🎵 2022-04-06 00:59:00 – Paris/France.
Bobby Rydell, the 1960s teenager who appeared in the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie," has died. He was 79 years old.
According to Variety, the cause of death was pneumonia. He died just weeks before turning 80 on April 26.
The Philadelphia triple threat, born Robert Louis Ridarelli, was famous for rock & roll hits such as "Volare" and "Wild One," and starred alongside Ann-Margret, Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh in the Oscar-nominated "Bye Bye Birdie".
CBS3's Ukee Washington in Philadelphia shared the news with social media on Tuesday. “A Philadelphia music legend…has passed away. Sending prayers of comfort, strength and love to Bobby Rydell's family and fans,” he wrote on Twitter.
The bustling shores of nearby Wildwood, New Jersey was where Rydell was inspired to sing "Wildwood Days." The hometown hero is now the namesake of several streets around Philadelphia and Wildwood. He would have grown up in the same neighborhoods as Frankie Avalon and Fabian, other emblematic singers of the time.
In a 2016 interview, he said "the best of Wildwood Day sums up his own life, calling it" the national anthem of [New Jersey] Shore. But he added that most people know him for "Volare," calling it "my date music and my date music."
Bobby Rydell died on April 5, 2022, at the age of 79. His singing career spanned decades (above, left and right), and he is often remembered for dancing alongside Ann-Margret in the movie 'Bye Bye Birdie' (bottom left ).WireImage
He also rejected suggestions that he was one of the rockers of his generation.
"I wasn't really a rock and roll singer," Rydell said in the same interview. “That's what had to be done to get there. I'm an American Songbook guy.
On his way to selling over 25 million records, he toured much of his career as part of the Golden Boys stage production, along with fellow Philadelphia idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
Bobby Rydell was a teen idol whose career straddled music, television and film.
Its impact on popular music will be felt for generations, as Paul McCartney is said to have credited Rydell's "Swinging School" as the inspiration behind The Beatles' "She Loves You" - particularly the "yeah yeah yeah" lyrics, which Rydell had used in the 1960s song "Swingin' School".
And Rydell High from the movie 'Grease' - it's also a nod to Bobby, who admitted bandleader Benny Goodman became his inspiration after seeing him in concert with his father as a child .
“I don't know his name, dad, but I want to be that guy. I want to be that drummer,” Rydell told his father.
Singers Bobby Vee (left to right), Fabian and Bobby Rydell join Dick Clark in the ABC series 'Dick Clark Presents the Rock & Roll Years' in 1973. Getty Images Bobby Rydell poses for an undated portrait. Corbis via Getty Images
But many fans would remember him for a particular 'Bye Bye Birdie' dance scene alongside Ann-Margret on the song 'A Lot of Livin' To Do'. The irony: he didn't really consider himself a saboteur.
“I have never been a dancer. And by that, I mean, I've never installed faucets. I wasn't one to wear soft shoes, but I've always been a pretty good mover, and everything in 'Bye Bye Birdie' is all about it,” he said in a 2020 interview. “The shoulders, the legs… It took two weeks to rehearse that, and another two weeks to shoot it. It was a very, very intense number, with all these different camera angles and close-ups.
With the release of his 2016 memoir, "Bobby Rydell: Teen Idol On The Rocks: A Tale of Second Chances," he told an interviewer acting was in his blood from a young age.
"It's been my life since I was 7," said Rydell, who was a frequent guest on variety shows hosted by Red Skelton, George Burns, Jack Benny and Danny Thomas. "I can't complain about my career at all. You know, there were ups and downs, ups and downs, so on, so on. But I survived it all and I continue to do what I really love to do.
In 2012, he underwent a double organ transplant to replace his liver and a kidney and was back on stage within six months.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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