Bobby Hebb News! updated on http://bobbyhebb.blogspot.com

LIZA MINNELLI'S EMMY WINNING TV special "LIZA WITH A Z" featuring the Medley version of Bobby Hebb/Sandy Baron's classic "A Natural Man" will air on SHOWTIME on April 1, 2006.

The LIZA WITH A Z special has been RE-MASTERED and is going to be re-released to television!

Minnelli's 'Liza with a Z' to Air on Showtime on April 1

Read this article: http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=7090

The full Liza Minnelli version of the Bobby Hebb classic is on LIVE AT THE WINTERGARDEN vinyl lp on Columbia Records.

Ron Sunshine does a fantastic version of "Natural Man" on his CD "Deluxe" from 2003.

Happy Birthday Bobby Hebb July 26, 2004

BOBBY HEBB'S SUNNY IS IN RE-RELEASE!

Wait till you hear the superb re-mastering job by Grammy Award Winner Gavin Lurssen ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?" - Album of the Year and "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues" Best Historical Album) on BMI's #25 All Time Song - "Sunny" and the rest of the tunes on Bobby Hebb's 1966 album of the same name.

This 45 rpm cover is from Holland and is of a single which featured his Billboard #39 hit in
1966, the country standard "A Satisfied Mind" as well as his big British pop tune "Love, Love, Love."

Trocadero Records and Rudiger Ladwig of Germany were kind enough to mail us an advance copy of this brilliant new album. This review, written on September 27, 2003, is the first US look at this amazing disc, only the third full album in a history that spans 62 years, Hebb's first onstage appearance happening on his third birthday courtesy of older brother Hal Hebb.

This self-titled full length 14 track collection follows 1966's "Sunny" on Phillips and 1971's "Love Games" on Epic. Before, in between and after those two lps were released there were many, many 45 rpm recordings - many of which can be viewed on this website, some soundbites available. As "Sunny" hit on country, urban and pop radio in 1966, it had the distinction of being a true crossover. Since its inception BMI's #25 all time song - winner of the BMI Gold Award - has found itself revised and fitted nicely into the world of dance music and other genres. But the place where it really has made its mark - the arena where it was originally cut prior to Bobby Hebb's own pop version, is as a jazz staple. And what the self-titled 2003 Bobby Hebb album does is bring new material and familiar favorites together with the songwriter doing them in that Jazz/R & B style he is a master of. Those who saw him perform with The Beatles or who only have heard "Sunny", "A Natural Man", "Love Love Love" and "A Satisfied Mind" - the hits - may not know that Hebb is a unique and extraordinary talent. This writer has rolled video and audio on Bobby since 1995 and whether he's performing with The Kubato Jazz Unit, the Michael Shea Trio (with his nephew Thomas Hebb) or solo as he did in May of 2003 in Rockport, it is evident that he is a musical chameleon and if you step on stage with him, you'd better have your chops in order.

There are two versions of "Sunny" , a duet with Pat Appleton on a separate disc and Astrid North accompanying the songwriter on the full length, are that rhythm and blues meets jazz sound that Bobby redefines. His Phillips 45 "Bound By Love"
makes its first appearance on an lp along with "Cold Cold Night" which was originally tracked in the 1960's but left in the vaults. "Love Love Love" is here in a great new version which keeps the sixties' flavors. "A Satisfied Mind" is here and new titles like "Different Strokes" which leads off the disc, "Proud Woman", "When Love Goes Wrong", "Willow Tree", "Don't Tear Me Down" and others.

It's an instant classic and gets 5 Stars - you have to hear this to believe it. A 64 year young performer still sounding and playing like he's in his early 20's. And trust my objective rock critic ears, if this record didn't have it together Mr. Hebb would hear about it in no uncertain terms. This disc is incredible, and Rudiger Ladwig is to be commended for bringing such great musicians and this huge talent together in Germany to record this masterpiece.

Bobby recorded a wonderful disc with Bernard Purdie (after yours truly reunited them on Bobby's 62nd birthday) - they even re-cut "A Natural Man". That album, Bobby's 1980's album, live material cut in Japan in 2002 and other albums recorded by this genius have not seen the light of day. Maybe the release of BOBBY HEBB - the album - will get all of this material into circulation. Me? I'm busy working on putting a deluxe version of the SUNNY album from Phillips out again with about 12 unreleased tracks including the EBAY hit "Dreamy"/"You Want To Change Me" - which is going for big bucks on all sorts of internet sites. Gamble & Huff recorded it in 1968 and we hope to have it on the new SUNNY lp or on a Bobby Hebb Collected 45s collection. Stay tuned.

Bobby Hebb Tapes TV Commercial
9/16/03 at Asahi Restaurant in Salem

The commercial will air at least 3 times on Channel 7 in Boston!
Starting Friday, Sept. 19th at 5:30 pm It will also air on 9/26/03!!!
 

News article as appeared in The Globe Newspaper

'Dolce" is Italian for ''sweet," but the ambience in Gloucester's Caffe Dolce was anything but one recent Monday morning. As a dozen men in blue-collar garb shouted hoarsely back and forth in Italian, Rockport's Bobby Hebb strained to be heard above the din.

