Bobby Rydell, Teenage Idol With Enduring Appeal, Dies at 79?
In 1959, he had his first hit. He was still drawing crowds six decades later, teaming with fellow performers Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
Bobby Rydell, a Philadelphia-born singer who rose to fame as a teen idol in the late 1950s and, thanks to his pleasant voice, stage presence, and nice-guy demeanour, maintained a devoted following on tour even after both he and his original fans were well past retirement age, died on Tuesday in Abington, Pennsylvania. He was 79 years old at the time.
According to Maria Novey, a spokeswoman for the hospital, pneumonia complications were the cause.
Mr. Rydell, along with Frankie Avalon and Fabian, two other pleasant artists who rose to fame during those years, grew up within a two-block radius of one another in South Philadelphia. They had a lot of success on the oldies circuit long after their pop chart days were over. Since 1985, the three had toured extensively together as the Golden Boys.
Mr. Rydell not only had staying power, but he also made a comeback after years of alcohol consumption, which he detailed in his autobiography, "Bobby Rydell: Teen Idol on the Rocks," co-written with musician and producer Allan Slutsky, published in 2016. In July 2012, he received a kidney and liver transplant after being on the verge of death. By October, he was back on the road, singing with Mr. Avalon on a cruise ship. He underwent heart bypass surgery five months later. Later visits included charity fundraisers for organ donation.
By 2014, his schedule was back to normal, including 11 shows in Australia in February. For the rest of his life, he continued to perform.
Mr. Rydell's peak recording years were roughly between 1959, when Elvis Presley was in the army and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, and 1964, when Beatlemania swept the country. It didn't hurt that Mr. Rydell's label, Cameo Records, was based in Philadelphia at the time, and that Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" was aired from there.
Plaintive love ballads, slow, danceable numbers, the occasional frenzied rocker like "Wild One" and "Swingin' School," and timeless songs like Domenico Modugno's 1958 smash "Volare," which became Mr. Rydell's signature song in his later touring years, were all part of Mr. Rydell's repertory.
Mr. Rydell was a pop sensation, but he wasn't exactly a cutting-edge rocker. Despite this, he sold far more records than some of the others. He charted 19 singles in the Billboard Top 40 and 34 in the Hot 100 during his musical career. The mere mention of his name conjures up an entire era: The Broadway and film adaptations of the 1970s rock musical "Grease" were set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School.
Mr. Rydell was born on April 26, 1942, as Robert Louis Ridarelli. Adrio, his father, was a machine shop foreman, and in 1995, the city of Philadelphia designated South 11th Street as Bobby Rydell Boulevard, where he grew up.
Mr. Rydell's 1963 song "Wildwood Days" was a tribute to Wildwood, New Jersey, where his grandmother maintained a boardinghouse and he spent his early summers; like Philadelphia, Wildwood eventually honoured Mr. Rydell with a street named after him.
Mr. Rydell, unlike some of his era's other attractive faces, was a true musician. As a boy, his father, a big band aficionado, would take him to the Earle Theater in Philadelphia to witness Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He informed his father when he was six years old that he wanted to play the drums like Gene Krupa, and a year or two later, he was singing in local bars.
In the early 1950s, bandleader Paul Whiteman hosted an amateur talent programme called "TV Teen Club" on Philadelphia television. Bobby entered the competition when he was nine years old, and he quickly rose through the ranks to become a regular on the show, where he stayed for three years. For the programme, Bobby's father changed his son's name to Rydell.
Mr. Rydell went solo as a singer after a brief stint as the drummer for a local band, Rocco and the Saints, which included Frankie Avalon on trumpet. His first three Cameo singles were flops, but he broke through in 1959 with "Kissin' Time," which Dick Clark, whose show had taken over for Paul Whiteman's, loved right away. On the Billboard list, it peaked at No. 11.
Mr. Rydell's romantic voice, charming features, and everyday guy personality garnered screams from the girls, but he also had enough adult appeal to be hired at the Copacabana in New York at the age of 19.
Variety praised him for his "feeling of career" during his 1961 Copacabana appearance. "He's a teenager's teenager right now," the Variety critic added. "His technique is full of rhythm and bounce, and he has a charming 'good guy next door' approach. Even the adults are aware of this, which works in his favour."
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