Talk Nation Spring 2017 Featuring Dr. Kamal Woods

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6 Frank: Anybody who is not signed up to be an organ donor, please do so. Bobby: Absolutely. Absolutely Frank. Frank: People have known your music for years. You grew out of that Philadelphia scene, the same scene that Fabian and Frankie Avalon and so many others came out of. If you don’t mind, let’s do a little bit of your history. Were you raised in Philadelphia as well? Bobby: Oh, yeah, born and raised in south Philadelphia. I now live outside of the city. I live in a suburban area, but it’s like the old saying, “You could take the boy out of south Philadelphia, but you can’t take the south Philadelphia out of the boy.” That’s so very true. Frank: What was the first introduction to either music or performing that you saw as a real young kid? Bobby: When my father was overseas, my mom and dad used to write back and forth. I was three years old. My mom once wrote, “The baby’s always singing. The baby’s always singing.” My father wrote back, and I still have the letter today, “Who knows, Jenny? Maybe one day we’ll have a star in the family.” It’s so strange. My father loved big bands and there was a theater here in Philadelphia called the Earle Theater, and when I was five years old he took me to a Saturday afternoon performance to see Benny Goodman. Now I didn’t know who the hell Benny Goodman was, I’m five years old. So dad takes me to see Benny Goodman and the orchestra and I focused on one guy, and that was the drummer. His name was Gene Krupa. I said to my father, “I don’t know who he is daddy, but I want to be him. I want to be that guy playing drums.” I started playing drums when I was five or six years old until this day. I still have a kit downstairs in my music room here in my home. I guess that was the first time that I was introduced to that kind of music. I’m a big fan of what they call the American Songbook. I love big band music. I love Mr. Sinatra. I love jazz. I was never really a guy who listened to a lot of rock and roll. I listened to people like Dorsey, Goodman, Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Duke Ellington. I kind of grew up with that music. Frank: You know it’s interesting, and it’s kind of got its cult following now. I’ve had different people on that are not considered musicians even and they talk about big band and they talk about Bobby Darin. Bobby: Oh, my God. Frank: Somebody like Gene Krupa ... I’ve always asked people how many drummers did Sing, Sing, Sing create, the song, and just people listening to it, young kids listening to it? Bobby: Absolutely. You know who wrote that? Frank: Who? Bobby: Louis Prima. Frank: No kidding? Bobby: Louis Prima wrote Sing, Sing, Sing. Yeah. Frank: Did you ever have the opportunity to either meet Gene Krupa or Bennie Goodman to let them know they influenced you? Bobby: No. Frank: You would have been young, real young. Bobby: Yeah. Matter of fact, years ago, like in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s, when I was working the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, I was in the theater doing like 10 or 12 shows a day and in the back, in the ballroom, was Gene Krupa with his band and I never had the opportunity to go back to see him and tell him how much I admired him when I was five years old, because I would do a show and like five minutes later the buzzer would ring and we’d be on stage again to do the second show and the third and the fourth and the fifth and so on and so forth. I did meet one of my heroes and I became very friendly with him, and that was Buddy Rich. Yeah, yeah. I went to see him with a gentleman who put my act together at the Copa. His name was Lou Spencer. Lou was very friendly with Buddy, so we went to Birdland in New York City and Buddy introduced me from the stage. He gave me a beautiful introduction. We sat down and we talked, and at the end of the evening I said, “Mr. Rich!” He said, “Call me Buddy.” I said, “It’s very hard, but okay.” I said, “Buddy,” I said, “would you mind signing an autograph?” He put out his right hand and he shook my hand and he said, “That means more than an autograph.” Frank: That’s great. Bobby: I said, “Well, thank you so much,” but I wanted his autograph. Frank: I’ve had Kathy Rich, his daughter, Kathy Rich, on the show a couple of times. Even twice removed, TALK NATION |ISSUE VIII
7 or once removed, it’s just a fascinating career, actually all of you guys. I know you’re a different era. Bobby: Oh, God, yeah. I met Kathy. We went to dinner at a place called D’Amore’s. It was off of Yucca in California, Sunset Boulevard and Yucca. I would always go there for an Italian meal, and Buddy and I went there one night and he had Kathy with him and we had a wonderful time. Frank: You mentioned the Copa. Were you the youngest headliner there? Bobby: That’s what I’ve been reading. Yeah. I was 19 years old, and supposedly, from all of the press that I’ve read, I was the youngest guy who ever worked the Copa at 19 years old. Frank: Or to headline the Copa at least, right? You headlined- Bobby: Yeah. Yeah. I headlined the Copa. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Frank: When you think of the Copa and you look back and you see things like Goodfellas and they’re walking in the back and tipping everybody in the kitchen. Going through the back doors there, it reminds you of how tough an era you were making it in and you were trying to get where you had to go. Did you meet a bunch of tough characters? Bobby: Absolutely. I mean the owner, the boss of the Copa, was a man by the name of Jules Podell. I was in my dressing room ... This is prior to my first show, opening night at the Copa. A guy by the name of Doug who did the lights and sound said, “Mr. Podell would like to see you in the kitchen.” I said, “Well, okay.” I’m dressed in my tux. I go down. I take the elevator down from the hotel and I walk into the kitchen and there’s Mr. Podell. I walked up to him and I said, “Mr. Podell, Bobby Rydell.” He shook my hand and he yelled to the kitchen, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bobby Rydell,” and the whole kitchen, Frank, went, “Yay, yay, yay.” Podell ... He looked at me and he went, “How do you like that kid?” I said, “That’s wonderful Mr. Podell.” He says, “Now go out there and knock them on their ass.” Frank: That’s great. That’s a nice introduction to a guy that you probably wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of. Bobby: I mean he used to sit in the back of the room at the Copa and he used to wear this big ring and he would knock his ring on the table and he didn’t have to say anything. They just heard the knock on the ring and there were so many red coats, blue coats, white coats, all of the waiters, the maître d’ -- “Yes Mr. Podell! Yes Mr. Podell!” You know what I mean? Frank: Yeah. You went through a record period. You had such big hits in the early ‘60s. At that point I think the record labels were still robbing the artists left and right. What was your reality? Did you have a good experience with the royalties, a bad experience? Bobby: No. Bernie Lowe, who was the President and the boss of Cameo, which later became Cameo-Parkway, the label that I recorded on … Years ago, when I was 10 years old, I did a show in Philadelphia called The Paul Whiteman TV Teen Club. It gave amateur talent a chance to get a break in the business. Bernie Lowe was the piano player for Paul Whiteman. Now I didn’t know Bernie Lowe at the time. I just knew he was a piano player. I was 10 years old. Public Domain: Bobby Rydell from an ad for Botany 500 Young Bachelor wardrobe Seven years later, I’m 17 years old, I sign with Cameo and Bernie Lowe is the President of Cameo. There was Bernie Lowe, Kal Mann and Dave Appell. They were the brain trust at Cameo. I’m sure you hear a lot of horror stories about a lot of acts back in the day, but I must honestly say that the company that I recorded for and Mr. Lowe were pretty decent people. I may not have gotten the exact count on how many records were sold, but I would always get my royalties on the record. I think back then it was like three cents a record, whatever. Then all of a sudden it became five cents a record. I think I was treated really, really well with Cameo. Frank: You mentioned Paul Whiteman. That was kind of the Philadelphia version of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. TALK NATION |ISSUE VIII
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Talk Nation Spring 2017 Featuring Dr. Kamal Woods

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