Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Singer Bobby Freeman

The New York Times ran a story Monday night about the singer Bobby Freeman.  He died on January 23rd, at age 76.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/arts/music/bobby-freeman-of-do-you-want-to-dance-dies-at-76.html

Though Mr. Freeman was undoubtedly best known for his 1958 hit record "Do You Want to Dance," which he wrote, and which came out when he was seventeen (it was subsequently recorded by a number of other artists, including The Beach Boys, John Lennon, and Bette Midler), his 1964 hit, "C'mon and Swim," was a particular favorite of mine, during childhood.  It was released in 1964 (I was eight), and I played it endlessly, as I recall, on the very small, portable record player I had.  Though I still have the 45, it got warped, somewhere along the way, and is unusable.  In recent years, I've enjoyed listening to the song, periodically, on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cODJ7fHnw

There is a nice photo, in the above New York Times story, of Mr. Freeman performing in 1964 on the ABC show Shindig.  The video, below, is clearly from the same telecast. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctm1V0_2rW0

"C'mon and Swim," incidentally, was produced (and co-written) by Sylvester Stewart--who later became better known as Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone.