Robert John
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Robert John (born Robert John Pedrick, Jr., January 3, 1946 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer perhaps best known for his 1979 hit single, " Sad Eyes", which reached number 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100.


Life and career

John was born in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, on January 3, 1946. Under the name of Bobby Pedrick, Jr., he first hit the pop
chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
in 1958 when he was only 12 years old with "White Bucks and Saddle Shoes", written by
Doc Pomus Jerome Solon Felder (June 27, 1925 – March 14, 1991), known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hal ...
and
Mort Shuman Mortimer Shuman (12 November 1938 – 2 November 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including " Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as ...
. As the lead singer of Bobby & The Consoles, he had the minor 1963 hit entitled "My Jelly Bean" on Diamond Records. By 1965, he had changed his name and signed with
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
for two ill-fated singles. In 1967, he signed a contract with
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
and released a string of singles with help from writing partner Mike Gately. After a short tenure from 1970 to 1971 with
Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, conductor, painter, sculptor and theatre producer, who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpe ...
's
A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
, 1971 brought his next hit, a cover version of
The Tokens The Tokens were an American doo-wop band (rock and pop), band and production of phonograph records, record production company group from Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York City. The group had four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' H ...
' 1961 hit, " The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which climbed to number 3 on the
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...
in 1972, selling over one million copies and receiving a
gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
awarded by the
Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on March 15, 1972. John also wrote the track "I Can't Move No Mountains" for jazz rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears, released on their 1972 album ''New Blood''. The song was eventually released as a single but did not chart. Several years later, while working in construction in
Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside city in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 31,667, an increase of 948 (+3.1%) from the 2010 census count of 30,719, which in turn reflect ...
, John was approached by George Tobin, a record producer and songwriter based in California, who wanted to produce a record for John. Tobin recalled in Fred Bronson's The Billboard Book of #1 Hits: "I had him come out and he lived in my house. He was actually a laborer in New Jersey at the time, carrying bricks on a construction job. I was looking for material for him and I heard a song called "
My Angel Baby "My Angel Baby" is a 1978 song by Toby Beau. "My Angel Baby" was written by band members Danny McKenna and Balde Silva. The single, from the group's self-titled album, went to #1 on the Easy Listening chart for one week, and peaked at #13 on th ...
" (by
Toby Beau Toby Beau is an American band from Texas, formed in the early 1970s and perhaps best known for the 1978 hit single, " My Angel Baby". The band is still in existence today and continues to perform on the club circuit. The band's name was based fr ...
) and said, 'That's the kind of song Robert should be doing.' So we used that as a frame of reference. Robert wrote 'Sad Eyes' and rewrote it for about three months. Every time he'd write it I'd go, 'Nah, change this and change that.' " Eventually signing with
EMI America Records EMI America Records was launched in 1978 by EMI as their second label in the United States after Capitol Records, relying on Capitol only for pressing, distribution, and international liaison. In 1987, EMI America merged with Manhattan Records ...
, John hit number one with "Sad Eyes", in 1979. John recorded for
Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...
with guitarist Bobby Mancari and keyboardist Steve Butera, as well as ''Bread and Butter'' on Motown in 1984. A re-recorded version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was released on his 1992 greatest hits album. John, who had not performed often in recent decades, received a chance to appear in his hometown of New York City as part of a "70s Reunion Concert" produced by radio station WPLJ-FM on March 24, 1995. Among the acts who took the stage at the sold-out concert were
Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...
,
Rupert Holmes Rupert Holmes (born David Goldstein; February 24, 1947) is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles " Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). He is also know ...
, Looking Glass featuring Elliot Lurie,
Andrew Gold Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop rock, pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold performed on s ...
,
Alan O'Day Alan Earle O'Day (October 3, 1940 – May 17, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for writing and singing "Undercover Angel (song), Undercover Angel," a million-selling Gold-certified American No. 1 hit in 1977. He also wrote son ...
, Ian Lloyd (lead singer of Stories),
Sonny Geraci Emmett Peter "Sonny" Geraci (pronounced "Jer-ay-see"; November 22, 1946 – February 5, 2017) was an American singer, best known as lead singer of musical groups The Outsiders and Climax. Biography Geraci first became known as the original l ...
(lead singer of the Outsiders and
Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...
), and John. John lived in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, Nevada, with his wife Diane Pedrick. They had two sons, Thomas Pedrick and Matthew Pedrick. John died on February 24, 2025, at the age of 79. Several years prior, he had suffered a severe stroke from which he had never fully recovered.


Select discography


Albums

*1968: ''If You Don't Want My Love'' *1971: ''On the Way Up'' *1979: ''Robert John'' – US No. 68, CAN No. 81 *1980: '' Back on the Street'' – US No. 205


Singles

**"Greased Lightning" – peaked at No. 60 on the US Dance chart Source:


References


External links

* *
Allmusic entry AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...
* 1946 births 2025 deaths American male singer-songwriters American tenors Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Atlantic Records artists Singers from Brooklyn American child singers {{US-singer-songwriter-stub