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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bunglejerry, Aug 17, 2020.

  1. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #64 for the first of two weeks the week of July 15, Bruce Cockburn with "One Day I Walk"



    The B-side "High Winds White Sky"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuhKatZY_kU

    His second LP for True North, also named High Winds White Sky

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    His next chart hit would come in 1979, with a track from his ninth album
     
    jalexander likes this.
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    One of the first on the Canadian ABC/Dunhill label. That RCA distributed it was ironic - insofar as, in the U.S., ABC was once the Blue Network and, until 1943, was owned by RCA along with NBC. (The story of how RCA was forced to divest of it is interesting in and of itself - but is outside the scope of this thread.)

    Here now is the U.S. label:
    [​IMG]
     
    bunglejerry likes this.
  3. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    There are many songs I originally disliked and have become more fond of over the years, but Do I Love You must be the #1 example because I really disliked it when it was current but I really love it now, what with that glorious orchestration ...

    Am I crazy or is there more than one vocal take for the song? Every version I hear nowadays has several little vocal hiccups (classic example is on "the good Lord is kind") scattered throughout, whereas I'm sure the hit version in '71 had the vocal played straight from end to end. Or maybe I just always changed the station back in the day because one verse was enough :p
     
  4. Mr. D

    Mr. D Forum Resident

    In 1971, I was six years old. I was just starting to be conscious of popular music. My mom, who was only 26, always had A.M. radio on but because we lived on the border, she tended to favour the Buffalo stations. My dad owned a variety store and he had the radio tuned to the local a.m. station CJRN. I was struck that CJRN tended to play different songs than my mom's station and on a somewhat frequent basis.

    There was one song that CJRN played regularly that I really liked. It had a catchy melody (not that I knew what melody was then). Even at a young age the song conveyed to me a sense of freedom and driving in a car on a summer's day. I also had some inkling that the song sounded like the Beatles, who I had a vague knowledge of being the most important band ever.

    After awhile, I stopped hearing that song. Obviously, it was no longer a hit and had fallen out of rotation...not that I knew that circa 1972. As time went on, the melody slipped from my mind and the song was forgotten...

    Until one Sunday, probably a close to two decades later, I had on Psychedelic Sunday on Q107 and I heard it! That two minutes and 39 seconds of pure pop bliss.

    I discovered what that beautiful sound from my childhood was:

     
    bekayne and bunglejerry like this.
  5. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #68 the week of January 15, Aarons & Ackley with "Devil Song"



    The B-side "There Is A Lady"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i5ZkVEFqlY

    The band consisted of two American expatriates, Chuck Aarons (Cleveland OH) and Jime Ackley (Portland OR), who met in Toronto. They released a self-titled debut album in the spring of 1971 on Capitol, it would spend over 20 weeks on RPM's album chart
    Aarons And Ackley* - ST

    [​IMG]

    U.S. cover

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    They released a follow-up You & I in 1972

    [​IMG]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aciOLZqJmg

    The duo moved to GRT and released two more singles:
    "Where Did The Music Go" b/w "Victim Of Sorrow" (1974) and "Detective Of Love" b/w "Beverly" (1976)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azaXKajrw6E

    Jim Ackley returned to the U.S. after Carter's Draft Amnesty, going to L.A. to produce disco (such as "Boogie Butt" by Skylite).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAQGAQ9knVI

    The last mention for Chuck Aarons on discogs is playing guitar on the notorious Rocky Pamplin (former Beach Boy bodyguard, Playgirl model) album.

    Canadian Bands.com - Aarons & Ackley
     
  6. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #83 (six weeks in the top 100), Aaron Space with "Keep On Moving" b/w "The Visitor" on Warner Bros.



    [​IMG]

    The band was from Sudbury, both songs were on their self titled debut album.

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Aaron Space - ST

    There would be one more single, "Marsha" b/w "When She Smiles" that did not chart.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    119. NO GOOD TO CRY
    by THE POPPY FAMILY
    LONDON L.164
    Highest ranking for 2 weeks: January 22 (8) and 29 (10), 1972




    [​IMG]
    Connecticut garage rock band the Wildweeds put out the song "No Good to Cry" in 1967. The instantly memorable composition by bandleader Al Anderson was covered a few times before Susan and Terry Jacks got to it, including a wonderful psych cover by the Moving Sidewalks, featuring a certain Billy Gibbons on vocals and lead guitar.

    Al Anderson, I should mention, went onto a two-decade career with the NRBQ before moving into country music and penning songs for an impressive list of country all-stars. This early track of his was a regional hit, getting to number one on the local radio station. It had a bit of success in some markets, but it didn't break out nationally. To say nothing of internationally. There was only one radio station in Canada where it charted. As it happens, that was Vancouver. Home of the Poppy Family.

