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

This has to be one of the best Beatle-themed novelty records ever. Catchy melody delivered with enthusiasm, it would be totally credible with different lyrics.

 

It's funny that a national chart would even care what was being played in Weyburn, which is currently the 10th biggest city in SK at a little over 10,000. Maybe you could pick it up in the capitol, Regina, which was then the biggest city in the province and 110 K away. Or maybe it's because "Weyburn is the largest inland grain gathering point in Canada. Well over half a million tons of grain pass through the Weyburn terminals each year" (Wiki) which would mean that there would be a lot of people passing through, delivering grain from the surrounding countryside. It's almost due north of Williston, ND and about the same distance from the border for those who desire an American reference.

 

My thinking is that this novelty had 2 Zeitgeist reasons for being a smash - Lorne Green was a star of the hugely popular TV program, and we were all talking about The Beatles

Historical footnote - Lorne Green was also called The Voice of Doom, because his deep voice when reading news on the CBC during WW II.

 

I wish I'd bought that box set issued in the 1990s by Capitol Canada. It had a song by Pat Hervey, but not the one I remembered - Mr Heartache. That was a hit a bit earlier than the period this thread will cover, and I don't think it has ever been released on a major label cd, but I like it very much.

 

I remember the name Pat Surbey, and also Sandie Selsey. Were they on the Vancouver Music Hop CBC TV show?

I once had (from the 1990s I think) two LPs of Vancouver based 60s vintage music.

 

I grew up in Toronto and I DO remember this song being played. Maybe not on CHUM but CKFH? Or even CFRB????? I know that when I got a British compilation years later (90's) I recognized it.

 

#9 - IF YOU DON'T WANT MY LOVE
by JACK LONDON & THE SPARROWS
#1 for 4 weeks: January 18 and 25, February 1 and 8, 1965




​

Let's talk about changing names. There is a curious tendency in 1960s CanRock for both individuals and groups to, every now and then, suddenly change their names and their presentations in order to be "reborn", phoenix-style, with new identities. The most famous example in CanRock of a band with a propitious name change is coming tomorrow, but for now, let's talk about Jack London and the Sparrows.

Jack London was not, of course, the same writer who half a century earlier had written "The Call of the Wild". But just as that American writer moved to Canada to write his most famous works, this particular Jack London was an Englishman - born Dave Marden in London - who took his hometown as a surname upon moving to Oshawa, Ontario, of all places.

1964 being 1964, an actual British émigré was a definite boon for a Canadian beat band, so the Oshawa boys - headed up by brothers Dennis and Gerald McCrohan - who made up the Sparrows were pleased to have him on board. That is, up to the point when it was discovered that London had been taking more than his fair share of the band's proceeds. At that point (after an album and four singles, this one being one of them, came out on Capitol), they turfed him. Replacing an English immigrant with a German immigrant, they hired a certain Joachim Fritz Krauledat to take his place.

And now we can talk a little bit more about name changes. First of all, the McCrohan brothers would adopt the surname Edmonton and, in future years, Dennis would decide that Edmonton was no longer exotic enough and would rechristen himself Mars Bonfire. Simplifying his German name for Canadian tongues, Krauledat would rename himself John Kay.

And then... the Sparrows themselves would, while progressing from Oshawa to Toronto to New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco and while trading in key players here and there, become first "Sparrow" and then "Steppenwolf", becoming Oshawa's most famous export not to have four wheels.

This song, by the by, is a nifty piece of Merseybeat with a perhaps intentionally overstated English accent. Doesn't sound much like "Born to be Wild", though.

 

Sort of a cross between Merseybeat and American garage band/Nuggets.

 

A few days ago, the subject of Francophone music came up. Some time ago I wrote down some notes on the Francophone chart that RPM briefly ran but had managed to misplace them. I have now located the notes. In my search a few days ago, I had neglected to look in the manila folder marked "RPM Francophone Chart Notes".

RPM first published a Francophone chart for a period of only three months in late 1966 and early 1967. Since her name came up during the discussion, I'll mention that the last #1 song during this first effort with a French-language chart was by Petula Clark, "Tout le monde veut aller au ciel mais personne ne veut mourir" (Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven But No One Wants To Die). It was mentioned that she sometimes worked with Canadian songwriters. This one was written by "J. Kluger". Anyone know if he or she was (or, for J. Kluger's sake, is) Canadian?

The Francophone chart then re-appeared the last week of 1971 and this time lasted until April 1973. It would never return. A total of 40 songs topped the chart during its existence, including songs by artists familiar to people who don't follow Francophone music much, such as Michel Pagliaro, Roger Whittaker, Vicky Leandros, and Nana Mouskouri. There was even a #1 song by Patof, who I believe was a TV clown.

As I understand the CRTC Cancon rules (if someone has more accurate information, please share), if an English-language radio station plays a French Canadian song, it does not count towards the station's Cancon requirements. The supposed reason for this rule is to protect French stations from having to compete with English stations. Many Francophone Canadians (especially young ones) want to hear both the latest French and English hits. The CRTC's concern is that if English stations were to play the biggest Francophone hits, then more Francophones would start listening to English stations. So CRTC regulations actually discourage English radio stations from playing French Canadian music. I think it is a misguided rule as it prevents Francophone artists from reaching an Anglophone audience. Listening to CKGM Montreal in the early 1980s, I would hear the odd Francophone song. I remember that they played Diane Tell's "Si j'etais un homme" (sorry, my anglophone keyboard does not have an accent aigu key) and a song called "Stop Ou Encore" (I forget the artist).

