The Friday 5×2: CKWX (1130 AM, Vancouver BC), 4/22/61

The Friday Five 2 Minutes

On a site dedicated to Top 40 stations in Vancouver, British Columbia, I found this survey from CKWX, which was a Top 40 station from 1957 to 1962. The station went to a “middle of the road” format in 1962, then switched to country in 1973 and to all-news in 1996. Here’s their Top 10 from April 22, 1961, which, as you might suspect, is significantly different from the ones in the US.

  1. Santo & Johnny, “Hop Scotch” After “Sleepwalk” reached #1 in the US, the Farina brothers didn’t have another hit in the US, although the followup, “Tear Drop,” reached #23. This was included on their 1962 album Come On In, and was probably issued as a single in Canada.
  2. Cliff Richard & The Shadows, “Theme for a Dream” Cliff had limited success in North America, but this was a #3 hit in the UK and a #4 in Ireland, and apparently a local favorite in Vancouver.
  3. The Marcels, “Blue Moon” A #1 hit in the US that likely reached the chart in Vancouver due to its proximity to Seattle.
  4. Jerry Fuller, “Shy Away” From his 1960 album Teenage Love, it only reached #73 in the US and didn’t chart in Canada, but again, local favorite.
  5. Larry Verne, “Abdul’s Party” Verne was fairly successful doing his novelty songs, with two hit records in the US, most notably “Mister Custer” in 1960, which reached #1 and earned a Gold record. Later attempts were nowhere near as successful, and he got fed up with the music business and became a Hollywood set builder.
  6. Elvis Presley, “Flaming Star” Theme song from his 1960 movie which also starred Barbara Eden, he issued this on an EP, Elvis by Request: Flaming Star and 3 Other Great Songs. Its chart position is likely due to the sales of the EP, as it wasn’t released as a single.
  7. Bob Luman, “The Great Snowman” Another record that didn’t chart nationally in either the US or Canada, but did well at CKWX.
  8. Paul Evans, “After the Hurricane” You know the story by now: was not a national hit in the US or Canada, but was a big hit in Vancouver.
  9. Del Shannon, “Runaway” A #1 song in both the US and Canada, and fairly well-known.
  10. Roy Orbison, Running Scared” Also a #1 hit in the US and Canada, as well as #5 in Australia and #9 in the UK.

And that’s The Friday 5×2 for April 24, 2020.

Published by John Holton

I'm a writer and blogger who writes and blogs about things that interest me.

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10 thoughts on “The Friday 5×2: CKWX (1130 AM, Vancouver BC), 4/22/61”

  1. I was only 11 at this time, but my brother being six yrs. old than me just started listening to music & playing the drums (and I must say he was good too). Plus my brother loved dancing (I think it ran in the family my mom did too as I also do). He paid me a quarter… sometimes fifty cents to dance with him in the basement to practice & I was held to secrecy – hahahaha. My brother was a card. We danced together when we got older too at weddings etc. we jitter bugged & he use to flip me. It was cool. I didn’t hear a lot of these, but there are a couple. You did a great job here my friend. Have a nice day!

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  2. Cool tunes,I fixed the 5 On Friday and added the linky back,hopefuly this time blogger will leave it there.if not I got to find a way to export all the posts and pending posts to my wordpress

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  5. I’ve fallen behind so will try to catch up. Some of these I had never heard of but glad you have Runaway here because I saw Del Shannon at a place called Lulu’s that was a great dance bar. I was very close to him when he sang this song and I was dancing. I always feel sad when I think that he committed suicide.

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