So sad to just learn that Bobby Rydell passed away. He was a youthful fave for ALL of the Besch Boys. :(
Clark
Kent,
You probably already know this, but I just got an emergency text that Bobby Rydell has just passed away due to covid. I just last night played one of his records.
I don't do this all that often, but I just got through playing all my 45's of Bobby Rydell that made the national charts for him, the major and also minor hits. Enjoyed hearing them again. I also played his first record, I believe, and that was FATTY FATTY from 1957, a record one could not play today on the radio because it wouldn't be politically correct. Incidentally, on the network news tonight, there was no mention of his passing. I also expect the same tomorrow on the network news. Maybe a very small notice in our paper tomorrow, but I doubt it. Obviously, there will be notices tomorrow in Philadelphia's papers.
Not only are the HITS FORGOTTEN, but nowadays the singers and groups are also forgotten.
Larry
The news of Bobby Rydell’s passing yesterday rocked the oldies world … he was one of the original teen idols from the late ‘50’s … one of The Bandstand Boys and then one of The Golden Boys … who, like Frankie Avalon, crossed over to the movie screen as well. (Who can forget his starring role in “Bye Bye Birdie”???) He and Ann-Margret stayed tight for the rest of their lives. I remember him asking her, when both were in their 70’s, “How come we never got married?” It was always playful banter between these two ‘60’s icons. They even named the high school in the hit musical “Grease” after him!!! I think you’ll find that there will be quite a bit of coverage over the next several days.
(Here’s what the New York Post had to say after the death announcement was made public: https://nypost.com/2022/04/05/bobby-rydell-teen-idol-and-volare-singer-dead-at-79/ … Bobby passed away just three weeks shy of what would have been his 80th birthday.)
The truth is that Bobby has had any number of health scares over the last several decades … he had multiple organ transplants (I used to tease him about being the real-life Bionic Man!) as well as a long-standing drinking problem that he went public with … but it was pneumonia that finally did him in this time around. (Early reports of Covid apparently were not accurate … or at the least real cause of his death.)
Bobby Rydell and I had a very odd relationship.
When we first hooked up to do an interview to help promote
his new autobiography, the deal was he was only going to give me fifteen
minutes … that was his standard time allowance as he was talking to any number
of media outlets that might help him to get the word out about his book. (Honestly, I've never understood what kind of in-depth interview can be accomplished in just fifteen minutes ... it forces every interviewer to ask only the most obvious questions, making virtually every interview read the same way by the time it finally goes out to the public. Even if those time-restraint rules are mandated by the artist, it ultimately does a disservice to the artist in the long run, who will then usually complain about why everybody always asks them the same questions!!!)
As luck would have it, we hit it off and ended up talking for over an hour … by the time we were finished, it was like we were old friends … and this was the first time we had ever spoken.
But when I went back to him a few days later to tie up some loose ends with a few follow-up questions, he just about took my head off, telling me that he had already given me three times as much time for an interview as he had afforded anyone else.
I explained that I just wanted to do it right … and that NOBODY was going to give him the kind of coverage, attention and exposure that I was putting together for our piece. After answering a few more of my questions (VERY few!), he ended our conversation by telling me not to contact him anymore.
My plan all along was to run a week-long series, not only giving him a chance to push the new book, but also a chance to talk about his entire career. I knew that Forgotten Hits could provide the perfect forum and audience ... an opportunity to reach the fans who stayed with him throughout his entire career. (One reader even commented that he met Bobby at a Meet and Greet after a concert several years ago and that he had brought along a stack of albums he was hoping Bobby would sign. When one of the security people told him that Bobby would sign only one album and then he’d have to move along, Bobby interrupted him and said, “No … he BOUGHT all of these albums … and I am going to SIGN all of these albums!!!”)
And, quite honestly, virtually everything I've ever heard about Bobby Rydell was about what a great guy he was ... SO fan-friendly and appreciative ... which was much more in keeping with our original conversation.
But let’s face it … in 2016 when Bobby’s book “Teen Idol On The
Rocks” came out, he wasn’t exactly a household name anymore … but I was
hell-bent on affording him more press than he had had in years. (And, truth be told, I really enjoyed his book!)
Yet here we were, after one EXCEPTIONALLY great first meeting, Bobby was refusing to answer any more of my questions or clarify any other points that I wanted to make sure were accurately clear in the final piece.
Determined, good guy that I am, I polished things off as best I could and went ahead and ran the series … and even promoted the heck out of it. Bobby Rydell was, after all, a MAJOR star in his day, enjoying cross-over success in music, television and movies … I knew he likely had a legion of fans who had stuck with him since the very start that would be interested in reading this piece if it were done right.
The series got a very positive response and I was quite
proud of how it all came out … although I will admit that virtually ANYBODY I
told about how hard it was trying to pry answers from him there at the end told me to just write him off as
a complete asshole once they’d heard the story!
(lol) Some even suggested that I not run it at all!
And then, perhaps even MORE amazingly, I even got him booked to perform at The
Arcada Theatre … first time he’d played Chicago in DECADES! And yet when I went backstage afterwards to
say hello, he pretty much blew me off again and barely said a word. (And most certainly not a "thank you.")
And then, all of a sudden, I started hearing from readers all over the country who were listening to Bobby do radio and newspaper interviews in their area while he was on his book promotion tour and telling some of these other jocks and reporters to check out the piece Forgotten Hits did on him, how good it was and how we had pulled out all the stops to really showcase him as an artist. In fact, even a couple of the DJs on the list who did interviews with him told me that they had NEVER had an artist refer them to somebody ELSE’s interview before!!!
So OBVIOUSLY he liked it … but was just never a big enough man to admit it or say thank you. Too bad … we delivered on our promise and were only too happy to share the story Bobby wanted to tell. (And the truth is, it’s a really good book!)
The reason, I believe, that MY piece stood out over all the others that ran literally around the world during this time period, is because EVERY other reporter from coast to coast simply took the approach of referring to Bobby Rydell as “the Justin Bieber of his day” … I swear it was part of every single headline I could find! … whereas I took the time to talk to Bobby about his ENTIRE career.
We covered the movies and the TV spots … the records and the Teen Idols Tours … heck, we even talked about him coaching his own kid’s baseball team!
In fact, you can still read the entire series on the Forgotten Hits web page … http://forgottenhits.com/bobby_rydell
I have always wished that we would have parted on better terms and stayed in touch …
I held up my end of the bargain and I have to believe that Bobby was very pleased with what I wrote … even if he never told me so. I heard it from enough other people to know it to be true.
In hindsight, I’m glad I never called him out on the whole thing … and am proud that I took the high road and gave him a bang-up piece that we BOTH could be proud of.
Goodbye, Bobby ... it was fun while it lasted ...
And thank you for taking so many people on a life-long pleasure ride.
kk
The Bobby Rydell Hit List: 22 Top 50 National Hits, 1959 - 1964
1959 - KISSIN' TIME (#11)
WE GOT LOVE (#2)
I DIG GIRLS (#44) flip side of WE GOT LOVE
1960 - WILD ONE (#2, and Bobby's biggest hit)
LITTLE BITTY GIRL (#19) flip side of WILD ONE
SWINGIN' SCHOOL (#5) from the movie "Because They're Young" --
it has been reported that Lennon and McCartney were thinking
about this song and its structure when they wrote "She Loves You" ...
but the same has also been said about "We Got Love." In 1964,
Bobby’s version of the Lennon-McCartney tune “A World Without
Love” competed with Peter and Gordon’s version for a few weeks on
the pop charts. Peter and Gordon eventually went to #1 with their
rendition … while Bobby’s version topped out at #71 in Record World
… and only made it to #103 in Cash Box.
DING-A-LING (#17) flip side of SWINGIN' SCHOOL
VOLARE (#4)
SWAY (#12) in 1976, Bobby recorded and released a very good
disco version of this song (it "bubbled under" at #114)
1961 - GOOD TIME BABY (#10)
THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC (#17)
THE FISH (#16)
I WANNA THANK YOU (#21)
JINGLE BELL ROCK (#20) duet with Chubby Checker
1962 - I'VE GOT BONNIE (#17)
LOSE HER (#49) flip side of I'VE GOT BONNIE
I'LL NEVER DANCE AGAIN (#14)
THE CHA-CHA-CHA (#10)
1963 - BUTTERFLY BABY (#22)
WILDWOOD DAYS (#17) This one became an East Coast’s anthem ...
Bobby refers to the beaches and nightllife in Wildwood, N.J.
FORGET HIM (#4) my personal favorite ... written by Tony Hatch, who
also wrote "Downtown" and most of Petula Clark's key hits. The flip
side was the spoken word track "Message from Bobby, in which he
talks about "Bye Bye Birdie" and promotes "Forget Him." I also have
always loved Bobby's versions of "Sway" and "Volare." (kk)
1964 -MAKE ME FORGET (#43)
