From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Apr 7, 2002  1:19 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Bobby Bare
 
BOBBY BARE

Born Robert Joseph Bare, 7 April 1935, Irontown, Ohio

Singer / songwriter. In 1956 Bobby moved to Califiornia, where
he was discovered by Capitol Records. When he got his draft notice,
he had to trek back to Ohio for his induction. There he met an old
singing buddy named Bill Parsons, who was just getting out of the
service and wanted to cut a record. Since Bare had some time to kill,
he and Bill wandered over to Cincinnati, where they bought some studio
time, some six packs and proceeded to knock out songs. Among them
was the talking blues "The All American Boy", a parody of Elvis' rise to
fame and subsequent conscription. The recordings were sold to
Fraternity Records, where it was erroneously assumed that Parsons
was the singer on all the tunes. Months later, much to his surprise,
Bobby - at Fort Knox for his basic training - heard his "All American
Boy" on the radio, announced by the DJ as a record by "a new kid
called Bill Parsons"! In early 1959 the record went to # 2 on the pop
charts, only being kept from the top by "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by
The Platters.
After his discharge, Bare returned to Fraternity, where he had some
excellent singles issued under his own name, including two spin-offs
of "All American Boy" : "I'm Hanging Up My Rifle" and "Brooklyn
Bridge". He also wrote songs for the Chubby Checker film "Teenage
Millionaire". But it wasn't until Chet Atkins signed him to RCA in 1962
that he would score hits under his own name, country songs that would
cross over to the pop charts, like "Detroit City", "500 Miles Away From
Home" and "Miller's Cave". Between 1962 and 1983 he had no less
than 59 entries in Billboard's country charts (on RCA, Mercury and
Columbia), but after 1964 he had only one more pop hit, "Daddy What
If" (1974), sung with his five-year old son, Bobby, Jr.

Bear Family has issued a 4 CD-set of his 1956-1965 recordings, called
"The All American Boy".
Official website: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.dukes3/