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21970

Bobby Hebb

Bobby Hebb's Genre:

Pop-Soul, Soul, AM Pop, R&B

Biography

Bobby Hebb made his stage debut on his third birthday, July 26, 1941, when tap dancer Harold "Hal" Hebb introduced his little brother to show business at the Bijou Theater. This was an appearance on The Jerry Jackson Revue of 1942, even though it was 1941, "that was how Jerry, a big man in vaudeville in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, did things" noted the singer. Hal was nine years of age at the time and the young brothers worked quite a few nightclubs before Bobby Hebb entered first grade. Nashville establishments like the Hollywood Palm, Eva Thompson Jones Dance Studio, the Paradise Club, and the basement bar in Prentice Alley as well as the aforementioned Bijou Theater found Bobby and Hal dancing and singing tunes like "Lady B. Good," "Let's Do the Boogie Woogie," "Lay That Pistol Down Babe," and other titles that were popular at that time. Hebb's father, William Hebb, played trombone and guitar, his mother, Ovalla Hebb, played piano and guitar, while his grandfather was a chef/cook on the Dixie Flyer, an express train on the L&N -- Louisville & Nashville railroad. Brother Hal would eventually join Excello recording artists the Marigolds, documented in Jay Warner's biography of singer Johnny Bragg, the book Just Walkin' in the Rain; while Bobby, with so much musical influence and inspiration, would go on to pen hundreds upon hundreds of tunes, among them, BMI's number 25 most played song on their website in 2000, the classic "Sunny."

Georgie Fame and Cher charted with the title in England, but it was the Bobby Hebb original that reached the highest on charts in Europe and America. Covers by Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Frankie Valli, Nancy Wilson, the Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, and so many others insured the song would reach audiences outside of those who heard and continue to hear it on Top 40 and "oldies" stations. But the song reached out beyond Top 40, climbing the country and R&B charts as well. Kal Rudman calls this a rare industry "hat trick" in the liner notes on the 1966 Philips album, but what no one could predict is how the song would find versions by Boney M. and Yambu bringing it to dance clubs, while jazz musicians explored the nuances of this amazing composition in their world. Hebb himself, in 2001, performed the title with the Kubato Power Jazz Unit and Michael Shea Trio, the latter band featuring Thomas Hebb, Bobby's nephew, on bass. Noted author James Isaacs, whose liner note essays appear in some of the Sinatra box sets, provided a list of jazz musicians who have covered Hebb's signature tune: guitarist Pat Martino; singers Ernestine Anderson, Bill Henderson, and Anita O'Day; organist Joey DeFrancesco; drummer Don Houge; pianists Joe Bonner and Hampton Hawes; trumpeter/flügelhornist Marvin Stamm; alto saxophonist Sonny Criss; and guitarist Stanley Jordan; among others.

Bobby Hebb's influence goes far beyond "Sunny." When he joined Roy Acuff's Smokey Mountain Boys around 1952 in Nashville, he was one of the first African-American artists to perform on The Grand Ole Opry before Charley Pride. Hebb moved to Chicago in 1954: "I wanted to play some music, and I wanted to advance my career, I didn't find the jazz I was looking for, but I ran into a lot of blues...I worked with Bo Diddley, maybe on an early Ellis McDaniels album." The song was "Diddly Diddly Diddly Daddy" with the Moonglows and Little Walter, recorded at Leonard Chess' studio in the back of his record shop on Cottage Grove Ave.; "Leonard was the engineer," Hebb noted while telling this part of his rich history.

Hebb joined the Navy in 1955, playing the trumpet: "I learned West Coast jazz in the Navy." The Navy band was the USS Pine Island Pirates and they played "the whole time we were on board," including Hong Kong, performing for Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Sooong Mel-llng) at an event. The band got to meet Chiang Kai-shek as well.

Around 1958 Hebb tracked "Night Train to Memphis," a song written by Owen Bradley for Roy Acuff's Smokey Mountain Boys. The tune was re-released in 1998 on a Warner Bros. box set, From Where I Stand, which also included "A Satisfied Mind" from the 1966 Sunny album. After that Hebb worked with Dr. John and left Nashville for New York. Disc jockey John "R" Richbourg, owner of Rich Records, which had released "Night Train to Memphis," got Hebb a gig at Sylvia Robinson's Blue Morocco Club. "I went for two weeks and stayed two years. The first two weeks I opened up with a Bobby Blue Bland song "Farther on Up the Road." The band playing behind me was Jimmy Castor, later on Bernard Purdie had just come to New York from Baltimore with Jewel Paige." Hebb eventually replaced Mickey in Sylvia Robinson's group Mickey & Sylvia, who originally hit with "Love Is Strange." The duo became Bobby & Sylvia after Mickey left for Paris.

