Bobby Hebb

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Sunny
  US 103 09/10/1966 (12 weeks)
Singles
Sunny
  US 2 06/25/1966 (15 weeks)
  UK 12 09/08/1966 (9 weeks)
A Satisfied Mind
  US 39 10/08/1966 (6 weeks)
Love me
  US 84 December 31, 1966 (3 weeks)
Love love love
  UK 32 08/19/1972 (6 weeks)

Bobby Hebb (born July 26, 1938 in Nashville , Tennessee ; † August 3, 2010 there ; real name Robert Von Hebb ) was an American singer and songwriter . He became known in 1966 for his hit Sunny .

Life

Bobby Hebb grew up in a very musical family. His parents, although both blind, were musicians, as were many relatives, including the blues musician Leadbelly . His brother Harold, who was six years older than him, had learned tap dancing, and with him he stood on stage for the first time as a vocal accompanist at a vaudeville show when he was just three years old. During his childhood he often performed with his brother and his parents in clubs and on stages in Nashville.

Harold 'Hal' Hebb later joined the R&B band Marigolds, while Bobby was a member of the country troupe Roy Acuff 's Smokey Mountain Boys from around 1952 and appeared with them in the Grand Ole Opry , as one of the first African-Americans. In 1954 he went to Chicago, where he became interested in blues music and met Bo Diddley . Shortly thereafter, he joined the US Navy jazz band as a trumpeter for some time.

Hebb made his first record in 1958 with the title Night Train to Memphis . Three years later he went to New York, where he performed for two years in Sylvia Robinson's Blue Morocco Club . Robinson was part of the successful duo Mickey & Silvia ( Love Is Strange ) and when Mickey Baker went to Europe in the mid-1960s, Hebb replaced him and continued with Robinson for some time as Bobby & Sylvia .

Sunny

Hebb's brother had died in a knife fight in Nashville in November 1963 . In the mood of the time, Bobby Hebb wrote the hopeful song Sunny . The Japanese Mieko Hirota first recorded the song in 1965. It was only after Bobby & Sylvia ended in 1966 that he made his first own recording - and with it he had his biggest hit. The single was a million seller and reached number 2 on the US charts. He was also successful in England.

After the hit

Bobby Hebb had two other smaller hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album named after the song also made it into the sales charts, but Sunny remained his outstanding success (" One-Hit-Wonder "). He even headlined him with the Beatles on a US tour.

In the following years, alcohol problems stalled Hebb's career. In the 70s he had another UK hit with Love Love Love and his disc version of his biggest hit Sunny '76 again reached number 11 on the US disco charts.

After that, Hebb mainly worked as a songwriter . Among other things, he wrote a Broadway show with Sandy Baron and together they also wrote the hit A Natural Man by Lou Rawls , for which he received a Grammy . However, for a long time after 1970, Bobby Hebb made hardly any recordings of his own and an album was not released again until 2005. He died of lung cancer in Nashville on August 3, 2010, at the age of 72.

swell

  1. ↑ US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 . / US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  2. ↑ Charts UK
  3. ↑ Painting pictures with voice and guitar. Interview with Bobby Hebb , satt.org, April 2006

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hebb, Bobby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hebb, Robert Von (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee , USA
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 2010
Place of death Nashville , Tennessee , USA