Bobby Rydell (1942-2022) American Singer
Bobby Rydell (1942-2022) American Singer dies at 79, Find a Grave Bobby Rydell find a grave, Bobby Rydell grave, Bobby Rydell Death and burial details
Bobby Rydell
| BIRTH | 26 April 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
|---|---|
| DEATH | 5 April 2022 (aged 85) Abington Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
| BIRTH NAME | Robert Louis Ridarelli |
| SPOUSE | Linda J Hoffman (17 January 2009 – 5 April 2022) (his death) Camille Carmella Quattrone (5 October 1968 – 15 September 2003) (her death) (2 children) |
| CHILDREN | Jennifer Ridarelli, Robert Ridarelli |
| Instruments | Vocals and drums |
| OCCUPATION | Singer |
| BURIAL | |
| NATIONALITY | American |
Bobby Rydell Personal life and Death
Rydell was married to his first wife, Camille Quattrone Ridarelli, for 35 years from 1968 until her death in 2003 and they had two children. He married Linda Hoffman in 2009. Rydell was a longtime resident of Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, and lived in the same house from 1963 to 2013.
Rydell cancelled a 2012 Australia tour because his health had deteriorated significantly and he was in need of urgent major surgery. On July 9, 2012, he underwent a double organ transplant to replace his liver and one kidney at Thomas Jefferson University in his hometown of Philadelphia. In January 2013, six months after double transplant surgery, Rydell returned to the stage in Las Vegas for a three night engagement to a sold out audience. He continued to perform internationally and returned to tour Australia in 2014.
Rydell died from complications of pneumonia at Jefferson Abington Hospital on April 5, 2022, at the age of 79.
Find a Grave Bobby Rydell (1942-2022) American Singer
Mini Bio
A teen pop idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was from the same area of South Philadelphia which also produced singers Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and James Darren.
Born Robert Louis Ridarelli to Italian parents, he learned the drums during his early youth because of his admiration for Gene Krupa and at the age of nine, he got his first taste of the entertainment industry when he performed on the “Paul Whiteman Teen Club” amateur TV program. While attending Bishop Neumann High School, he formed a duo with Frankie Avalon and the pair would join the music ensemble “Rocco & the Saints.”
In 1959, he launched his solo career with the Cameo record label and scored a Top 20 hit with “Kissin’ Time” (1959). He followed this with the singles “We Got Love” (1959), “Wild One” (1960, number 2 placing on the US Billboard Charts and gold record status), “Little Bitty Girl” (1960) and “Swingin’ School” (1960, number 5 placing on the US Billboard Charts).
Rydell will perhaps be remembered for the hit “Volare” (which achieved a number four placing on the American Pop Charts in 1960) and the song “Wildwood Days” (1963, which became a Top 20 hit) synonymous to the Philadelphia/New Jersey Shore-area. During this period, he performed on numerous TV programs which include “The Dick Clark Show,” “American Bandstand,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” and “The Mike Douglas Show.”
In addition, he found acting roles which include him co-starring (playing “Hugo Peabody”) with Ann-Margret in the film “Bye Bye Birdie” (1963). This would be the peak of his career. Like many singers of that period, Rydell’s popularity declined due to the arrival of “The Beatles” and other groups of the “British Invasion.” Following a stint with the National Guard, he focused on the nightclub circuit and sporadically acted on television in the programs “Combat!” and “The Red Skelton Hour.”
Over the next four-decades, he continued to perform and tour until his health began to decline during the 2010s which led to his requiring of a kidney and liver transplant in 2012. After his recovery, he resumed his touring which included Australia and Las Vegas. In the musical play and film “Grease” the fictional high school “Rydell High” is named after Rydell.
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Bobby Rydell Full Bio
Early life
Rydell was born in April 1942 and was the son of Jennie Ridarelli (née Sapienza) and Adrio “Al” Ridarelli. Both of his parents were of Italian descent. He grew up in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of South Philadelphia.
As a child, he mimicked the singers he saw on television, and at the age of seven his father took him around the clubs of Philadelphia, asking if he could sing and do some impersonations. By the time he was eight, his reputation led to an appearance on a talent show on the national television series,TV Teen Club. He won the contest, and the show’s presenter, Paul Whiteman, recruited him into the cast, where he remained for several years. It was here that his name was Anglicised to Bobby Rydell.
Music career
Rydell played in several bands in the Philadelphia area. As a 14-year-old he was the drummer for the Emanons (NoName spelled backward) which included his childhood friend Pat Azzara on guitar. Azzara later assumed the stage name Pat Martino, and went on to achieve recognition as one of the preeminent jazz guitarists of all time.5 Another band was Rocco and the Saints, in which he sang and played drums. After releasing three unsuccessful singles for small companies, he signed a recording contract with Cameo Records. This was run by Bernie Lowe, who had been the pianist accompanying him on TV Teen Club. After a couple of flops, “Kissin’ Time” made the charts in 1959. In May 1960, Rydell toured Australia with The Everly Brothers, Billy “Crash” Craddock, Marv Johnson, The Champs, The Crickets, and Lonnie Lee.
