Bobby Hebb

Bobby Hebb ( born July 26, 1938 in Nashville, Tennessee; † August 3, 2010 ibid, real name Robert Von Hebb ) was an American singer and songwriter. He became known for his hit 1966 by Sunny.

Life

Bobby Hebb grew up in a very musical family. His parents, though both were blind, were musicians, as well as many relatives, which included the blues musician Leadbelly. His six years older brother Harold had learned Step dancing with him and he stood for the first time as a vocal accompaniment on the stage of a vaudeville show when he had just turned three years old. During his childhood, he often went with his brother and accompanied by his parents in clubs and on stages in Nashville.

Later, Harold ' Hal' Hebb joined the R & B band Marigolds, while Bobby starting around 1952, the Country Roy Acuff 's Smokey Mountain troops Boys belonged and performed with them at the Grand Ole Opry, one of the first African Americans. In 1954 he went to Chicago, where he began to be interested in blues and Bo Diddley met. Shortly thereafter, he joined the jazz band for some time in the U.S. Navy as a trumpeter.

His first recording made ​​Hebb in 1958 entitled Night Train to Memphis. Three years later he went to New York, where he spent two years in Sylvia Robinson 's Blue Morocco Club occurred among others. Robinson was part of the successful duo Mickey & Silvia ( Love Is Strange ) and went as Mickey Baker mid-60s to Europe, replaced him Hebb and made with Robinson for some time as Bobby & Sylvia on.

Sunny

Already in November 1963, Hebb's brother had arrived in Nashville in a knife killed. That was about the same time, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In the mood at that time Bobby Hebb wrote the hopeful song Sunny. The Japanese Mieko Hirota took the song in 1965 for the first time. Only after the end of Bobby & Sylvia in 1966 was his first recording and he had his biggest hit with it. The single was a million seller, reaching # 2 on the U.S. charts. In England he was so successful.

The song is one of the most covered hits at all and other musicians were so extremely successful. For example, reached Cher in the same year also number 2 in Norway and the Netherlands. Ten years later, Boney M. had with a disco version of a number -one hit in Germany. More versions for example, come from Georgie Fame, José Feliciano, Johnny Rivers, Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Jamiroquai, Ella Fitzgerald, The Electric Flag, The Four Seasons, Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, Les McCann, Dusty Springfield, James Brown, Helge Schneider, Stevie Wonder, Robert Mitchum and Cro.

After Hit

Bobby Hebb still had two more minor hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and also named after the song album was also placed in the sales charts, but Sunny remained his outstanding success ( "one- hit wonder "). He made ​​him even to headline along with the Beatles at a U.S. tour.

In the following years alcohol problems Hebb's career brought to a standstill. In the 70s he had with Love Love Love again a UK hit and his disco version of his biggest hits Sunny '76 reached again number 11 in the U.S. disco charts.

After that Hebb worked primarily as a songwriter. Among other things he wrote with Sandy Baron a Broadway show and together they also wrote the hit A Natural Man by Lou Rawls, for whom this was a Grammy. However, my own recordings made ​​after 1970 Bobby Hebb long time hardly and in 2005 appeared a new album. On August 3, 2010, he died at the age of 72 years in Nashville of lung cancer.

Swell

• Bobby Hebb obituary, Guardian, August 5, 2010 (English )