Red Robinson's Legends

Red recalls how his career started around this time in 1954, meeting Elvis, retirement, voicing Michael Buble's Christmas specials, Red Rock Diner, and his plans for his vast archive. Recorded in Vancouver, November 2014.

Rich Elwood was a Vancouver radio personality, actor, stand-up comedian and comedy club owner. His comedy career started doing Bill Cosby routines in front of his Grade 7 class and he polished his act in Toronto's notorious Yonge Street strip clubs. "They were a good training ground," he told the Vancouver Sun's Lee Bacchus, "You would have about 200 guys out there all yelling 'Bring out the broad...

Glen Campbell was a fantastic 12-string guitar player who became part of a group of studio musicians later known as The Wrecking Crew. Glen played on hits by The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, and many more. Red says, "I recall Glen coming to Vancouver as part of the annual C-FUN Teen Fair in the early Sixt...

Concert photographer Dee Lippingwell's very first concert was a Pink Floyd show in Vancouver back in 1973. Over a 50 year career she photographed some of rock's royalty: The Rolling Stones, Queen, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton, KISS, Van Halen and many more. Her first book, “The Best Seat in the House,” was followed by the self-published “First Three Songs… No F...

Sad music news... Chad Allan passed away on November 21 at age 80. He is survived by his wife, Christine. Chad was born Allan Kowbel in Winnipeg and took his stage name, Chad Allan, in tribute to a favourite 1950s singer, Chad Mitchell. His first band was Allan and the Silvertones and then Chad Allan and the Reflections/Expressions, which evolved into the Guess Who. Chad left the Guess Who in 1966...

Every year C-FUN counted down the Top 300 listener favourites in our "Soundathon". Over 150,000 votes decided which songs would appear, and we usually played them from 7:00am December 29 until midnight New Year's Eve. This annual tradition was so popular we started running "Summer Soundathons", celebrating the biggest summertime hits of the Sixties. The final C-FUN Soundathon ran in summer 1967: t...

Diana Ross and The Supremes had just finished a two-week run at the legendary Cave Supper Club in October 1967, touring on the strength of their #1 hit "The Happening". Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson heard a Motown cover band at an after-hours club and alerted Motown Records CEO Berry Gordy. Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers signed a recording contract with Motown, and Gordy produced “Does Your Ma...

"WKRP in Cincinnati" premiered this week in 1978 on CBS-TV, airing for four seasons and 90 episodes. My late friend Terry Moore sat down with Gordon and his wife Anna in 1981 for this CKNW interview. The show, created by Hugh Wilson, featured the staff of a struggling radio station and was based on his experiences in sales at WQXI/Atlanta. New program director Andy Travis switches WKRP's format fr...

It's August 31, 1957 in Vancouver and Elvis Presley is about to take the stage for his first — and only — visit here. With my heart pounding with excitement, I left Elvis in his dressing room and walked toward the stage at the north end of Empire Stadium. A huge curtain hung from the rear of the stage, and it was in this area that I waited for my turn to appear on the platform and bring on the leg...

We're celebrating the life of Jerry Allison, drummer for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, who died this week (8/22). This extended interview was recorded at Vancouver's Legends of Rock'n'Roll show at EXPO 86. One of my favourite lines in the interview is when Jerry says, “I think we were the first ugly band... and then The Rolling Stones just took it and went all the way with it!” Jerry and Buddy met...

I first met Susan Jacks on the set of Let’s Go, Vancouver’s weekly contribution to the CBC TV series Music Hop. The show allowed Canadian talent to get exposure from coast-to-coast on television. Susan was a wonderfully talented, stunningly beautiful lady with a voice like silk. Susan and husband Terry created some of Canada’s most memorable hit records as the Poppy Family. Their hit song “Which W...

Rock'n'roll pioneer Rick Nelson would have celebrated his 82nd birthday today - May 8. This photo of Rick and me was taken in his car when I worked at KGW in Portland, OR in 1959. Notice the tape recorder. It was called a Mohawk, and like the haircut of the same name, it cut out the interview. When I got back to the station there was nothing on the tape. The same thing happened in 1958 backstage a...

Here's a Christmas favourite from Vancouver's Stonebolt. The "news" voice you hear is another Vancouver favourite: legendary CFUN deejay Daryl B! Stonebolt's David Wills has the story: "I can’t recall exactly whose idea it initially was — likely Daryl's. He was a good friend of our managers at the time, and was very supportive of the band; so much so he even helped promote some of our shows. I bel...

