Starting out as a teen idol during the 1950s, Bobby Rydell went on to sell over 25 million records including more than 30 Top 100 hits, placing him in the Top 5 artists of his era. Rydell has performed internationally for millions of fans, appeared on dozens of television shows, and starred in the Hollywood film Bye Bye Birdie. He is also the author of the 2016 autobiography, Bobby Rydell: Teen Idol on the Rocks.

Spotlight Central recently caught up with Bobby Rydell and talked to him about his early years as a budding musician, his rise to fame, his encounters with various celebrities including Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, as well as what he’s been up to lately.

Spotlight Central: You grew up in South Philly, but you spent your summers at your grandmother’s boarding house in Wildwood, NJ. What did you like most about summers at the Jersey Shore?

Bobby Rydell: What wasn’t there to like? Wildwood is my second home — South Philadelphia is my first, and Wildwood is my second South Philadelphia. My grandmother had a boarding house at 232 East Montgomery Avenue and it was right down the corner from Kelly’s Cafe and right across the street from Fox Park. We used to play ball at Fox Park and, of course, we’d go up on the boardwalk and to the different movie theaters where we’d meet with all the guys and girls we grew up with around the neighborhood in South Philadelphia.

Everybody went to Wildwood, NJ — it was the greatest beach and the safest beach. In fact, I was a mascot for one of the lifeguards there when I was ten years old, and it was a thrill. I got a shirt — an athletic T-shirt — with “WBP” on it, Wildwood Beach Patrol. So I’ve spent so many years in Wildwood, and I still make it a point for my wife and myself to travel there.

Spotlight Central: When you were a kid, you played on pots, pans, and cooking utensils as your first drum set. Your dad also took you to the Earle Theater in Philadelphia where you saw the Benny Goodman band featuring drummer Gene Krupa, which is where you told your father, “I wanna be that guy playing drums!” What was it about the drums that got you so interested in wanting to play them?

Bobby Rydell: I guess it was all because of seeing Gene Krupa playing drums when I was five years old. I told my father, “You see that guy, Daddy, playing drums? I don’t know his name, but I wanna be him!” and I started playing drums hitting on my grandmother’s pots and pans and bending them. My grandmother used to say to my father, “Why don’t you go out and get him a set of drums instead of him banging on my pots and pans?” So my father took me to a pawn shop and we bought a set of drums by Revere. Not the greatest drums in the world — it wasn’t a name drum set like Slingerland, Gretsch, or William F. Ludwig — but at least it was a drum set.

And then my father lost his finger at work — he worked on a punch press — and he got quite a bit of money, and with that money he took me to a place called 8th Street Music in town in Philadelphia. He said, “Pick out the drum set you want,” and I picked out a William F. Ludwig black oyster pearl set and I think I still have the receipt. I believe the whole set — with cymbals, stands, and everything — was about $500. You can’t even buy a cymbal today for $500!

Spotlight Central: As a kid, your dad also took you to sit in with bands at clubs, singing and doing impersonations of various singers and actors. What got you interested in singing and doing impressions?

Bobby Rydell: The only reason I’m in the business today is because of my dad. I used to mimic everybody I saw on TV, and I used to sing around the house. My father took me to nightclubs when I was around seven or eight years old and he would ask the club owners, “Is it ok if my son got up and sang a few songs and did some impersonations?” And so, at that very early age, it became like a vaudeville to me, and it kind of set me up for what was going to happen later on in my career — not knowing it was gonna happen — but it was like my kind of vaudeville. And I remember being on stage, and I would sing and I’d do impersonations, and people applauded. And I thought to myself at that early age, “Wow! All I have to do is do this and they’ll do that? What a wonderful feeling!” So it was all because of my dad that I’m in the business. He was my champion.

Spotlight Central: By the age of 10 or 11, you became a regular on a television show, TV Teen Club, with its musical director, Paul Whiteman. As a kid, you got to work with the musician famous for commissioning George Gershwin to create Rhapsody in Blue! Was there anything special you learned about the music business from Mr. Whiteman?

Bobby Rydell: Well, he was the moderator — the host — of the show. And a funny story about that: a man by the name of Bernie Lowe was playing the piano with Pops Whiteman. I was 10 years old at the time, but who knew that seven years later Mr. Lowe would become my boss? He was the president of Cameo Records, which later became Cameo-Parkway Records. And, yeah, so that story goes back quite a few years.

