OBSERVER: Whatever Happened to Bobby Rydell
When I was a teenager I had all the singles by Bobby Rydell on 45 rpm records. I am sure many of our readers were also fans.
He had a bright and breezy style which endeared him to fans throughout the world.
Robert Louis Ridarelli was born in 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He won a talent quest on the television show Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club when he was only eight and worked with various bands throughout his teenage years.
He was 17 when he signed a recording contract with Cameo Records under the name of Bobby Rydell.
His first hit was Kissin Time got into the hit parade in 1959. The following year Bobby had a string of hit songs which included Swinging School, Volaro, Forget Him and Sway.
In 1960 Bobby made his first visit to Australia in one of the Lee Gordon Big Shows.
He recalled when his plane touched down in Sydney there were hundreds of teenagers at the airport.
As Bobby and the Everly Brothers stepped off the plane, the crowd surged past them to surround Billy ‘Crash’ Craddock who was huge with Australian teenagers but practically unknown at that time in America.
Bobby Rydell was cast asd ‘Hugo Peabody’ in the 1963 film Bye bye Birdie where he starred with Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret and Janet Leigh.
He also guest starred in television series such as Combat, Make Room For Daddy and My Two Dads.
In Australia, Bobby was a regular guest on television shows such as the Don Lane Show, The Midday Show and Brian Henderson’s Bandstand.
He married Camille Quattrone in 1968 at Stella Maris Catholic Church in South Phil-adelphia and there were 1000 fans in attendance.
The marriage was very happy and the couple had two childrne. Sadly, Camille died of cancer in 2003 and six years later Bobby married his second wife Linda Hoffman.
In the film Grease the high school ‘Rydell High is named in his honour. In the 1980s Bobby joined with Frankie Avalon and Fabian to tout in a show titled The Golden Boys of Bandstand in venues in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Several years ago Bobby asked m,e if I had a copy of his record Kissin Time Australia Way as he could not find a copy and he needed it to write the music arrangements for his band. I was happy to oblige.
I had the pleasure of seeing Bobby perform in Melbourne at The Palms at Crown in a sold-out show – and ‘guess what’… the show opened with Bobby bouncing out onstage to sing Kissin Time Australia Way.
In his later years this fantastic singher had open heart surgery, a liver and a kidney transplant, and he bounced back singing better than ever.
Bobby lobed Australia, and Australia loved the singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sadly, Bobby Rydell passed awayon April 5, 2022 from complications of pneumonia. His music lives on through his recordings.
Kevin Trask (pictured with Nonny Rydell)