After Bobby & Sylvia, Hebb was represented by Buster Newman, the man who "got 'Sunny' happening in a lot of different ways." All the publishers they went to turned the song down. Newman's partner was Lloyd Greenfield, who managed Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, adding to his roster Bobby Hebb. While other groups in 1966 like Remains and the Ronnie Spector-less Ronettes opened for the Beatles, Bobby Hebb was headlining the tour with the Beatles, a fact that seems to have gotten lost in the overwhelming history of the Fab Four. After this, Hebb met comedian/composer Sandy Baron and the two got busy writing a Broadway show that never made it to Broadway. However, two of the songs -- "A Natural Man" and a tune they were writing about Marvin Gaye, "His Song Shall Be Sung" -- were picked up by Lou Rawls and released on MGM. The pair had actually rejected "A Natural Man" from their Broadway play. The original title of the song was "Natural Resource," but they doctored it up and gave it a different groove after Sandy Baron got Rawls interested in what became a huge hit for him. In 2001, the song was the title track on Natural Man/Classic Lou, a Rawls best-of released by Universal.

Sadly, Baron passed away in 2001, the year that saw the release of Roof Music's 16-track compilation of artists covering "Sunny," and interest in Europe for the song and the man who wrote and sang the definitive version. On July 28, 2001, two days after Hebb's 63rd birthday, Bernard Purdie was performing with Masters of Groove at The House of Blues in Cambridge, MA and -- for the first time in over three decades -- Hebb and Purdie spoke on the phone and got to see each other at the show that evening. Hebb also performed in June of 2001 at the opening of the Martini & Rossi 100 Years photo exhibit in Boston, shortly after graduating from mini-med school. Bobby Hebb passed away at age 72 on August 3, 2010, after battling lung cancer. ~ Joe Viglione

AOL Radio Stations Bobby Hebb is Featured on (6)

Delta Spirit Showcase

This is the Delta Spirit Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by the band including music that is hand-picked by Jon, Brandon, Matthew, Kelly and WIlliam as well as commentary by each about the songs that influenced their music and their lives.

The White Buffalo Showcase

This is The White Buffalo Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by The White Buffalo including music that he hand-picked as well as commentary about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

'60s Hits

It was the decade that defined a generation. The Gulf of Tonkin, Neil Armstrong, Spiderman, Little Deuce Coupe, Mustang Sally, Get Smart, Twiggy, and We Shall Overcome. Yeah, yeah, yeah...it was fab, gear, groovy and boss. Turn on, tune in, and drop out with '60s Hits on Slacker Radio.

Oldies

Oldies on Slacker Radio plays the best songs from the '60s and '70s and the '50s too!

Classic Hits

Classic Hits on Slacker plays the greatest pop and rock hits of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Bobby Hebb

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like The Foundations, The 5th Dimension, Four Tops, The Box Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, The Rascals, The Supremes, The Buckinghams, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, Barbara Lewis and more.

All Stations

Bobby Hebb's Selected Discography (3)

Artists Related to Bobby Hebb (50)