I won on that show by doing impersonations, and I became a regular on the show doing production numbers. The show was sponsored by Tootsie Rolls, and when I won, I got prizes — I think I still have cartons of Tootsie Rolls from when I was 10 years old! And I also won an RCA 45 rpm record player, which I still have to this day, plus loads and loads of LPs and 78s of people like Enrico Caruso and Tex Beneke, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, and Count Basie. When we moved out of South Philadelphia up to the area they call the Main Line in Pennsylvania, I don’t know what happened to all of that stuff but, you know, somebody must have ended up with some really good stuff!

Spotlight Central: You just mentioned meeting Bernie Lowe when you were doing TV Teen Club, and along with Kal Mann, Bernie Lowe composed the hit, “Teddy Bear,” for Elvis Presley. Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann also started Cameo Records, they signed you, and by 1959 you had your first hit, “Kissin’ Time.” How did it feel, as a teenager, to hear yourself on the radio and have your first big hit song climbing the charts?

Bobby Rydell: Oh, it was a wonderful feeling! I remember the first time when my first manager, Frankie Day, and I were on the Jersey Turnpike and we were getting into New York radio territory and I heard Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow saying, “Here’s a young kid with a brand new record. His name is Bobby Rydell. Here he is: Bobby with ‘Kissin’ Time’” And I said, “WOW!” [Laughs] You know, it was tremendous!

Spotlight Central: You followed “Kissin’ Time” with “We Got Love,” famous for its “yeah yeah yeahs.” Paul McCartney once said that the call and response of The Beatles’ song, “She Loves You,” was modeled on “a Bobby Rydell song out at the time.” Many people have suggested the song was “Forget Him,” and at least one Beatles scholar has suggested it was “Swingin’ School,” but what do you say?

Bobby Rydell: I haven’t the slightest idea! It’s either “We Got Love” with the “yeah yeah yeahs,” or “Swingin’ School” with “Woah woah, yeah yeah,” or they wrote “She loves you/Yeah yeah yeah” because “Forget Him” was [sings] “Forget him/‘Cause he doesn’t love you.” So their song was [sings] “She loves you/Yeah yeah yeah,” but I don’t know exactly which one of my songs influenced it.

Spotlight Central: Whichever one it is, it’s still pretty cool to have been the inspiration for such an iconic song!

Bobby Rydell: Yeah, yeah, pretty cool. You know, I first met them in 1963. I was working with a young lady by the name of Helen Shapiro — a marvelous singer from the UK — and we were traveling on a bus throughout the UK. It was about 10 or 11 o’clock at night and we were going to whatever city we were appearing in next in the UK. A car appeared in front of us and Helen Shapiro said, “Here are The Beatles,” and I started looking around the bus for cockroaches. Four guys came on the bus, and they all knew who I was, but I didn’t know who they were, and they soon went on their way and I just said, “OK, I guess they’re just four guys who are going to do a club date or a social event or whatever.”

That was back in ’63, but in ’64, I’m home and I’m watching The Ed Sullivan Show and Ed Sullivan introduces The Beatles. And I said, “Oh my God, I met those guys!” And what a great picture that would have been: somewhere in the middle of the UK at 10 or 11 o’clock at night and these four guys come on the bus — I guess to say “hello” to Helen Shapiro, because they knew Helen and then they met me — and, of course, they knew me from the hit records that I’d had but, really, that was one hell of an experience!

Spotlight Central: One of our favorite songs of yours is “Wild One,” which was your first million-selling gold single. In your book, you explain that, in the recording studio, a special technique was used to get a very unique sound on your recordings. What was that unusual technique?

Bobby Rydell: All I can remember is the engineer’s first name — which was Emil — and the studio was called Rec-O-Art. It was at 12th and Vine Streets in Philadelphia, and is now Sigma Sound. But Emil used to put a speaker and a microphone two stories above the recording studio in the men’s room. And because of the tile in the men’s room, the sound from the studio would feed back down into the mixing board and that became the reverb on all of the records we did at Rec-O-Art at the time.

Spotlight Central: It gave the records a cool sound! After a few more hits — including “Volare,” your signature song — you toured Australia with The Everly Brothers, became the youngest performer to headline at the Copacabana Club in New York City, and made dozens of appearances on television with hosts including Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, George Burns, and Mike Douglas in addition to being featured on shows like Make Room For Daddy with Danny Thomas, To Tell the Truth, and even Combat! What was your favorite show you ever appeared on, or your favorite television star you got to work with?

Bobby Rydell: That would have to be Red Skelton. I did something like 12 shows for Mr. Skelton. I remember sitting in the audience with my manager and a producer of The Red Skelton Hour whose name was Cecil Barker. He turned to me and said, “I understand you do an impersonation of one of Red’s characters?” And I said, “Yes, I do Clem Kadiddlehopper.” And he said, “Can I hear it?” And I started [sings], “Loo-di-dee-dee, ya-dee-dee doo-doo.” And Mr. Skelton was rehearsing with David Rose off to my left and he overheard me and he started talking back to me as Clem Kadiddlehopper. Lo and behold, I did something like 12 shows with Mr. Skelton and on one of the shows that I did, I played Clem Kadiddlehopper’s cousin, Zeke Kadiddlehopper. From what I understand, I was the only guest star who ever imitated one of Red’s characters.

I also become very very close with Mr. Skelton. I would always call him “Mr. Skelton” when we would go to rehearsal or to script read or whatever — it was always “Mr. Skelton,” and he used to call me “Mr. Rydell.” And Mr. Skelton would always say, “Please, Bobby. My name is Red. Call me Red and I’ll call you Bobby,” but it was very very hard to call him Red — very hard!

Spotlight Central: Because you respected him so much.

Bobby Rydell: Absolutely, yeah!

Spotlight Central: At the age of 21, you appeared in the 1962 film, Bye Bye Birdie, with Ann-Margaret where you not only got to sing, but to act and dance, as well. You’ve said that once you signed on to this project, your script seemed to get bigger and bigger every single day. Is that right?

Bobby Rydell: That’s correct. Ann-Margaret and I screen-tested together for George Sidney, who was the director of Bye Bye Birdie and a lot of other great movies as well. So, you know, you screen test — you read a few lines from the script, you sing a few lines from, you know, [sings] “One boy, one special boy,” and so on and so forth — and Mr. Sidney said, “Thank you ever so much. We’ll be in touch.”

Now I go back home and I’m in Philadelphia. In two weeks, I get a phone call from my manager, Frankie Day, saying I landed the part of Hugo Peabody — who was Ann-Margaret’s boyfriend — and she would play the part of Kim MacAfee. So now we’re starting to make the motion picture, and I would imagine that Mr. Sidney saw some kind of magic between Ann-Margaret and myself. Every day that I would go to the studio at Columbia Pictures, my script would get bigger and bigger and bigger where I had more lines, I was involved in singing, I was involved in all the dancing — and I think that was because Mr. Sidney saw quite a bit of magic between Ann and myself.

And to this day — we made that picture back in 1963 when I was 21 and Ann-Margaret was 22 — we still keep in touch. I’ll call her every couple of months or so just to say, “How are you doing?” And she’s always been absolutely wonderful. She’s a sweetheart and she is a very dear friend, and to have the friendship for that many years — since 1963 — is just wonderful.

Spotlight Central: In the ’60s, you played The Steel Pier in Atlantic City, but it wasn’t necessarily such an easy gig. It must have been challenging to have to perform as many as ten shows a day!

Bobby Rydell: Oh, for sure! We did, I think, a minimum of four shows per day. The owner was George Hamid, Sr. — he was the boss of the Steel Pier — and he loved when it rained because nobody would go on the beach. So when it rained, after the four shows, it became five, six, seven, eight — you could do nine, ten shows a day! And in between shows, you would go out and sign autographs for the fans, so by the time you were done signing autographs, you were back on stage again.

Spotlight Central: Oh, to be young again!

Bobby Rydell: [Laughs] It was a wonderful experience, for sure.

Spotlight Central: In 1963, you had another million-seller, “Forget Him,” and after that, you left Cameo-Parkway and signed with Capitol Records. Later, Frank Sinatra — a fan of your vocal talent — signed you to his Reprise label. Would you say that Sinatra was your all-time favorite singer?

Bobby Rydell: I admired Sinatra since I was ten years old. When I was 19, as you mentioned earlier, I was the youngest person to work the Copacabana, and that was where I first met Mr. Sinatra. I wasn’t performing at the time, but I went there to see Joe E. Lewis, who was a fine comedian in those days; as a matter of fact, Mr. Sinatra made a movie about him called The Joker is Wild. And Mr. Sinatra was there to see Joe E. Lewis, too, but after the show was over he left, and I went, “Oh my God, all I wanted to do was just shake his hand!”

