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

On November 30, RPM changed its country chart to a Cancon chart. The #1 song was "The Lumberjack" by Hal Willis.

 

It only reached #99 in Canada but used to get played all the time on a syndicated oldies station around 20 years ago.

 

Since I have now mastered uploading 45 dubs to Youtube, I have also uploaded a dub of my 45 of "Blue Souvenirs" by Danny Harrison, which in June 1964 reached #2 on the Cancon chart and #16 on the regular chart. As with the Winmen upload, I borrowed the image from Discogs, but the 45 dub is mine. I know absolutely nothing about this artist or song.

 

As a former Canadian resident of Scots ancestry, gotta love that TarTan label. And of course you probably know it's anachronistic to refer to Thunder Bay in '64 since it wasn't called that officially til '70. Thunder Bay - Wikipedia

 

Unless you Care definitely a smash that I remember very well.. I even had the cd you mention but did not find it worth keeping.

I've long been curious about Arc Records. I found this link some years ago.

You will notice My Lipstick Is Blue by Patrician Ann mentioned alongside Terry Black.

Arc Records | Garage Hangover

 

I remember that one, great listening to it again! Whenever it was around, I had no idea it featured the kid from Unless You Care.

If I was a DJ, I'd play it beside From New York to LA

 

from those days when the 17 year old had enough and got the blank out of the family home and took off for who knows where... a few in the family tree disappeared like this and haven't been heard from in almost 50 years

now they stick around until they are 40, even more miserable...

 

I did realise that while writing, but... shrug.

 

As I'll eventually run out of things to say about Mr Curtola, let me provide a quote from the invaluable website canadianbands.com to show just how very Canadian he was: "Aside from his music career, Curtola has also been a successful business entrepreneur throughout his career, stemming back to his pitching Coke products in the '60s. He's marketed a successful brand of Caesar cocktail, as well as a pyrogy company. He's also CEO of Home Farms Technologies, a Canadian-based company which is attempting to develop an environmentally friendly waste management system for hog waste."

This is too funny, I wonder how good those pierogies were? And if that was just a misspelling or if the standard spelling changed over time.

 

It was a big deal at the time, made The National.

 

Always liked that song One Fine Morning by Lighthouse. Saw it did #2 RPM and made the top 30 here.

 

Singer with a group from Peterborough called the Count Victors

 

He's a lumberjack and he's okay

 

By the way I meant to mention that today's entry does mention Shirley Matthews. She will come up once more in my writings after this. You wanted me to mention!

 

I only came across it a few years ago but that's a pretty good song.

 

This is actually a great album! A couple of good songs (Little Liar in particular) were later singles but unfortunately didn't do as well as Unless You Care, a song that everyone who was listening to Canadian radio in '64 must have heard a lot, and it is a fine song.

 

This reminded me. Ten years ago I met Jerry Grey of the Travellers At the Labor Heritage Foundation's Great Labor Arts Exchange in Detroit that year as he was given the Joe Hill Award.
From the Canadian Jewish News
In June 2010, Gray will be the first Canadian to win the Joe Hill Award, which is awarded annually by the Washington-based Labor Heritage Foundation American Federation of Labor/ Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO) to leaders and artists who have contributed to the integration of arts and culture in the labour movement.

Gray says that as the first Canadian to receive this award, he joins the “list of outstanding winners, including Pete Seeger and [labour activist] Cesar Chavez.”

Things like this made my minor musical career well worth it.

 

I'm just listening to this (He makes me feel so pretty) now. It seems slightly familiar, as thought there is another song of the same theme by another 'girl group'. I don't find it nearly as good as Big Town Boy.

 

There is a song performed by a Canadian from this time period that nobody has mentioned yet (it had completely slipped my mind) and it is one of the biggest 1960s hits by a Canadian. I'm thinking of "Ringo" by Lorne Greene. It reached #1 on the regular RPM chart on December 7, 1964, and reached #1 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 that same week. For some reason, RPM never listed it on its Cancon chart. I confuse easily, but this one has me completely baffled.



The above is the LP version. The 45 did not have the 20-second spoken intro.

 

Here's the aforesaid "Jolie Jacqueline" by Lucille Starr, which reached #24 on the RPM chart in October, 1964. Like her previous hit, "The French Song", it's sung partly in French and partially in English. I wonder if Herb Alpert was tempted to title this one "Another French Song". Issued in Canada on Barry 3276 (which listed it as the B-side) and in the US on Almo 209. According to Discogs, 45s were also issued in the UK and in South Africa. I have not been able to find it on CD.



If I am not mistaken, this thread now has links for every Cancon song that made the regular RPM chart and peaked during the time period covered thus far.

 

Although Lorne Greene was Canadian by birth( he started as a CBC newsreader) by the time of Ringo he had not lived there in a number of years.

 

Photoshop technology left a lot to be desired in 1964. This song was also a major country hit in the US, reaching #5 on the Billboard country chart. It also 'bubbled under' at #120 on the Hot 100. It did not make the regular RPM chart, but did make the CHUM chart, so it also received some non-country airplay.

 

Thanks for that info. I didn't know The Count Victors were from Peterborough (I'm just up the highway) or that Danny Harrison had been a member. In the early 1960s, The Count Victors had two hits on the CHUM chart, one a remake of Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do" released with the title "Peepin' 'n Hidin'", which until I was able to get my hands on a 45, I had assumed was a remake of the Little Richard song.

 

Thanks for the link. Lots of interesting info. I did not know Patrician Ann and Catherine McKinnon were sisters. Each had the grand total of one RPM Top 40 hit, which I'm sure will be discussed when we get to them, chronologically speaking.