	The Foundations	The Foundations were a surprisingly obscure late-'60s outfit, considering that they managed to reach the tops of the both the British and American charts more than once in the space of a year and had a solid three years of recordings.
	The 5th Dimension	The Fifth Dimension's unique sound lay somewhere between smooth, elegant soul and straightforward, adult-oriented pop, often with a distinct flower-power vibe.
	Four Tops	The Four Tops' story is one of longevity and togetherness: these Motown legends teamed up in high school and spent over four decades without a single personnel change.
	The Box Tops	During their brief lifespan, the Box Tops earned a reputation as one of the best blue-eyed soul groups of the '60s, even if their recorded legacy wasn't as large or consistent as, say, the Righteous Brothers or the Rascals.
	Martha & the Vandellas	Along with the Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas defined the distaff side of the Motown sound in the '60s; their biggest hits, including "Heat Wave," "Dancing in the Street," and "Nowhere to Run," remain among the most potent and enduring dance records of the era.
	The Rascals	The Rascals, along with the Righteous Brothers, Mitch Ryder, and precious few others, were the pinnacle of '60s blue-eyed soul.
	The Supremes	The most successful American performers of the 1960s, the Supremes for a time rivaled even the Beatles in terms of red-hot commercial appeal, reeling off five number one singles in a row at one point.
	The Buckinghams	If everyone on the northwest side of Chicago who claims to have hung out with the Buckinghams during their heyday had faithfully bought all their releases, the rock group might have sold more records than the Beatles.
	Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose	A Florida family group, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose had a brief moment in the sun in 1972, with their self-titled United Artists LP.
	Barbara Lewis	Pop-soul doesn't get much better than Barbara Lewis, whose seductive, emotive croon took "Hello Stranger" to number three in 1963.
	Dusty Springfield	Britain's greatest pop diva, Dusty Springfield was also the finest white soul singer of her era, a performer of remarkable emotional resonance whose body of work spans the decades and their attendant musical transformations with a consistency and purity unmatched by any of her contemporaries; though a camp icon of glamorous excess in her towering beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara, the sultry intimacy and heartbreaking urgency of Springfield's voice transcended image and fashion, embracing everything from lushly orchestrated pop to gritty R&B to disco with unparalleled sophistication and depth.
	Mary Wells	Time and legions of other soul superstars have obscured the fact that for a brief moment, Mary Wells was Motown's biggest star.
	Classics IV	Anyone who doesn't have a clear image of the Classics IV can be forgiven -- they went through so many shifts in personnel and sound (not to mention a name change after they'd started recording), they were little more than a name attached to some excellent (and very good-selling) records of the second half of the 1960s, without a personality or identity to grab onto easily.
	The Five Stairsteps	The Five Stairsteps were "The First Family of Soul." A title bestowed upon the Chicago-based teenaged group in part because of their astounding five-year run of hits, which included the 1970 million-selling single "O-o-h Child.
	Edwin Starr	Rightly revered for the storming protest classic "War," Edwin Starr didn't really need another hit to achieve legendary status in soul circles, so electrifying was that single performance.
	The Association	The Association was one of the more underrated groups to come out of the mid- to late '60s. Creators of an enviable string of hits from 1966 through 1969, they got caught in a shift in popular culture and the unwritten criteria for significance in that field and never recovered.
	The Grass Roots	The Grass Roots had a series of major hits -- most notably "Let's Live for Today," "Midnight Confessions," "Temptation Eyes," and "Two Divided by Love" -- that help define the essence of the era's best AM radio.
	Junior Walker	Motown's skilled but mostly anonymous instrumentalists very rarely stepped out on their own. The lone exception to the rule was tenor saxman Junior Walker, whose rough-and-ready, old-school R&B was a marked contrast with the label's typically smooth, polished product.
	Ben E. King	From the groundbreaking orchestrated productions of the Drifters to his own solo hits, Ben E. King was the definition of R&B elegance.
	Tommy James & the Shondells	Tommy James & the Shondells -- the very mention of their name, even to someone who doesn't really know their music, evokes images of dances and the kind of fun that rock & roll represented before it redefined itself on more serious terms.
	The Temptations	Thanks to their fine-tuned choreography -- and even finer harmonies -- the Temptations became the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s; one of Motown's most elastic acts, they tackled both lush pop and politically charged funk with equal flair, and weathered a steady stream of changes in personnel and consumer tastes with rare dignity and grace.
	The Turtles	Though many remember only their 1967 hit, "Happy Together," the Turtles were one of the more enjoyable American pop groups of the '60s, moving from folk-rock inspired by the Byrds to a sparkling fusion of Zombies-inspired chamber pop and straight-ahead, good-time pop reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful, the whole infused with beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of dual frontmen Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman.
