Bobby Rydell is DEAD TO ME!!!

Aw. He was my favorite of that group. Fabian, Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon. Bye bye Bobby.

Hit it!

He was so cute

Now, if I hadn't just read that he married and had children...

Hi ya Hugo! Hi ya stupid!

Whatcha wanna go get dead for?

Oh ya mean it? Kicked the bucket? Are ya nutty?

He was so so cute. RIP.

His music must have been fun to dance to them and even now.

Who else here loves oldies?

R4, god that’s gayface personified.

Ok, Bobby, now give us a look like you're being rimmed and you're just enjoying the hell out of it...

Voice still good til the end. Aging sucks!

la la lala la la la

He was such good casting as Hugo. Everybody always talks about A-M's casting and George Sidney putting more focus on Kim (to Janet's chagrin), but he kept up with her.

Bye, bye, Bobby

I’m gonna miss you so

Bye, bye, Bobby

Why’d you have to go?

R4 - cookies!!!!

I don't know much about Mr. Rydell's career outside of his hits. But I loved 'Forget Him' and 'Wild One'. R.I.P..

Always had a soft spot for Volare. RIP.

I loved Bobby - he was perfect in Bye Bye Birdie,

Attention students. The flags at Rydell High will be at half staff for the remainder of the week.

Thank you, Eve!

Awww....Bobby Rydell. He sang and danced very well in Bye Bye Birdie. RIP..

He had a big dick. Sad.

This is from the NYTimes obituary:

[quote] After making two appearances on “The Red Skelton Hour” on which he just sang, he appeared in sketches intermittently from 1961 to 1969 as various characters, including Zeke Kadiddlehopper, cousin to Skelton’s country-bumpkin character Clem Kadiddlehopper.

[quote][bold]“Mr. Skelton fell in love with Bobby,”[/bold] Mr. Rydell’s personal assistant, Linda F. Ms. Hoffman, said in 2013. “His son had passed away, and Bobby always felt he was looked upon by Mr. Skelton as a son. They were very close.”

Half a bottle of Wildroot in that hair

Wasnt he in Playgirl?

R10- Whoever labeled that video 1965 is wrong. I can clearly see - based on the hair and clothing styles that was at least 4 years earlier.

The front page of the NYTimes web site has a picture of Rydell and an obit headline in big type.

That's rare.

"Volare" is what he's most famous for, odd that only one poster mentioned it at R15.

Has Miss Francis commented?

Never cared for his look and he had trouble staying on key, but not as bad as the disgusting Fabian with it.

Seemed like a nice guy.

R26, first thing I think of with Bobby is "Volare". I didn't realize how many hits he had, but my favorite was Wildwood Nights.

Did you hear about Hugo and Kim?

That was Fabian r23.

I loved that Facts of Life episode he and Fabian guest starred on.

R32 There are days I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I can still sing every word of that Hot Rod Lover song.

Bobby had a nice smile.

Wildwood Days

He doesn't have a lot of living to do - in fact he doesn't have any at all.

Ha, R33, same with me.

He was the original Will Smith, running up on stage to punch someone on live TV. And he got away with it at the end. No consequences, unlike Will Smith. But Bobby Rydell had white privilege.

Watch from 7:45.

R34...Wonderful...I love it! Thanks..

I saw him a few years ago in concert with Fabian and Frankie Avalon.

Bobby hobbled out on stage with a cane. I think he said he'd had a liver and kidney transplant maybe a knee replacement too. He looked like he was going to die at any moment. But, he sounded great.

RiP Hugo Fink

Before Michael Buble

He really danced his ass off in "Gotta Lotta Livin' To Do".

It's kind of surprising he never made a Beach Party movie (though he appeared with Annette in "Disneyland After Dark")

I wonder how Jerry Blavat and Bob Pantano are taking it? Both these guys have been promoting 50's music, in various venues, since they were teens themselves.

There's a mural here in South Philly with Rydell(real last name is Ridarelli) on it, as well as Frankie Avalon(real last name is Avallone) and Fabian(who at the beginning of his career didn't use his real last name, Forte, professionally) Others on the mural are: Chubby Checker, Al Martino, James Darren and Eddie Fisher.

I wonder if they used Bobby's last name for the high school in "Grease," would be a helluva' coincidence otherwise.

For those thinking he was gay...

FORTY years ago he was already forgotten

I can’t believe he was only 79. He’s one of those that’s been around forever and I always thought he was at least a decade older.

I thought he died in the 70s.

Unfortunately, the Gay on the Brain trolls strike again. RIP Bobby Rydell, you had your time, it was a fun time, enjoy eternity in Rock n Roll heaven...

r42: It was intentional. Very sweet to shoot-out to him.

r47 If there's a Rock 'n Roll heaven, you know they got a helluva' band.😉

Did he ever have “the Greatest Love of All”?

Rydell had a liver and kidney transplant in 2012. He kept his voice far longer then a lot of his peers and had a pretty uneventful personal life.

He looks like a treasure troll in the face.

Wildwood Days still gives me horrible flashbacks of my youth at “The Shore”. God I hate that place.

Rydell had never danced before Bye Bye Birdie, and said afterward that the rehearsals and coaching were therefore brutal for him physically. You can kind of tell who the pros in the Livin' number are, and who isn't, but . . . it just doesn't matter.

Those were the last luxurious days of the Age of Innocence . . .

Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker did a wonderful version of "Jingle Bell Rock"; I play it every holiday season. Rydell had a wonderful voice.

Interesting, R55, I had no idea they amde a record together. That had to be one of the first black/white duos of male singers on a record.

