Send "Bobby Rydell " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Bobby Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli) was one of the original teen idols, those handsome Italian American Philadelphia singers launched by Dick Clark and “American Bandstand”. Like Fabian and Frankie Avalon, Rydell’s good looks were as important to his persona as his musical aptitude. At the precious age of 9, he appeared on Paul Whiteman’s “Teen Club” television program and was a steady presence for the next three years. Rydell had his first hit record, “Kissing Time”, in 1959 when he was just 17 years old. Rydell became a movie star in 1963 as Hugo Peabody in Bye Bye Birdie. Audiences saw him as the All-American boy, clean-cut and wholesome, but still dreamy. Rydell made such an impression that when the Broadway musical about the fifties Grease came out during the late seventies, the school the characters attended was appropriately named Rydell High. The early sixties were a strange time in the history of rock and roll. The Congressional hearings into Payola tainted rock’s reputation. Everyone from Elvis Presley to Bobby Darin tried to clean up his act and sound more adult. Rydell was always much more of a pop star than a rocker, so it wasn’t much a stretch to have him perform the Great American Songbook for his young fans. His 1961 album Salutes the “Great Ones”, recently reissued by Collector’s Choice, has him pay tribute to Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra (whose caricatures appear on the record cover). Rydell does swinging covers of such non-rock tunes as “That Old Black Magic” and “Birth of the Blues” as breezily as if he’s crooning a new pop song, and the effect is—well, odd. He’s waxing nostalgic for an era before he or his fans were born and reduces what was once edgy material info something merely entertaining. In some ways, this is really no different from what Grease did to the music of the fifties. It took what was once dangerous music and turned it into something campy and catchy....full text |
| Hyperbolium |
| Along with Fabian and Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell was one of the “Boys of Bandstand,” a trio of Philadelphia-based pop singers whose appearances on the original American Bandstand rocketed each to teen idoldom in the lull between Elvis and the Beatles. It’s no accident that the students in Grease attend Rydell High. Like Fabian and Avalon, Rydell was a pop singer whose hits crossed over to mingle with rock ‘n’ roll tunes on Billboard’s Top 100. His biggest hit, “Wild One,” feints towards the pop-rock with which Bobby Darin began his hit-making, and Rydell’s second big hit, “Volare,” was a finger-snapping nightclub gem in league with Darin’s “Mack the Knife. Rydell and Darin’s paths often crossed in the middle of the Great American Songbook, which both vocalists covered extensively. This pair of albums from 1961 (Rydell’s third and fourth original releases) fully indulges the vocalist’s love of (and talent for) singing classic American songs. Among the material are Tin Pan Alley and Broadway chestnuts by Arlen & Mercer, George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim, and the jazz standards “Frenesi,” “So Rare” and “The Birth of the Blues.” Rydell also found a strong attraction to material made famous by Al Jolson, including “Mammy,” “April Showers” and “There’s a Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder.” The arrangements swing nicely and Rydell is an enticing singer. He hasn’t the gravitas of the previous generation (Sinatra, Bennett, et al.), but the drama in his Broadway style give these songs some real verve. In the summer of 1960, at the tender age of 19, Rydell launched a two-week stand at the Copacabana, a New York City it-club that had hosted the legends of nightclub entertainment. Greeted on the stage by a powerful horn chart, Rydell launched into a zesty take on “A Lot of Living to Do,” the swinging mambo of “Sway,” and a bouncy rendition of “That Old Black Magic.” He sounds confident and comfortable, and though every note isn’t pitch perfect, he more than makes up for it in joie de vivre. A fifteen-minute, thirteen-song medley fills the middle of the set, showing off Rydell’s range (both “Wild One” and “Volare” are worked into the mix) and his preternatural maturity as a showman....full text |
| Soccer |
| Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli) was one of the original teen idols, those handsome Italian American Philadelphia singers launched by Dick Clark and “American Bandstand”....full text |
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