	The Drifters	The history of rhythm and blues is filled with vocal groups whose names -- the Orioles, the Cadillacs, the Crows, the Flamingos, the Moonglows, the Coasters, the Penguins -- are held in reverence by fanatics and devotees.
	The Marvelettes	Probably the most pop-oriented of Motown's major female acts, the Marvelettes didn't project as strong an identity as the Supremes, Mary Wells, or Martha Reeves, but recorded quite a few hits, including Motown's first number one single, "Please Mr.
	Sam Cooke	Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history -- he was also the inventor of soul music, and its most popular and beloved performer in both the black and white communities.
	The Cowsills	The real-life inspiration behind the hit television series The Partridge Family, the Cowsills -- comprised of teen siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Susan, and Paul in tandem with mother Barbara -- were one of the biggest pop acts of the late '60s, scoring a series of hits including "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" and "Hair" with their angelic harmonies and sun-kissed melodies.
	Gary Lewis	It would be difficult to find a rock & roll star -- and that was what he was for two years in the mid-'60s -- less likely than Gary Lewis, or a less probable chart-topping act than Gary Lewis & the Playboys.
	The Four Seasons	The Four Seasons (or the 4 Seasons, as they were numerically billed in their heyday) were among the most successful pop singles artists of the rock era.
	The Cyrkle	The Cyrkle didn't seem like much more than a two-hit wonder in 1966 when they charted with "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn Down Day.
	Jackie DeShannon	Singer and songwriter Jackie DeShannon has quite a musical legacy. Her early singles crafted doo wop to intelligent lyrics.
	The Spinners	The Spinners were the greatest soul group of the early '70s, creating a body of work that defined the lush, seductive sound of Philly soul.
	Billy Preston	It's advantageous to get an early start on your chosen career, but Billy Preston took the concept to extremes.
	Los Bravos	In 1966, this Spanish quintet became one of the very few rock groups from a non-English speaking country to have an international smash with "Black Is Black," which got to number four in the U.
	Tom Jones	Tom Jones became one of the most popular vocalists to emerge from the British Invasion. Since the mid-'60s, Jones has sung nearly every form of popular music -- pop, rock, show tunes, country, dance, and techno, he's sung it all.
	Jackie Wilson	Jackie Wilson was one of the most important agents of black pop's transition from R&B into soul. In terms of vocal power (especially in the upper register), few could outdo him; he was also an electrifying on-stage showman.
	Marvin Gaye	One of the most gifted, visionary, and enduring talents ever launched into orbit by the Motown hit machine, Marvin Gaye blazed the trail for the continued evolution of popular black music.
	Gary Puckett	During the late '60s -- a period forever distinguished as rock's most radical, innovative, and far-reaching -- Gary Puckett and the Union Gap forged a series of massive chart ballads almost otherworldly in their sheer earnestness and melodrama.
	Dionne Warwick	It is easier to define Dionne Warwick by what she isn't rather than what she is. Although she grew up singing in church, she is not a gospel singer.
	The Lovin' Spoonful	Right on the tails of the Beau Brummels and the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful were among the first American groups to challenge the domination of the British Invasion bands in the mid-'60s.
	Jerry Butler	Jerry Butler's career spans four decades; he recorded more than 50 albums and his voice is one of the most distinguished voices in all of music.
	Aretha Franklin	Aretha Franklin is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged.
	Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds	Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds hold a special place in the annals of rock and not just for their oldies station perennial "Don't Pull Your Love (Out).
	Brenton Wood	Brenton Wood's charmingly unpredictable phrasing and his infectious sense of good times made the smooth uptown soul of "The Oogum Boogum Song" and "Gimme Little Sign" into hits in 1967.
	The Righteous Brothers	They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (both born in 1940) were most definitely righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s.
	Blood, Sweat & Tears	No American rock group ever started with as much daring or musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully -- and then blew it all as quickly.
	Jay & the Techniques	A Philadelphia group whose sound and songs were more pop than soul, Jay & the Techniques earned some points for the playful, joyous "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie," which was their lone Top 10 R&B and pop hit in 1967 on Smash.
	Sonny & Cher	Sonny & Cher proved one of the magical musical combinations of the mid-'60s and one of the better rock-influenced MOR acts of the early '70s, their wisecracking repartee providing counterpoint to a series of adoring hit duets.
	The Mamas & The Papas	The leading California-based vocal group of the '60s, the Mamas & the Papas epitomized the ethos of the mid- to late-'60s pop culture: live free, play free, and love free.
	The Soul Survivors	The Soul Survivors' only giant hit, "Expressway to Your Heart," was one of the first notable productions by Philadelphia wizards Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in 1967.
	The Troggs	Remembered chiefly as proto-punkers who reached the top of the charts with the "caveman rock" of "Wild Thing" (1966), the Troggs were also adept at crafting power pop and ballads.