 

"Like A Dribbling Fram" was a major RPM hit (late 1965/early 1966). The Chummingbirds song just predated RPM by a few months.

 

There has never been a legit Pat Hervey CD, only on 'unauthorized' one titled The Girl Next Door mastered from records. I know that mentioning 'unauthorized' releases is discouraged on this board (as it should be) but, unfortunately, when it comes to artists like Pat Hervey, that's all that exists.

Do you know anything more about the Capitol Canada box set you mention? I'm not familiar with it and would very much like to check it out.

 

I wonder if perhaps it's this: Various - Made In Canada: Our Rock 'N' Roll History - Volume 1: The Early Years (1960-1970)

Not Capitol but RCA, and not a boxed set unless you buy a cardboard box and stick the different volumes together... but a series nonetheless, and one featuring the elusive Ms. Hervey.

Also: Discogs has the following listing as well: Pat Hervey - Mister Heartache

It's clearly dubious as well (and Italian for some reason), but perhaps worth mentioning.

 

Two things:

1. You have manila envelopes? Why don't I have manila envelopes? I need manila envelopes, damn it!

2. I've never heard about that rule you mention, and that seems frankly insane. I guess I get the twisted logic, but it is definitely twisted. In my quest to find a reliable francophone chart to integrate into this thread, I found an amazing resource (more on this below) that has a lot to say about 60s and 70s-era francophone charts, which were twisted to the degree that (a) Italian and Spanish songs were apparently considered francophone (!) and (b) even English-language songs that had just a few words in French (I guess "Psycho Killer" for example?) would be considered good enough. I have been wondering why, as far as I can tell, there has really truly been only one crossover artist in the MAPL era I can think of whose French-language songs were played on English-language top 40 stations outside of Québec - and that's Mitsou. I can literally think of no other example and have been curious as to why that is. The information you provide is no answer to that particular question, but it definitely gets me thinking. Do you know if that rule is still current? I know nothing about how CanCon works in the current era.

 

The set of 4 ds was called Made in Canada - Our Rock'n Roll History. At first they were available as separate cds, but somewhat later I saw it as a Box set. Which may have contained extras or at least a big booklet. Since I had the 4 cds at that time, I didn't check the box out.

PS just seeing the above post saying it was actually RCA, my apologies. Pretty sure the 4 disks did subsequently appear in a long box format though.

 

Re Pat Hervey. Yes, that's what I have, definitely a needle-drop set.

 

The song made it to #3. Bruce Palmer was the bassist, he would get traded to the Mynah Birds for their bass player, Nick St. Nicholas. Here's their debut LP:

 

Peaking at #6 on the CanCon chart on February 1 would be the debut 45 from a band from Vancouver called the Chessmen with a young Terry Jacks. "Meadowlands" b/w "Mustang" would hit #14 on Vancouver's CFUN chart and would be a minor hit in Calgary.
Mustang/Meadowlands by The Chessmen – Vancouver Pop Music Signature Sounds

 

Well, Dennis never became a psychiatrist. Though "Born to Be Wild" surely served as therapy for some people.

We'll hear from Dennis in the late 60s, because his own recordings as Mars Bonfire are considered CanCon while Steppenwolf's material wasn't. A question of where they were residing, I suppose, unless RPM was docking them for their German lead singer for one reason or another.

Strands of DNA: as you surely know, that tradeoff with the Mynah Birds is significant because of who the Mynah Birds were: among their members were both Neil Young and Rick James. Rick James' Canadian odyssey is a fascinating one, but I'll point out (a) Shirley Matthews gave him his stage name (in honour of her deceased cousin), and (b) aaalll the way down to 1978, when Rick James is first charting with his Motown Punk-Funk sound, "You and I" is credited on the RPM charts as CanCon. I can't really guess why as he was long gone by that time.

 

RPM Magazine would make a big change in their Top 40 chart starting on February 8, 1965 that would last another 12 months. During that period, if a record dropped, it would be removed from the chart completely. For example, on that first chart, the songs that were #1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12 and 18 the previous week vanished.
http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Vol+2,+No.+24+-+Week+of+February+8th,+1965.pdf

 

i picked up 'black plague' in a dollar bin, a lonnnnnng time ago, cuz i thought the cover was hilarious .....

but then i was pleasantly surprised as the pressing sounded great and the tracks were ....



... great too !

 

During The Sparrows' four-week reign at the top of the Cancon chart, the only other Canadian song to reach its peak on the regular RPM chart was "Ain't Love A Funny Thing" by Robbie Lane And The Disciples. For a time they were Ronnie Hawkins' backup band. They would not be his most famous backup band. This song has never been on CD as far as I know.

 

I was just going to post that one!

 

Just leaving the Top 20 on January 18, Dean Hagopian with "Uh Huh" b/w "Love Hurts". A singing DJ from Ottawa, apparently.

 

They say great minds think alike!

 

On the January 18, 1965, RPM country chart (which was Cancon-only), "Hitch Hikin'" by Dick Damron started a two-week reign. Damron wrote several #1 country songs, both for himself and for others. All five of his #1 RPM country songs are on the 3-CD set More Than Countryfied on Bear Family.