I wanted to take time here to acknowledge the loss of one of Canada's earliest teen idols, Bobby Curtola, who died last week. In his early career, during the 1960s, he had 25 gold singles and 12 gold albums, an unheard of feat for any recording artist here. His later career involved longer stints in Los Vegas and continued road shows. For the '60s and '70s, he was affiliated with Coca-Cola and sang the first pop-style jingle, Things go better with Coke. He later wrote and sang Coke The Real Thing. Sadly, his wife was killed last December when headed for the airport to join him and the family at his show in Montreal. During this man's 50+ year career he sang with many greats from various genres -- Elvis, The Beatles, the Rat Pack, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mick Jagger, Chubby Checker, The Guess Who, Michael Buble, and many, many others [facts from his web site bio]. Upon reflection, I discovered that he was the first musical star that I went to see. He was a 'teen idol' when he came to my home town, but I was far from being close to becoming a teenager. I asked to go to the autograph session at Zellers on Main Street. My dad gave in and took me to see him. The store was filled with screaming girls, so we stood outside the huge front windows and there he was -- even though he was facing the other direction, I felt satisfied that I had seen him. <smile> So, he was involved in my early rock and roll roots. <grin>.
I've chosen two of his songs that were my early favorites -- ones I knew every word to and still do <g>. The first was the break through hit that moved him to a recording contract with a US company. The second displays the innocence of the time. Enjoy!
Fortune Teller -- Bobby Curtola
Three Rows Over -- Bobby Curtola
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