Chubby is still around at age 80.

That's Mr. Checker, please.

Connie Francis has commented:

[quote] It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of Bobby Rydell. He and I went back many decades, both of us starting out on junior TV shows — me in New Jersey and Bobby in Philadelphia. He was an integral part of what, for many, remains their favorite musical period — that of the years bridging the rock and roll era and the British "invasion" of the Sixties — and his many recordings will continue to give pleasure for generations to come.

That's funny, we coulda sworn we killed him back in 1964!

Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure, but am I the only one who thinks that Gotta Lotta Livin’, as corny or silly as it may appear now, is still perfect? Not to mention that Rydell does a great job singing in it, as well as keeping up with Ann-Margaret’s dancing.

Which leads to a thread hijack: anyone know why Jesse Pearson’s career tanked immediately? I know he directed porn at some point later, but his career is sort of a cypher after BBB.

^ IMDB mentions a partner at the end of his life. Gay?

Jesse Pearson was gay. He had very few movie offers after "Birdie" and so he turned to television, appearing in a number of '60s series. He died of cancer at 49.

Rydell, one of the "teens" in "Bye Bye, Birdie" died just a few weeks short of his 80th birthday. Meanwhile, Dick Van Dyke is still around at 96.

It was an era when Italian American pop stars ruled.

How do you know he was gay, R63?

There are men. . .

r61: It's perfection - one of the most underrated dance numbers in Hollywood musicals.

Rydell's death made me unexpectedly sad. He seem to have been a genuinely nice guy who really loved his fans. A Facebook friend planned to see him in June and was absolutely shattered.

I have a limited edition (3000 copies) Blu-ray of "Bye Bye Birdie" signed by Ann-Marget & Bobby Rydell thanks to the CHILLER show in Jersey. In fact mine was the first Ann-Margret ever saw and she read the covers front and back.

Bye Bye Birdie: 11 Things You Don't Need to Know

with childhood behind them. There are men from Yale and Purdue. Are Yale and Purdue on the same level?

That flats & capris kind of choreography is always fun to watch, r61...

Tear’em apart, Green and Brown!

R71, I think it’s from Yale OR Purdue.

Purdue is not Ivy League, but it’s a respectable public university in Indiana.

WHO??

It would appear Purdue is on the same level as Princeton

He was in that movie with John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo. Crime in the Streets. All of them pinged.

That's actor-turned-director Mark Rydell, no relation to Bobby, in "Crime in the Streets," R78.

He was great in One To Watch also.

What's a "ring a ding" drummer? Paul Lynde should have been in this scene. . . There are boys . . . with age 17 behind them. There are boys from the the Castro and Weho! There are boys. . . And I'm going to drunkenly berate them . . . I've got a lot of pushing off balconies to do!

R80=witless. And tasteless.

And crappy meter, r81.

The role of Hugo was beefed up in the movie version of "Bye Bye Birdie", probably because Rydell was so appealing and talented. I thought he was the perfect Hugo.

Bobby Rydell was the Zac Efron of the early ‘60s.

r83: I'm surprised Rydell wasn't in any Beach Party movies. He was certainly more talented (though not as buff) as his friend Frankie Avalon.

[quote]I'm surprised Rydell wasn't in any Beach Party movies.

I read in one of his obits that the reason he didn't make more movies was that he hated living in L.A. Sounds like a weird reason, but I guess there are some people who hate it that much and are really tied to wherever they come from, in this case the East Coast. But also, of course, Rydell's recording career was booming at the time, so it's not as if he didn't have something else to do that was highly remunerative.

It seems he was Lens' 1st crush...

Rydell was not a teen idol on the level of Frankie Avalon or Fabian or Ricky Nelson. He had massive hits, that's for sure, but he was not handsome in the way those guys were.

[quote]Rydell was not a teen idol on the level of Frankie Avalon or Fabian or Ricky Nelson. He had massive hits, that's for sure, but he was not handsome in the way those guys were.

And that made him perfect casting for Hugo, who's supposed to be an awkward character. On Broadway, Hugo was played by Michael J. Pollard.

Why didn't they have Dick Gautier play Birdie in the film? He would have been so much better than the guy who did.

I'm a failed lyricist but Paul Lynde still should have been in that scene.

[quote]Why didn't they have Dick Gautier play Birdie in the film? He would have been so much better than the guy who did.

I agree, and that's an excellent question. I thought Jesse Pearson's performance as Birdie was one of the movie's biggest flaws. He was a replacement in the role on Broadway, so presumably that's why he was cast in the movie. Maybe Dick Gautier was unavailable?

In 1963, Dick Shawn would have been another great choice for Conrad Birdie.

Dick Gautier, Dick Shawn, and Jesse Pearson are all interchangeable.

Some of us don't agree, R94, which is why we're saying that Gautier would have been preferable in the movie of BBB.

Rydell might not have been as hot as Fabian or handsome as Frankie Avalon, but he was cute, had great energy and the best voice of the lot.

Jesse Pearson went on to write and direct a hardcore pornographic feature film called "The Legend Of Lady Blue".

He was ginchy but he couldn't live forever.

“ Dick Gautier, Dick Shawn, and Jesse Pearson are all interchangeable.”

So while you all are arguing about this meaningless but fun bs, Dick Gautier’s son was the handyman/asshole who was responsible for the Pam and Tommy porn tape fiasco. Were you aware?

R99. I guess Dick Gautier should have saved some of his When Things Were Rotten money so his son didnt have to become a thieving handyman.