham Bluegrass Festival - Official Site of the Tottenham Bluegrass Festival

Video from 1984 with Les Emmerson in the band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOeaKmqxwM

 

At #66 for the first of two weeks the week of September 14, "Love Will Get You" by Vancouver's Jayson Hoover, the third release by Mushroom Records.



B-side "Sing With Soul"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJ8eziDUso&t=17s




He's been covered earlier in this thread:
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

He will have one more hit with an album to accompany it.

 

A slight diversion...I posted what were the second and third singles released on Vancouver's Mushroom Records, "I Believe" by Songbird and "Love Will Get You" by Jayson Hoover. So what was first? "Hands Across The Dining Room Table" b/w "Do As You Will" by Alexis Rose Radlin.



B-side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G53Q9jOX3Eg



Her second single, and Mushroom's fourth, was "Everybody Knows" b/w "Canada You're A Lady"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0BJjNHlTHw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofZY5tDlMrM

She also had the first album released by Mushroom, Alexis




Alexis Radlin was from Windsor, she moved West to start her musical career. Her LP featured many of Vancouver's top studio talents: Steve Douglas (producer), Mike Flicker (engineer), Howard Leese, Robbie King, Duris Maxwell, Kat Hendriske, Doug Edwards and top Americans like Billy Strange, Hal Blaine and Al Casey. Her touring band consisted of Jerry Doucette, Tom Lavin, Maxwell and Les Law (Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck). A negative review of the album in the May 16, 1975 Vancouver Sun noted:

Radlin would release one more LP, also titled Alexis, on Radio Canada International in 1978.

 

Some artists manage to alienate both their band musicians and their record company. It seems our local Alexis Radlin can't walk twenty feet without stepping on as many toes.
Wow a seriously rude review. Actually sounds like the reviewer had a personal grudge.

 

154. ROCK ME GENTLY, PART 1
by ANDY KIM
ICE IC. 1
Highest ranking for 1 week: September 21 (1), 1974




​

Over a decade removed from his first 7" single release, Andy Kim's career had ground to a halt. After Jeff Barry's Steed Records closed up shop, he signed to Uni Records for a one-album contract that yielded no hits (except in Canada). When that contract expired, he found himself with no label at all. "I never mentally admitted defeat in spite of those three years off the charts," he said. And he proved it here, by ponying up the cash for the studio session (and expensive studio players) that produced this song and by co-founding (with his brother Joe Joachim) his very own label, Ice Records, to put the song out there.

It's a truly remarkable story, though I want to voice my confusion at this point. During his teen-singing days, Kim was of course based in New York. For his Uni contract, he followed his ex-boss Barry to Los Angeles, and "Rock Me Gently" was also recorded in Los Angeles. I would presume that L.A. is where Kim was living at this point, but all indications are that Ice Records was entirely a Canadian entity. Ice Records would release all of his material north of the border for the next ten years (under any of several pseudonyms), while the material would appear in the USA and internationally under licence to other labels or, most frequently, not at all. I wonder why this was the case.

While the instrumentation and the sound design indicates that half a decade has gone by, the song's melody and overall composition, to say nothing of Kim's voice as well (though mercifully playing at the correct speed), is very much in the vein of the bubblegum music with which Kim made his name as a teenage assistant to Jeff Barry in New York. The main reason that the song is adult contemporary now is that 1968's teenagers were now 1974's young adults. The navel-gazing of Kim's Uni Records phase is conspicuous in its absence here. Kim is not contemplating the existence of God here; he's merely singing a catchy song.

There is only one song on the single. The story goes that Kim only had enough money to finance a single song in the studio, putting an instrumental version on the b-side. While the b-side, oddly identified as "part II" like it's a James Brown single or something, does indeed strip out Kim's vocals to replace them with a farting synthesiser line, it's not accurate to describe the result as an "instrumental", since the background vocalists are still there, performing the entirety of the chorus. It's interesting, then, that when Capitol got involved, putting the song out in the USA and a range of other countries as well, they kept the original b-side. It even appeared on his sole Capitol Records album, his second in a row to be named Andy Kim (it came out in Canada on Ice).