So I go upstairs to the lounge to say goodnight to Jules Podell, who was the boss of the Copa — I called him “Uncle Julie” — and through the kitchen doors comes Sinatra. I said, “Uncle Julie, all I want to do is shake his hand.” And Jules had this kind of a voice where he said [in a low, gravelly tone] “You wanna meet Frank?” And I said, “Yeah!” So now Sinatra was sitting at a table in the lounge with Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen — two marvelous lyricist/songwriters — actor Richard Conte, and Joe DiMaggio. Podell goes over, hits Sinatra on the shoulder, and says [in a low gravelly voice] “Frank! I want you to meet ‘The Kid.’” And Sinatra stood up with those blue eyes, he put out his right hand, and he says, “How ya doin’ Robert?” He called me Robert! I said, “Fine, Mr. Sinatra. How are you?” He says, “I’m marvelous. Would you care to join us?”

Well, I sat there with Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Huesen, Richard Conte, Joe DiMaggio, and Frank Sinatra. I didn’t say two words. It was like, in Italian, a “mamaluke”; I was in awe.

And Sinatra turned to me and said, “What do you drink, Robert?” You know, I’m 19 years old and I say, “Coke?” — I think if I would have said “Scotch and water” I would have gotten smacked in the face. But what a marvelous night — he was absolutely tremendous — and we took a picture together. Under his left arm he has my album, Rydell at the Copa, he’s got his right arm around me, and the autograph on the photo says, “To Bobby. Best always. Your friend, Frank Sinatra.”

Spotlight Central: Wow! In the late-70s, you started performing in several of the newly-opened Atlantic City casinos with performers like Buddy Hackett and Jerry Lewis. Then you joined Dick Fox’s Golden Boys Tour along with Frankie Avalon and Fabian, two South Philly guys who, as it turns out, grew up just a few blocks from you. We’re wondering, however, how thrilled you were when you were first asked to join your pals in singing the show’s closing number, “The Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song?”

Bobby Rydell: That was Frankie Avalon’s idea — Frankie used it in his club act. We were in Detroit, and it was the first time we were doing the Golden Boys show, so Frankie says, “Bobby, at the end of the show, we’re gonna do ‘The Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song.’” And I said, “WHAT?” I said, “I’m not doin’ no Mickey Mouse song.”

He said, “Bobby, believe me, it’s a killer!” and I said, “Come on, Frank!” and he said, “Will you at least try it?” and I said, “OK, man” — I’ve known Frankie since I was ten years old.

So now it’s the end of the show, right? And Frankie starts [sings] “Now it’s time to say goodbye…” and the whole audience goes, “AWWWWW!” We left the stage to tremendous applause, a standing ovation, and we’re back in the wings where I turn to Frank — and I always call Frank “Cheech,” which is Frank in Italian — and I say, “Cheech, you were right, man! I was so stupid to even question you.” And that was in 1985 and we’re now going into 2021 and that’s still the closer — “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.”

Spotlight Central: You’ve been honored in a number of ways in your lifetime — “Wildwood Nights” is the official song of Wildwood, NJ; there’s a Bobby Rydell Boulevard in South Philly; and Rydell High in Grease is named after you — and you’ve also continued to perform to fans all over the world, but with concerts postponed these days, what have you been up to?

Bobby Rydell: Mostly I’ve been relaxing at home with my wife. We live in Pennsylvania where we have a place near a lake, and that’s where we are right now — enjoying the beautiful weather and the lake — and then we have friends who have a pool and we go out to dinner. But, you know, I’m also chomping at the bit — I can’t wait — to get back on stage again, whenever the hell that’s going to happen!

Spotlight Central: That’s what we were going to ask you about next — if there’s anything you’d like to say to all your fans who are looking forward to seeing you perform again live in concert?

Bobby Rydell: To all my fans: I hope you’re home and you’re being safe and you’re abiding by all of the rules — the social distancing, the wearing of the masks, and so on and so forth. Stay safe and, hopefully, in the very near future, I’ll be able to be back on stage again and see all of you who have been there for me for the better part of the last 60 years!

To learn more about Bobby Rydell, please go to bobbyrydell.com.

 

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