His second success was “We Got Love”. The album of the same name, his first, sold a million copies and obtained gold disc status. “Wild One” was followed with “Little Bitty Girl” which was his second million-selling single. He continued releasing hit songs with “Swingin’ School” backed by “Ding-A-Ling” and “Volare” later in 1960, which also sold over a million copies. It is estimated he sold over 25 million records in total.
In 1961, he performed at the Copacabana in New York City, where he was the youngest performer to headline at the nightclub.27 In February 1961, he appeared at the Festival du Rock at the Palais des Sports de Paris in Paris, France.
Rydell’s success and prospects led his father, Adrio, a foreman at the Electro-Nite Carbon Company in Philadelphia, to resign in 1961 after 22 years to become his son’s road manager.
In 1963, Rydell released the song “Wildwood Days”, which reached Number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained there for nine weeks.10 A mural on the Wildwood, New Jersey, boardwalk, painted in 2014, honors Rydell, whose song placed the community in the national spotlight.
That same year, Rydell portrayed Hugo Peabody in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie, also starring Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke. The original stage production of Bye Bye Birdie had no real singing role for the character of Hugo, but the movie script was rewritten specifically to expand the part for Rydell.12 In 2011, Sony Pictures digitally restored the film. Rydell and Ann-Margret were in attendance at the restoration premiere in Beverly Hills, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
During the 1960s, Rydell had numerous hit records on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His recording career earned him 34 Top 100 hits, placing him in the top five artists of his era. They included his most popular successes: “Wild One” (his highest scoring single, at number 2), “Volare” (number 4), “Swingin’ School” (number 5), “Kissin’ Time” (number 11), “Sway” (number 14), “I’ve Got Bonnie” (number 18), and “The Cha-Cha-Cha” (number 10). His last major chart success was “Forget Him”, which reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in January 1964. The song, written by Tony Hatch, was his fifth and final gold disc winner.
Rydell left Cameo-Parkway Records later in 1964 and signed with Capitol Records. By that point, the British Invasion had arrived and acts such as Rydell suffered a dramatic decline in popularity. Bands such as The Beatles became more popular, and Rydell unwittingly contributed to his own downfall by inspiring John Lennon and Paul McCartney to write “She Loves You”, a song which catapulted their success way beyond his.
During that time, he performed on many television programs, including The Red Skelton Show, where a recurring role as Zeke Kadiddlehopper, Clem Kadiddlehopper’s younger cousin, was written for him by Skelton. He also appeared on The Danny Thomas Show, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, and The George Burns Show. He was a regular on The Milton Berle Show and was a panelist on To Tell the Truth in 1964. On October 6, 1964, he made a guest appearance on the episode “Duel” of the television series Combat!. It was Rydell’s first dramatic acting role.
In 1963, Rydell starred in an unsold television pilot called Swingin’ Together produced by Desilu Productions, which featured him as the frontman for a four-piece rock ‘n roll band seeking their big break. Also during that time, Rydell served in the 103rd Engineer Battalion of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
In January 1968, it was announced in the UK music magazine NME that Rydell had signed a long-term recording contract with Reprise Records. He continued to perform in nightclubs, supper clubs, and Las Vegas venues throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his career was hampered by the refusal by ABKCO Records to reissue Rydell’s Cameo-Parkway catalog, so it was completely unavailable until 2005, although he did re-record his hits in 1995 for K-tel Records. He had one more hit after 1965, a disco re-recording of “Sway”, which reached the Billboard Easy Listening chart in 1976.
Rydell continued to tour for the remainder of his life, often with Frankie Avalon and Fabian Forte, performing under the name “The Golden Boys”. His autobiography was published in 2016
Personal life
Rydell was married to his first wife, Camille Quattrone Ridarelli, for 35 years, from 1968 until her death in 2003. They had two children. He married Linda Hoffman in 2009. Rydell was a longtime resident of Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, and lived in the same house from 1963 to 2019. He resided in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, until his death.
Rydell served in the U.S. National Guard, beginning his service in 1964 with two months of basic training at Fort Dix.
The street on which he was born in Philadelphia was renamed Bobby Rydell Boulevard in his honor. In 2023, it was announced that a statue of Rydell would be erected in Wildwood, New Jersey, through the Bobby Rydell Foundation organized by his family.
Health and death
Rydell canceled a 2012 Australia tour because his health had deteriorated significantly and he was in need of urgent major surgery. On July 9, 2012, he underwent a double organ transplant, to replace his liver and one kidney, at Thomas Jefferson University in his hometown of Philadelphia. In January 2013, six months after the double transplant surgery, Rydell returned to the stage in Las Vegas for a three-night engagement to a sold-out audience. He continued to perform internationally and returned to tour Australia in 2014.
Rydell died from complications of pneumonia at Jefferson Abington Hospital on April 5, 2022, at age 79.