How, then, did Capitol get involved? Apparently, it's as simple as this: Capitol heard the song, were impressed, and inked a deal with Kim to release the song outside of Canada. It wound up hitting number one on Billboard one week after it did on RPM, the fourth of five Canadian number-ones in the USA. Only two songs spent a week each at number one on Billboard between Paul Anka and Andy Kim: Eric Clapton and Barry White.

Incidentally, it's interesting that the only week that "Rock Me Gently" was the highest-ranking Canadian song on the RPM 100 was the week that it was at number one (incredibly, its 18th week on the chart). The week before (September 14), it sat at number three behind "I Shot the Sheriff" and "(You're) Having My Baby", while the week after (September 28), it dropped precipitously from number 1 to number 9, supplanted by the song we'll be talking about tomorrow.

The label of the Ice issue of the Andy Kim album indicated that it was distributed by London Records. The singles from that album were as well (Joe wasn't really travelling across the country with a stack of seven-inches in his trunk), but there's no indication of such on the label itself. It's RPM's coding system that makes it clear. It's interesting that there are two songs in 1974 that fit this description: "the first single released by a certain Canadian artist on his own record label distributed by London, picked up in the USA by a major and taken to number one on Billboard."

The power of Capitol, and the power of a number one on Billboard, got this song released in all kinds of places: Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the UK, the USA, and of course Canada - the only indie release. Eight picture sleeves below. It's interesting that in the Netherlands (and Spain as well, though there's no decent image of it), the Capitol release was illustrated with an image from the cover of an album that was released on an entirely different label.

SUR LES PALMARÈS DU QUÉBEC: And the wheel keeps on turning... while preparing my marathon write-up of "Seasons in the Sun", I was unaware of this further level of ridiculousness... instead of merely covering Brel, Jacques Amar has taken a French song translated into English... and translated it back to French! The end result is "Adieu la vie, adieu soleil", sonically a straight imitation of Terry Jacks (key changes and all).

It was followed by Jacques Boulanger of Montréal, who apparently sometimes released material under the name "Bou Bou", with a countryish take on "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" entitled "On a tous besoin d'un grand amour". It was followed by the slightly hokey but well-meaning "Winnipeg" by Pierre Lalonde. These songs each managed only one week at the top.

Two weeks at the top is Ginette Reno, singing in her mother tongue, with "Des croissants de soleil", a cutesy song that has over a million views on Youtube (astronomical numbers for 45-year-old Québécois songs). It was followed by the quite enjoyable flute-led "Roméo et Julianne" (which Youtube insists I spelt wrong). Anderssen was French-born but took up residence in la Belle Province in 1970. Observing a trend here, it was followed by "Théo et Antoinette", an intriguing if lachrymose ditty by Jean-Pierre Manseau.

Fully ten years before an English translation was deemed so annoying that it was actually banned by the BBC for annoyingness, Patrick Zabé gave the world his take on "Agadou dou dou", apparently an adaptation of a Moroccan song that in 1974 was used in ads for Club Med. 2.4 million masochists have used Youtube to get their fix of it.

An all-star duo of Jean-Pierre Ferland and Ginette Reno hit the number one for five weeks with "T'es mon amour, t'es ma maîtresse", a song with pretty orchestration if little character. It was released in France with a picture sleeve depicting a drawing of a female form with a fleur-de-lis over its crotch. The last song we'll be looking at today is another duet, Nicole Martin and Jimmy Bond with "On est fait pour vivre ensemble", a rather repetitive mid-tempo song in 6/8.

BELGIUM:



FRANCE #1:



FRANCE #2:



GERMANY:

 

ITALY:



JAPAN:



THE NETHERLANDS:



PORTUGAL: