Bobby Rydell

He had his first hit in 1959. Six decades later, teamed with his fellow singers Frankie Avalon and Fabian, he was still drawing crowds.

After his television appearances dwindled, he continued to perform in nightclubs and nostalgia shows, and to tour Australia, until the promoter Dick Fox put the Golden Boys together in 1985, initially or a PBS special. In 1975, Ian Dove wrote: “Mr. Rydell is not your hard rocker — his era was in the late 1950s, when rock was being softened and made less frightening. In a radio interview in 2013 with Ted Yates of CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario, Mr. Rydell explained why he hadn’t stayed in Hollywood to make more movies: “I couldn’t. There was something about the lifestyle in California that I really wasn’t used to. But the only movie in which he made much of an impact was “Bye Bye Birdie,” released in 1963 and based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, which poked fun at show business in general and rock ’n’ roll frenzy in particular. In the 2000 book “The Beatles Anthology,” Paul McCartney was quoted as saying that he and John Lennon based “She Loves You” on a Bobby Rydell song. He raised his children there, and moved in 2013 only because the house had grown too big for him and his wife. “His son had passed away, and Bobby always felt he was looked upon by Mr. Skelton as a son. The Australian police had to make a wedge to get us out of Sydney Stadium. It was scary, but all in all it was absolutely tremendous.” (Mr. Rydell went on to tour in Australia more than 20 times.) Reviewing his Copacabana performance in 1961, Variety complimented him on his “sense of career.” “Right now, he’s a teenager’s teenager,” the Variety critic said. Unlike some of the other pretty faces of his era, Mr. Rydell was a real musician. His name alone could conjure up an entire era: The 1970s rock musical “Grease,” in both its Broadway and movie versions, was set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School. Over the course of his recording career he placed 19 singles in the Billboard Top 40 and 34 in the Hot 100.

Bobby Rydell, a teen idol from the '60s known for songs like "Wild One" and his role as Hugo Peabody in the 1963 film "Bye Bye Birdie," has died, ...

Bobby Rydell, a pompadoured heart-throb of early rock'n'roll who was a star of radio, television and the movie...

His fame as the epitome of an American pop star was such that Rydell High School in the Broadway musical and subsequent film “Grease” was named after him.

After having tried his luck with a handful of unsuccessful singles for small, independent labels, Rydell signed with Philadelphia’s Cameo Records (eventually Cameo/Parkway) and hit the charts with “Kissin’ Time” in 1959. And I’m not a movie star by any stretch of the imagination, but if I had to be in one picture, it’s a classic, such as ‘Grease.’ And I’m really happy to be involved with something that was that wonderful.” The singer had 34 singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100, the most well-remembered of which include “Wild One,” which reached No. 2, and “Volare,” a No. 4 hit. “Out of all the kids” from that era, Blavat said, “he had the best pipes and was the greatest entertainer. “It was so nice to know that the high school [in ‘Grease’] was named after me,” he said. An actor also portrayed him in a performance scene in the film “Green Book.”

Bobby Rydell, a pompadoured heart-throb of early rock'n'roll who was a star of radio, television and the movie musical "Bye Bye Birdie," has died. Rydell died on Tuesday of complications from pneumonia at a hospital in a suburb of his hometown of ...

Bobby Rydell, a 1950s teen idol who starred in the hit musical film "Bye Bye Birdie," has died. He was 79. Rydell died from pneumonia complications.

Rydell was also open about his hardships. Born Robert Ridarelli, Rydell rose to fame after getting discovered on the show "TV Teen Club" in 1950. Throughout his music career, he sold over 25 million albums and landed 34 top 100 hits.