I always thought Sandy Posey's "Single Girl," with the lyric "A single girl needs a sweet lovin' man to lean on," might not pass muster today. Maybe one of the reasons it never gets played.

What I noticed is there are nine songs that have been on the chart a minimum of 10 weeks. Back in 1968 and 69 a song rarely lasted 9 weeks on the chart.

Re: The September 1973 CHUM chart: Not lackluster for me. There are some great songs on that chart and I still have three of the 45's shown on that chart. Likely bought them at either Sam's or Eaton's, which both used the CHUM chart for their 45's, if I recall.

 

Last edited by Evuguy (September 1, 2024 10:01 pm)

I had also long wondered what had caused "Monster Mash" to rechart, which it first briefly did in the US in the summer of 1970 (#91 BB) before becoming a major hit across both Canada and the US in 1973. Finally found competing explanations about this from Pickett and from Kal Rudman of Record World at 45cat. I'm inclined to believe what Rudman said, as he has very specific info about the way that it happened. 

I also remember the other songs quite well. I liked "Goodbye Mama" in particular, and this got me wondering about what Dave Nicol might have gone on to do after that song ... found some good info about him at The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia. Nice to see that he's continued to write and record to the present day. 

Evuguy wrote:

Re: Monster Mash - The 45 I have is indeed dated 1970, yet it was bought in 1973.  It was on the Parrot label. From what I just read, the song was initially published in 1962. It also re-entered the Billboard chart in 2021.

 
It's quite a coincidence that you included Brother Louie by The Stories. It was a selection on Heardle (the musical version of Wordle) today.

And yes, I was able to identify it in the time allowed.

I remember loving the tune back in '73 when I was only 10.

"A Million To One" and "Young Love" only reached #23 and #25 respectively on Billboard, so I think that's contributed to them being largely forgotten today. But Donny's previous single, "The Twelfth Of Never", had spent six weeks at #1 on CHUM (compared to only reaching #8 on Billboard), and so it certainly wasn't surprising that they would play both sides of his followup and that it would also reach the top 10.  

Actually, my copy of Joel Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits shows Tab Hunter's version as reaching #1 on all four of the pre-Hot 100 Billboard pop charts. James' version, however, only reached #1 on one of those charts and peaked at #2 on two of the others, so maybe that's what you were thinking of. Also worth mentioning is that The Crew-Cuts had a top 40 hit with it as well.

paterson1 wrote:

This is one CHUM chart where I can honestly say, I don t remember some of these songs that likely haven't had much airplay in decades.  Goodbye Mama from Dave Nichols, Johnny Taylor I Believe in You, Gypsy Man from War,  A Million to One and the flip Young Love from Donny Osmond.  I don't remember any of these being hits.  I never played any of thim in my time on radio. 

Interesting that the Monster Mash had a second life on the CHUM chart and was number one on this date in 1973. Toronto writer and singer Tony Kosinec had a one hit wonder with All Things Come From God.  Tony was also the producer and one of the writers for OK Blue Jays which is heard during the 7th inning stretch for home games.

Kind of a nothing chart IMO.  But it is interesting that the station played both Smoke On The Water and Sweet Gypsy Rose and charted these songs in September 1973.  
 

CHUM wasn't the only station that had what we would now consider unknown tunes on their charts. These aren't from the same week, but around the same time of year (August 1973.) One is from CKLC in Kingston. Another from the late lamented CJBK in London. Some of the songs are very familiar. But others? Check out CKLC's Chart:

"Living Without You" by Creamcheeze? Who? "Lately Love" by Bob Ruzika? Or how about Steeler's Wheel with their classic "Everyone's Agreed." Does anyone know who Tammy Rafferty or Sea Dog is?



In London, I've never heard of Cliff & Ann Edwards. And Lobo's "How Can I Tell Her?" is not familiar to me, although I know Kent Lavoie's other more well known songs. I suspect if you look at charts from across the country and the U.S. there are local hits that even those who were listening at the time wouldn't really remember.

So I'm not discounting P1's initial observation, just that it seems to have been the case in other markets as well, especially in those early days of CanCon.

Ok, here goes:
"'Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine" was Stealers Wheel's followup to "Stuck In The Middle With You"; it got to #49 on Billboard.
"How Can I Tell Her" was Lobo's fourth top 40 in a row on BB in 1972-73; it reached #22.
All of the others are Cancon.
Creamcheeze was actually the Creamcheeze Good-Time Band, in case that helps any.  I remember hearing "Living Without You" a fair amount on one local station, which if memory serves was CKFH.
I can still remember how "Lately Love" goes, as it got a fair amount of airplay on CHUM -- in particular on Saturday and Sunday mornings, back when they played nonstop Cancon between 6 and 9 a.m. But like many of the songs that they played during those time slots, it never charted. 
Cliff and Ann Edwards came from The Bells, where Cliff had been the male lead and Ann was the sister of the female lead (Jackie Ralph).
Tammy Rafferty's "Find Yourself A Boy" was a major hit on CKOC, I think reaching their top 5 (once again, I can still remember it even though I haven't heard it in ages). But I don't think CHUM ever played it.
And I don't ever recall hearing Sea Dog played on CHUM either, even though they were on CHUM's Much label. I do wonder if CHUM might have wanted to avoid looking like they were showing favouritism to the artists on their label, and I never heard Sea Dog on any other station in the area.

Lorne wrote:

Ok, here goes:
"'Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine" was Stealers Wheel's followup to "Stuck In The Middle With You"; it got to #49 on Billboard.
"How Can I Tell Her" was Lobo's fourth top 40 in a row on BB in 1972-73; it reached #22.
All of the others are Cancon.
Creamcheeze was actually the Creamcheeze Good-Time Band, in case that helps any.  I remember hearing "Living Without You" a fair amount on one local station, which if memory serves was CKFH.
I can still remember how "Lately Love" goes, as it got a fair amount of airplay on CHUM -- in particular on Saturday and Sunday mornings, back when they played nonstop Cancon between 6 and 9 a.m. But like many of the songs that they played during those time slots, it never charted. 
Cliff and Ann Edwards came from The Bells, where Cliff had been the male lead and Ann was the sister of the female lead (Jackie Ralph).
Tammy Rafferty's "Find Yourself A Boy" was a major hit on CKOC, I think reaching their top 5 (once again, I can still remember it even though I haven't heard it in ages). But I don't think CHUM ever played it.
And I don't ever recall hearing Sea Dog played on CHUM either, even though they were on CHUM's Much label. I do wonder if CHUM might have wanted to avoid looking like they were showing favouritism to the artists on their label, and I never heard Sea Dog on any other station in the area.

Did not see your post when I wrote mine about Stealers Wheel but a fine song that some may find a nice alternate to "Stuck".