Bobby Hendricks (born February 22, 1938, Columbus, Ohio) is
an American R&B singer who charted two hits in the late 1950s.
Like many artists, he started singing with his church choir.
At age 16, he joined his first group, the Crowns, based in Columbus. Hendricks
was also a member of The Swallows & The Marquis in 1956, and The Flyers in 1957.
His big step to stardom came as a member of the by-then-disintegrating original Drifters in 1958, with whom he toured at the Apollo Theatre and recorded “Drip Drop”, “Moonlight Bay”, and “Suddenly There’s a Valley” before he left the group to go solo the same year.
His big step to stardom came as a member of the by-then-disintegrating original Drifters in 1958, with whom he toured at the Apollo Theatre and recorded “Drip Drop”, “Moonlight Bay”, and “Suddenly There’s a Valley” before he left the group to go solo the same year.
Hendricks used his Atco/Atlantic/Drifters connections many
times over the next few years. As a solo act he scored a massive hit backed by
the Coasters, label mates at Atco in 1958, with the bouncy “Itchy Twitchy
Feeling” for Juggy Murray’s Sue label, for whom he eventually cut a further
seven 45s.
The last of these became his second hit "Psycho"
[Sue 732] in 1960. It was co-written by ex-Drifter Clyde McPhatter, and
features a "Name Game"-like babbling give-and-take with
"psychiatrist" Dr. Jive (Tommy Smalls), a New York deejay. (Incidentally,
this was years before the Shirley Ellis record, and may have been an influence
on that hit.) It hit the U.S. charts, reaching #5 on the Black Singles chart
and #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958, but he was unable to secure a
consistent profile.
It was clear his beautifully modulated tone and fine sense
of dynamics made him a class A vocalist so it's a shame, but understandable
that his 45s for Sue and Mercury were so “pop” in their arrangements that they
were more MOR music than anything else.
From 1964, off and on, Bobby Hendricks worked as lead
singer with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters where his subsequent path was
obscured by the myriad of changes affecting the act’s turbulent history.
In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles to establish his own
vocal group, Bobby Hendricks Drifters. Since then, he has toured the country,
performing in nearly every state, including a six-month engagement in Las
Vegas. One of the recent highlights of his career was a performance with the
Spokane Jazz Orchestra. Bobby has also performed internationally in Aruba,
Austria, Canada, China, England, Ireland, Jamaica, and Singapore.
On April 13, 2001, Bobby was inducted into the Doo Wopp
Hall of Fame of America at Symphony Hall in Boston. That same year, Bobby
reunited with Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters to perform on PBS’s Doo Wop 51,
and again in 2007 for PBS’s Doo Wop Love Songs. Both performances were
televised nationally.
Bobby now resides in Santa Clarita, California with his
wife Ruth, and continues to tour the world, delighting audiences young and old
with the timeless sounds of Doo-Wop.
(Info edited from Wikipedia, AMG, sirshambling.com &
the bobbyhendricks.com)
Here's Money Honey by Bobby Hendricks with the Roomates, Hemsby 50, May 2013.
1 comment:
For “Bobby Hendricks – Itchy Twitchy Feeling” go here:
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/lKNJGaRB/file.html
01 Itchy Twitchy Feeling
02 Dreamy Eyes
03 Cast Your Vote
04 A Thousand Dreams
05 Psycho
06 If I Just Had Your Love
07 Molly Be Goode
08 Good Things Will Come
09 Busy Flirting
10 City Of Angels
11 Come Back (Sincerely, Your Lover)
12 It's Misery
13 Your All I Need
14 I Want That
15 Too Good To Be True
16 Little John Green
17 I'm A Big Boy Now
18 If I Had Your Love (Outtake)
19 Psycho (Version 2)
20 Every Other Night (bonus track)
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