R.I.P. Bobby Freeman

‘Do You Wanna Dance’ Singer Bobby Freeman Dies - Best Classic Bands »

 

RIP
One more cover. This one a hit

 

Not this one

Enjoyed Neil & the Shocking Pinks cover of Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes

 

You gotta dig that conk!

 

So he would've been 17-18 when "Do You Wanna Dance" was released. It sometimes surprises me how young some of the pop music performers were in the '50s and '60s.

 

Boy, they did wear their trousers tight back then, didn't they?

RIP. I love Do You Wanna Dance. Even have the old Jubilee album.

 

RIP

 

One of my first 45's was "The Swim"...A side was "The Swim"..B side was "The Swim" part 2.....bought the 45 on Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia...1964.

 

Indeed.

What must it have been like to have tasted success and fame (and perhaps some $$) at such a young age, and then spend 50 years in near-obscurity?

 

RIP. Phil Lesh said a 16-year old Jerry Garcia played the guitar on the Bobby Freeman recording of Do You Wanna Dance. Great R&R song.

 

Would love to hear how that worked. Frankly I don't hear it. Where was it recorded and where was Garcia at in 58?

 

Great song.

RIP Bobby...

 

There is this link

Grateful Dead Lyric And Song Finder »


The fullest account comes from David Nelson, quoted in Robert Greenfield's "Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia" (pp63-64):"We all knew that he'd played electric guitar on Bobby Freeman's 'Do You Wanna Dance.' Before any of this. Before the folk thing. When he was in high school. In a real funky studio. If you listen to that recording, there are no drums. There are cardboard boxes. He was a kid from Balboa High. It was what he used to refer to as his 'teenage hoodlum period.' When he got that first electric guitar from his mom in exchange for the accordian. He got that guitar and was really happy with it and he told me that he just tuned it to one tuning. The solo actually sounds like it could be in that tuning because he said it wasn't until a couple of months later when he found out how to really tune it. It's very primitive and it's very much that style of plunging out and jumping in with both feet first. The solo itself is basically two licks used very modestly. Very modestly."

 

According to the obit that's a myth. Too bad it's a great story.

Anyway Do You Wanna Dance is Bobby's ticket to immortality. A great tune, a classic.

I was surprised to read that later he also collaborated with a young Sly Stone. RIP

 

Always loved the beat and the crazy lyrics of this one...



Just a cool rock and roll/R&B singer with great energy. ROP.

 

Oh boy! Bobby is legendary and Do You Wanna Dance will be in the music historical archives for all time. I was 15 years old when the song hit, and it has its footprint all over my memory. Thank you for that, Bobby! Rest in peace. I'm sure you are already fronting an R & B band up there in the blue!

 

From the obit
The song was recorded as a demo, and the DJ brought it to the attention of a vacationing record executive from New York. Mortimer Palitz signed Freeman to Josie, a subsidiary of Jubilee Records, overdubbed guitar, bass and drums to Freeman’s voice and piano track, and released it in March 1958.

(Two asides: First, the song is usually spelled “Do You Wanna Dance,” although the Josie original says Want To. And second, there is no truth to the rumor that future Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, then only 15, played the guitar solo on the Freeman hit. Garcia did later acknowledge that he played on demos for Freeman in the late ’50s but not on the hits.)

 

Yeah, I think Sly produced Freeman at Autumn Records.

 

He was a local staple here in SF. Had a regular steady gig at The Condor Club for years.

 

R.I.P. Bobby

 

This was my favorite song by him. I could see why Lennon liked it a lot.