''If I was going to write this . . . this scene, this disposition we're in at this particular moment, could never be 'Sunny,' " said Hebb, referring to the signature tune he wrote 38 years ago about one's state of mind or ''disposition." It was a song that rocked the pop, country, and R&B charts the summer of 1966, topping Cash Box magazine's ranking and making it to Billboard's No. 2.

A neat, trim man with a quiet demeanor, Hebb appeared a little out of place amid the coffee shop's hubbub, but he acted right at home -- drinking in the scene along with his cappuccino, and musing about how he might write it up as a song or the setting for a musical.

Those who know him say Hebb is rarely out of place anywhere. Moving nimbly among diverse musical styles from classical and jazz to R&B, pop, and country and skilled on an array of instruments from guitar and cello to spoons, Hebb toured with the Beatles, played a private gig for the late Taiwan leader Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, and was the third black performer ever to appear at the Grand Ole Opry when he debuted with country legend Roy Acuff as a pre-teen in 1952.

According to Fred Boucher, who owns the Blacksmith Shop, a restaurant in Hebb's neighborhood, ''He's basically been a mover and shaker all his life."  Hebb's life will be celebrated later this month as part of a new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit. Hebb plans to travel to his native Nashville for the March 27 opening of ''Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970," where he'll speak on a panel about the ''intersections between R&B and country music." It is something that ''Bobby's career typifies," said Hall of Fame spokesman Michael Gray.

The exhibit will feature the tweed jacket Hebb wore on the 1966 Beatles tour, antique spoons he played at the Grand Ole Opry, the original ''Sunny" sheet music, and photos of Hebb and his family -- a musically gifted clan headed by gospel musician parents.  Gray said an accompanying two-CD set includes Hebb's recording of ''Sunny" -- a song that has since been covered by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Cher, and myriad others. Hebb said he stopped counting after 500 recordings.

'' 'Sunny' is one of the most recorded songs in US pop music history. That song broke on three different genres and now it's also a jazz standard and there's also been a disco hit," said Joe Viglione, a Medford music writer and video producer who has followed Hebb's career and calls him ''a musical chameleon."  While Hebb's prolific composing in younger days earned him the nickname ''song-a-day man," he said he was really writing several daily. Hebb scored a second triumph on the charts in 1971 when he cowrote the Lou Rawls hit, ''A Natural Man." While his other songs didn't gather anything close to the acclaim of ''Sunny," Hebb recorded many -- relying on live audiences to advise him on which songs to keep or discard from the repertoire.

A remake of the original ''Sunny" album is in the works and Hebb said he hopes it will be released by July 26, when he turns 66 -- a number matching the year ''Sunny" hit the airwaves.

''If I get three or four [songs] a week now, I'm happy. The song I wrote this morning was called 'Power Play,' " he said, describing his newest composition as an experiment in harmonies on guitar.  Besides songwriting, Hebb said he is working on a television special and a musical comedy. And, while show contracts aren't yet in hand, Hebb said he might tour New England in coming months. Last summer, he played a classic hits show in Lynn, and appeared at Emerson Inn by the Sea in Rockport. He also did a concert tour last year in Germany, and in Japan in 2002.

''I feel like I'm 25," he said.

For younger musicians, Hebb is an inspiration.  ''In terms of a musical mentor, he's one of the best," said Plum Island keyboardist, composer, and producer Eric Goldberg, who worked with Hebb in the 1990s.

''To perform with him, the way he gets the crowd going, is just incredible. The range -- he goes from old standards [such as] 'Body & Soul,' and he'll jump from something like that to something like 'That's the Way I Like It,' and then do the spoons thing right after that. He has the energy of an 18-year-old."

Both Goldberg and Rockport guitarist Peter Fedele, who works with Hebb's nephew, bass player Thomas Hebb, spoke of Hebb's deep knowledge of music technique and theory.

''Whenever I get him to sit in, it's always a good thing. It's like a lesson for me. It's cool he's still writing great stuff," said Fedele, who has played Hebb's tunes during a weekly gig at Gloucester's Blackburn Tavern. ''I admire him for the fact that he's still doing it, which, in this business, is a tough thing."

After living 30 years in Rockport, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Salem, Hebb is preparing to move back to Nashville to be near his four sisters. Although he bought a home in Nashville, ''I won't be leaving 100 percent," said Hebb, whose daughter lives in Methuen. He said his music publishing and production business, Bobby Hebb Productions -- and a piece of his heart -- will stay in Rockport.  ''I learned a lot more and experienced things by being here," he said. ''This is what I was looking for."

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

There's a new interview in Soulsville Magazine - http://www.soulsville.de/bobbyinterview.html
 

Mr. Hebb is in the Boston Globe March 11, 2004 - http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/03/11/hebbs_sunny_future/
 

Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" aired on WBZ- AM 1030 on March 10, 2004 at 10:19 pm - only it was a promotion for "Paul Sullivan" - and a voiceover sang "Sully, one so true...SULLY"...Jennifer Love Hewitt played the part of Nancy Sinatra on AMERICAN DREAMS in February on a Sunday night. We have a clip of it on BOBBYHEBB.Com - the audio.