Bob Roberts

The serious musical composer may be embarrassed to consider credit for a few from the songs Bob Roberts wrote, while at exactly the same time pleased to deposit the royalty checks. Scribbling single or in a number of songwriting duos, trios, or even quartets or “committee” songwriting, Roberts frequently was associated with several song within the soundtrack to any provided Elvis Presley film. The shame potential looms bigger, as the music in these movies was barely Presley’s finest hour; got his profession been judged based on tunes such as for example “Cotton Candy Property,” the Memphis fellow could have been referred to as the Ruler of Shlock as opposed to the Ruler of Rock. On the other hand, “Into Each Lifestyle Some Rainfall Must Fall” is normally a real traditional, a show-stopping vocal feature that is recorded by a large number of great performers, from Rosemary Clooney to Ella Fitzgerald, aswell as best vocal groups like the Platters. However perhaps it’s the co-writer over the last mentioned song, romantic vocalist Eddie Fisher, who should get the credit because neither by himself nor in his various other partnerships, including one with witty songwriter Ruth Batchelor, do Roberts ever produce anything as unforgettable or shifting. Roberts began composing music with Fisher when both had been involved with the top music group of Louis Prima which is where in fact the professional profession of Roberts started leaving behind significant traces. In the middle-’50s, Roberts was the hotshot electric guitar soloist for the Prima music group referred to as Louis Prima & the Witnesses, a unusual cross types that wasn’t actually Latin, wasn’t actually jazz, and was a good tiny bit rock and roll & move. Roberts was an early on exponent of the sort of electric guitar playing that was inspirational to early rockers such as for example Chuck Berry: advanced jazz chords, but using a generating defeat. Roberts and Fisher also offered as innovative musical mascots for Prima, climaxing using the structure of “Zooma Zooma,” which became a personal number as with primo Prima. By the first ’60s, Roberts got remaining Prima ‘s clothing and was right now dashing in and out of varied songwriting combinations, shifting through Hollywood circles which were discovering materials for both Presley and Disney movies. While they could have developed “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and had been among Walt Disney ‘s preferred songwriting groups, the Sherman Brothers required the experience of Prima to be able to write an attribute for lovely Annette Funicello, aged somewhere within mouse ears and bikini. The ensuing music was the solitary “High Paul,” not really that anyone remembers it. An identical fate could be said to possess met a lot of the materials documented by Presley that Roberts got a submit: “Where Perform You RESULT FROM?,” “Due to Like,” “Because of the Rolling Ocean,” and “Echoes of Like,” none which held jukebox servicemen as well busy. “The Ruler of the complete Wide Globe,” alternatively, was the soundtrack to Presley’s ego and certainly deserved to be always a song in another of his movies. The Roberts contact will sometimes arrive if a listener is normally going for a stroll through the minimal occasions of rock’s innocent times. “Baggy Slacks” were put on with the duo of Jan & Dean, terrifying poor Doris Time a lot she needed to “Runaway, Skidaddle, Skidoo.” At the very least, it had been all as well suburban for the united states scene; the just time Roberts emerged near a nation cover was when Burl Ives do some periods in Nashville, which barely counts. The entrance from the psychedelic period, with pop strikes such as for example “Lucy in the Sky With Diamond jewelry,” appears to have still left Roberts without very much to state. But he didn’t end playing, and in the past due ’70s he was element of a superb program arranged by drummer Barrett Deems for Delmark entitled “Deemus.” Music created with Fisher — another is normally “Tunnel of Appreciate” — have already been covered most regularly, the most modern recordings of Roberts’ materials are ironically the same hack ditties snatched from several Elvis Presley movies. Arizona alternative rock-band the Meats Puppets possess at least one Roberts amount within their repertoire, “Natural cotton Candy Property,” shipped tongue in cheek.