    Terry Jacks composed all twelve tracks on the Poppy Family's début album by himself. Every single a-side, including the two under his own name, had also been self-composed. And yet when it came to the Poppy Family's second and final album Poppy Seeds, only half of the twelve songs were Terry Jacks originals. The other six were covers, including this current single. Writer's block? Too much pressure? Who knows. The covers were well-chosen, oddly mostly from the American folk-country canon. This cover was the opening track on the album. Susan sings it solo, having switched the appropriate pronouns from the male-sung original. It's taken at more or less the same tempo as the original, but the overall feel is much softer and less abrasive. Susan sings it about as well as any other song in the Poppy Family catalogue.

    The b-side of the single, a slightly lopsided 6/8 composition featuring an acoustic guitar, electric piano and an insistent tabla (by who, though?), is also beautifully sung by Susan. It's called "I'll See You There", and it managed to give the Poppy Family something that neither the a-side nor any of the previous singles had been able to give them: a number one on what is still being called a MOR "Playlist" (is it a chart or not, damn it?).

    London put the single out in Canada and the USA, while Decca put it out in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Anglophone countries all, there's nary a picture sleeve to be had. I can't recall the last time I didn't have a foreign picture sleeve to show.
     
    Paul C and bekayne like this.
  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    A U.S. label variant, this one typeset by Stoughton Printing of City of Industry, CA and pressed by Monarch:
    [​IMG]
     
  9. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    The Poppy Family's version made it to #84 in Billboard (Top 30 on two Seattle stations)
    No Good To Cry by The Poppy Family –

    The original (#13 at Vancouver's CKLG, #18 on CFUN's Funtastic Fifty):



    No Good To Cry by The Wildweeds –

    And the Moving Sidewalks
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O05XovOqTk

    Also covered by Jimmy James & The Vagabonds (charted in the U.K. on Radio London)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72AsvI-m7UQ

    [​IMG]

    Tobi Legend aka Tobi Lark (we heard her earlier with "We're All In This Together")
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe0_k-p_Mlc

    [​IMG]

    The Uniques
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuqL5nl2BjA

    Hourglass (with Greg and Duane Allman)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8xLQcn7YI8

    Cannonball
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqfrqnMIvQk

    The Fuzzy Bunnies
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaUezSFozQc

    [​IMG]

    John Fred and His Playboys
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdvybbajRcc
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  10. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    The B-side "I'll See You There" (45 edit)



    The LP version was about 45 seconds longer
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eVdHwcMnbE

    [​IMG]

    Poppy Seeds reached #16 in Canada, spending five months on the charts. Slight colour difference between the Canuck (first) and U.S. versions.

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  11. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #12 the week of January 15, 1972, "Take It Slow (Out In The Country)" b/w "Sweet Lullabye" by Lighthouse. It would reach #64 in Billboard (Top Ten in Cleveland, Top Twenty in Buffalo).



    On the Kenny Rogers-hosted TV show Rollin'
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsbRKv4tT5o

    It would get picture sleeves in Germany

    [​IMG]

    And the Netherlands

    [​IMG]
    The A-side would be on their new LP, Thoughts Of Movin' On, released mere months after One Fine Morning. It would peak at #11 in RPM, #157 in Billboard, and #75 in Cashbox.

    [​IMG]

    UK cover by Roger Dean on Vertigo

    [​IMG]

    Japanese cover

    [​IMG]
     
  12. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #76 the same week, the Perth County Conspiracy with "Uncle Jed", which we heard earlier when a version by the Creamcheeze Goodtime Band charted.



    The original A-side was a cover of "You Ain't Going Nowhere"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihfqEOW9RT8

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    So, continuing the story of the Perth County Conspiracy (which, remember, does not exist!)...the first Columbia album was well received, so the record company wants the group to put out a live album, and quickly.

    Richard Keelan
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Alive (a double album which was essentially the same length as the previous LP) would peak at #72, but the group's time with a major label was over.
     
  13. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    To continue the story...
    The next album, known as both Rumour (the name of the label) and What School Bus Tour, was privately pressed by the group in 1973. It came with different covers, inserts, some even came with a feather.



    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Several songs from the previous album were done in collaboration with poet Milton Acorn, this would continue with their next album which would be recorded behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin during February of 1975. In Canada it would be called Break Out To Berlin, and released in East Germany as Kanada on the Amiga label.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnhY8etr4Xo

    [​IMG]

    The Perth County story would wind down in 1977, over the years there were offshoots and collaborations too numerous to mention.
    Richard Keelan
    [​IMG]

    Here's a CBC-Radio documentary on them
    https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2166395539
     
    bunglejerry likes this.
  14. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    Silly Perthies... don't they know that the best way to record your album in a Toronto church is live to two-track around a single mic?
     
    jalexander and bekayne like this.
  15. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #22 the week of January 29, "Out Of My Mind" b/w "You're The One" by Rain. It was released as a promo in the U.S. on Bell.