Happy Birthday, Andy Kim! Andy is from Montreal, where he began singing at parties and school functions as a kid. When he was 14, he traveled to New York, where he met producer Jeff Barry. They produced a dozen chartmakers including "Baby I Love You", Andy's first million-seller. In 1969, Andy had a #1 record, but not under his own name. He was a member of The Archies, and that monster hit was "Su...

Happy birthday, Freddy Cannon! Freddy's music was a rock'n'roll radio staple in the late 50's and early 60's. His first hit "Tallahassee Lassie" was written by Freddy and producers Bob Crewe and Frank Slay. As Freddy tells me in the interview, the idea for the song came from his mother! Dick Clark (who co-owned Freddy's label Swan Records) suggested the record be edited to highlight the pounding b...

On this day in 1964, three months after the Beatles' Empire Stadium concert, British hitmakers The Dave Clark Five arrived in Vancouver! A month after the Beatles smash February performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the DC5 visited Sullivan and performed their first hit "Glad All Over". They returned the next week with two more songs and an encore of "Glad All Over". The group appeared on Ed Sulliv...

With all the excitement surrounding my 2000 "retirement" from the CISL Wakeup Club, another finale last week almost escaped my attention. On the 30th anniversary of my first radio show, I "retired" from the morning show at CKWX (now @CityNewsVAN) to concentrate on my ad agency and other projects. I treasure this photo taken with some old friends on my final day on the air. Sadly, they're all gone...

Happy birthday, Petula Clark! Petula's huge hit "Downtown" started climbing the charts about this time in 1964, and by January 1965 it was #1 everywhere. Petula followed up with a string of hits emphasizing the softer side of the British Invasion: "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Who Am I", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song", "Don't Sleep...

Twenty-one years ago last week, I retired from day-to-day radio and we celebrated with friends on CISL's Wakeup Club. Ra McGuire was one of those friends and we talked just before Trooper's 25th anniversary show at the Commodore. In this interview, we cover some of Ra's favourite Trooper music and he comes up with a great retirement project for me! Now it's Ra who's taking life easy. Just got word...

Bill Henderson has been part of my musical background since the early days, as part of Vancouver bands The Collectors and Chilliwack. Three members of The C-FUN Classics - Howie Vickberg, Claire Lawrence and Glenn Miller - along with Bill and the late Ross Turney - formed The Collectors in 1966. Howie left the group in 1969, and Chilliwack was born the next year. The group played together for more...

Mel Carter's smooth singing voice propelled his million-seller "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" to the #3 spot on the C-FUNtastic 50 in July 1965. His followup single "Band Of Gold" charted in May 1966, but by then the musical tide had turned and Top 40 radio was focused once again on harder-edged rock'n'roll. Mel was a special guest during my final week of CISL Wakeup Club shows and we reminisced in...

Ray Peterson's RCA teen tragedy "Tell Laura I Love Her" topped the charts in 1960. Many radio stations refused to play "Tell Laura I Love Her", fearing the song would incite teens to commit suicide. It was songwriter Jeff Barry's first big pop success. Ray's other hits included "The Wonder of You" (later covered by Elvis), "Missing You," and "Corinna, Corinna" (produced by Phil Spector). "Tell Lau...

Jimmie Rodgers was the foremost folksinger and hitmaker of the late 50's. His first smash was "Honeycomb" on Roulette Records in 1957. In the midst of the first stages of rock'n'roll, Jimmie was a winner with his own unique versions of standard folk songs. His version of folk emphasized a background beat that made his music unique. Starting with "Honeycomb" his string of hits lasted until 1967. It...

As I wrapped up my daily radio career on CISL's Wakeup Club this week in 2000, I took the opportunity to catch up with some of the friends I met along the way. Howie Vickers and I go all the way back to around this time in 1958 when he and his group The Four Quarters opened for Ritchie Valens at the old International Cinema Theatre on Vancouver's Granville Street. I worked again with Howie on CBC...

It's the twenty-first anniversary of the final week of my day-to-day radio career, and we're catching up with some of the hitmakers on CISL's Wakeup Club! Lenny Welch's wistful romantic ballad "Since I Fell For You" was a huge hit around this time in 1963 and it's a perennial favourite with CISL listeners. In this November 2000 interview, Lenny and I talk about Archie Bleyer, the creative genius b...