Bob Gaddy (February 4, 1924 – July 24, 1997) was an American

East Coast blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and rhythm-and-blues

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, singer and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. He is best remembered for his recordings of "Operator" and "Rip and Run," and musical work he undertook with

Larry Dale Larry Dale (born Ennis L. Lowery, January 7, 1923 – May 19, 2010) was an American blues singer, guitarist and session musician. Life and career He was born in Hungerford, Texas, United States. During the early 1950s he took initial inspiration o ...

Wild Jimmy Spruill James Edgar Spruill (June 9, 1934 – February 3, 1996), also known as Wild Jimmy Spruill, was an American New York based session guitarist, whose guitar solos featured on many rhythm and blues and pop hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Biography ...

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...

and Brownie McGhee.

Biography

Gaddy was born in Vivian, West Virginia, a small town based on

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. He learned to play the piano at an early age, playing and singing in his local church. In 1943, he was conscripted and served in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

, being stationed in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He progressed from learning the

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and, using his

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

background, graduated towards the boogie-woogie playing style. He played in blues

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Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

and

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, but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ended he relocated to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, in 1946. Gaddy later commented, "I came to New York just to visit, because I was on my way to the West Coast. Somehow or other, I just got hooked on it. New York got into my system and I've been stuck here ever since." He found work as a blues pianist, and in the late 1940s, provided accompaniment to both Brownie McGhee and

. He later backed

, and befriended Champion Jack Dupree. Dupree wrote "Operator" for Gaddy, one of his best-selling numbers. Gaddy first record for Jackson Records; his debut

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "Bicycle Boogie", was released in 1952. He later Recorded for the Jax, Dot and Harlem record labels, before joining Hy Weiss's Old Town Records in 1956. It was here that Gaddy had his most commercially successful period, particularly with "I Love My Baby", "Paper Lady", and "Rip and Run". For Gaddy's early recordings, McGhee was often in the

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

with him; for his Old Town recordings, he used the guitarists

Jimmy Spruill James Edgar Spruill (June 9, 1934 – February 3, 1996), also known as Wild Jimmy Spruill, was an American New York based session guitarist, whose guitar solos featured on many rhythm and blues and pop hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Biography ...

and Joe Ruffin and the saxophonist Jimmy Wright. Gaddy stopped recording around 1960. However, along with his longtime friend Larry Dale, he remained a mainstay of the ongoing New York blues scene. In April 1988, Gaddy, Dale and Spruill reunited to play at the Tramps nightclub in New York. Gaddy died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

in July 1997, at the age of 73, in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York.

Discography

Singles

*"I (Believe You Got a Sidekick)" / "Bicycle Boogie", Bob Gaddy & His Alley Cats (1952), Jackson Records *"No Help Wanted" / "Little Girl's Boogie", Bob Gaddy & His Alley Cats (1953), Jax Records *"Evil Man Blues" / "Doctor Gaddy's Blues", Doctor Gaddy & His Orchestra (1954), Dot Records *"Blues Has Walked in My Room" / "Slow Down Baby" (1955) - Harlem Records - *"Operator" / "I Love My Baby", Doctor Gaddy & His Keys (1956), Old Town Records *"Paper Lady" / "Out of My Name", Doctor Gaddy & His Keys (1957), Old Town Records *"Woe Woe Is Me" / "Rip and Run", Doctor Gaddy & His Keys (1958), Old Town Records *"Take My Advice" / "You Are the One" (1959), Old Town Records *"Till the Day I Die"/ "I'll Go My Way" (1959), Old Town Records

Compilation albums

*''Rip and Run'' (1986),

Ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

*''Bob Gaddy & Friends: Bicycle Boogie 1947–1960'' (1987), Moonshine *''Harlem Blues Operator'' (1995), Ace

References

External links