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



    [​IMG]


    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    The group came from Kitchener ON, with Phyllis Boltz as lead singer. They were signed to a management deal with our old friend Greg Hambleton, who would co-write and produce "Out Of My Mind". As his Axe label was not up and running yet, it would be released on London in the summer of 1971. It initially peaked at #87, but would re-climb the charts in the winter (#19 at CHUM). We'll hear more from them with their next charting single and debut album, by which time Phyllis Boltz will be known as Phyllis Brown (and later than that, Charity Brown).

    [​IMG]

    "Out Of My Mind would be re-issued on Axe Records in 1977 as "Rain With Charity Brown". Around that time, the song would gain a great deal of popularity in the Northern Soul scene in the U.K.
     
    Paul C likes this.
  16. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #27 the same week of January 29, Billy Mysner with "Little Ol' Rock 'N' Roll Band" on Astra Records



    [​IMG]

    It would come out in the UK (two different pressings) and Australia on Polydor, and in the U.S. on Alshire International. It would be a regional hit in Orlando FL

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Billy Mysner was Bill Misener who first came to notice under the name of Bill Marion, original lead singer for the Paupers. His doings since leaving the Paupers were covered in this post
    Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

    A self-titled LP would come out in 1973 on the Grit label, "Letting You Be You" from the album would reach #70 on RPM's Adult Contemporary chart that summer.

    [​IMG]

    He would continue as a musician, he would sing (as Bill Misener) the English language version of the official song for the 1976 Canada Cup, "Come On Let's Play (... Let's Play Hockey)". Mashmakhan's Pière Senécal sang the French version, it was produced for Quality by Terry "Littlest Hobo" Bush. Oddly enough, the song would be adopted by the Finnish team HIFK.
    HIFK (ice hockey) - Wikipedia

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcW926SfO0

    [​IMG]
     
    Paul C likes this.
  17. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

  18. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    It seems there were two b-sides (totalling more than seven minutes), which explains that suspicious claim on the picture sleeve. The third song is "Train Keep Rollin'" and is also from Bad Manors.
     
    bekayne likes this.
  19. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    On the RPM country chart, Edmonton native Eddie Chwill spent the week of January 29, 1972, at #1 with "There Ain't No Easy Way", the seventh #1 country song written by Dick Damron in 16 months. Of these, only one made the 75-position Billboard country chart (George Hamilton IV's version of "Countryfied" reached #35).



    [​IMG]
     
  20. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    On RPM's French language chart, Jean Nichol (from Windsor, Quebec - about 100 miles east of Montreal) spent the week of January 22, 1972, at #1 with "Un Soir Sans Toi". I think the melody sounds a lot like Elvis Presley's "Anything That's Part Of You".



    [​IMG]
     
  21. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Jean Nichol was knocked out of the #1 spot by "Le Frigidaire" by Tex Lecor. He was born Paul Lecorre in Saint-Michel-de-Wentworth (about 50 miles northwest of Montreal; I doubt many people actually named 'Tex' were born in Saint-Michel-de-Wentworth). It spent five weeks at #1 on RPM's French language chart. This second incarnation of the chart would last from December 1971 until April 1973 (a previous incarnation had run from November 1966 until February 1967). During this time, no song spent more than five weeks at #1.



    [​IMG]



    He also released an English version of the song:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbPvyaEIS8w
     
  22. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Thanks for posting the back of the album cover, whose credits dispel the rumour that Drake's father (a Stax session drummer) is the drummer on this recording.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2021
  23. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    120. LOVE ME, LOVE ME, LOVE
    by FRANK MILLS
    POLYDOR 2065 076
    Highest ranking for 5 weeks: February 5 (9), 12 (8), 19 (4), 26 (1) and March 4 (1), 1972




    [​IMG]
    Though we have fifty-two weeks of "number one" Canadian hits, in truth only three Canadian songs hit the number one position on the RPM 100 in the year 1972. And interestingly enough, we'll be talking about all three back to back this week. The other thing that is interesting is the varied legacy of those three songs: each one is exponentially better remembered (and, I think, better respected) than the one before it. That starts with this particular ditty, Frank Mills's first solo single after leaving the Bells. The February 5 issue of RPM devotes a few paragraphs to Mills and this particular song, so let me give them the mic:

    Frank Mills has made one of the quietest entries to the Canadian recording scene in a long time. Seemingly from nowhere, he has a hit single, "Love Me, Love Me, Love", charted throughout the country on major market stations, and now entering the foreign trade charts. His album, "Seven Of My Songs" is picking up sales and he recently finished work on a song, collaborating with Mac David, brother of Hal, and composer of the scores for many major motion pictures. For a boy from somewhere north of Montreal, he's doing pretty well.

    Frank Mills arrived at an opportune time. With MOR stations crying out for good playable product, he handed it to them on a platter, self-produced, self-arranged, self-composed, and self-performed, with the aid of some top Quebec side men.

    However, it wasn't all as easy as it sounds. Mills spent five years at Montreal's McGill University studying music, he played piano for, first, the Siroco Singers and then the Bells. He wrote many of the latter group's best known songs including, "For Better For Worse". He put up the money for his first album, then saw the whole project through at Andre Perry Studios before selling it to Polydor.

    "Love Me, Love Me, Love" is what is charitably called a left field hit. It's the kind of song that really shouldn't make it on top forty. But it has and the credit can go to Mills for supplying the product and making himself available for hectic promotional tours and to the Polydor promotion force. The label's John Turner accompanied Mills on a hop scotch tour of Canada recently introducing the single to radio which was largely responsible for the action which followed.


    To add a few things to RPM's account: "Love Me Love Me Love" is actually on each of Mills's first two solo albums: 1971's Seven of My Songs Plus Some Others (where it's 4:13 in length) and 1972's Reflections of My Childhood (where it's 3:06). The single itself is 2:54. I don't know if we're talking about three different versions or just different edits, since it's so hard to find this stuff out there. There is a source on the internet that claims Seven of My Songs has an instrumental version and Reflections of My Childhood has the vocal version. That seems to contradict RPM's words above, but Spotify features a Frank Mills Greatest Hits album that has a 4:16 version of this song that is indeed instrumental.

    Certainly the single has vocals, though I don't know who performed them. If you go by what's written on the internet, it might have been Robert Goulet on vocals, it might have been an entirely different singer also called Robert Goulet, or it might have been Frank Mills himself. There is a lot I can't pin down accurately about this song. It's hard to believe it was number one for two weeks.

    The lyrics tell a maudlin tale of a dying organ grinder, quite similar in fact to another song I've written about here: "Whiskey on a Sunday" by the Irish Rovers. It is a pretty melody with pretty harmonica riff, but ultimately what I can say about it is that I like it better than "Stay Awhile". We'll be returning to Frank Mills twice more, with songs that are often condemned as inexcusable lapses in taste. I actually (I am afraid to admit) quite enjoy those two later Mills hits, so I don't write him off completely.

    Polydor, the Bells' label, put the single out not only in Canada but also Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Spain (as "Amame, Amame, Amor"). The relatively obscure Sunflower label put it out in the USA. Spain and Germany gave it almost identical Yellow Submarine-reject picture sleeves (certainly appropriate design for a song about a dead street person). In contrast, the two albums I mentioned above were only released in Canada. Well, unless you include the unofficial copy of Seven of My Songs that was released in Cuba, of all places.

    ON THE PAGES OF RPM: Now that the Junos are a big deal as opposed to Grealis's pet project, it seems they're being held later and later in the year. In 1972, they were held on February 28 and reported on in the March 4 issue of RPM. Again, no nominees listed (the Junos' own website and the Wikipedia page about the 1972 Junos both also omit nominees). What's strange is that, in addition to the main male, female and group awards, there are also "outstanding performance of the year" awards for each of those three. It's tough to figure out the distinction between the two, although an advertisement later on in the issue interprets "outstanding performance" to mean "most promising", and indeed by 1974 the latter prize has been retired in favour of the former one. In any case, the envelope please!

    Female vocalist of the year is Anne Murray, outstanding performance (female) is Ginette Reno, and female country singer is Myrna Lorrie. Male vocalist of the year is Gordon Lightfoot, outstanding performance (male) is Joey Gregorash, and male country singer is Stompin' Tom Connors. Folk singer of the year, a non-gendered award, is Bruce Cockburn. The weirdly-titled "vocal instrumental group of the year" is the Stampeders, outstanding performance (group) is Lighthouse, and country group is the Mercey Brothers. The Stampeders did especially well, with composer of the year going to Rich Dodson and best produced single going to Mel Shaw for "Sweet City Woman". Brian Ahern got the so-called "best produced middle of the road album" for Talk It Over in the Morning. If you overlook the new "outstanding performance" categories here, then everything is exactly the same as last year except for the Stampeders' three awards. The Guess Who were shut out for the first time since 1965.

    SPAIN:

    [​IMG]

    GERMANY:

    [​IMG]
     
    Paul C and bekayne like this.
  24. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Another one that made me want to throw my radio at the wall. It annoys the hell out of me. Now Music Box Dancer is another story....
     
    bunglejerry likes this.
  25. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    The first track in this thread I know well (anything I’ve recognized has been through vague recollections of the oldies channels in the 80s/90s!). What a beautiful song, capturing so much of what Cockburn would continue throughout his impressive career.

    Also love the picture of the footbridges that used to span the canal in Ottawa.
     
    Mr. D, bekayne and bunglejerry like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine