Elijah Wald – Bobby Hebb profile |
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to the Books and Other Writing page Back to the Archive Contents page HEBB'S NO ONE-SONG SINGER By Elijah Wald © 1994 (originally published in the Boston Globe)
At Johnny D's, though, Hebb will be trying something different. "I'm gonna do a little jazz, but I went by and looked at the room and it seems to be very deep into the blues," he says. "And I'd like to get a little closer into the blues at this particular moment, because I can express myself and get a great amount of feeling out of it." Lest he give a wrong impression, Hebb is quick to add that it will not be the sort of blues many younger artists are playing. "I started in 1941, on my third birthday," he says. "It was at the Paradise Club in Nashville, Tenn., and I was singing blues, but it wasn't anything like the Mississippi Delta blues that is popular today. It was more Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. But I did all kinds of music. I was a song-and-dancer with two other tap dancers in a group called the Typewriter Brothers. My opening song was Gershwin's 'Lady Be Good.' " The diminutive dancer became a Nashville favorite and, starting in 1951, he was one of the few African-American artists to be featured on the Grand Ol' Opry, dancing and playing spoons with Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys. It was there that he began to play guitar, picking up licks from country-jazz aces Chet Atkins and Hank Garland. For the time being, though, the guitar remained a hobby and it was as a spoons player that he made his recording debut several years later in Chicago, playing on early hits by Bo Diddley. Then, in 1961, Nashville D.J. John R. hooked Hebb up with Sylvia Vanderpool, lately of Mickey and Sylvia, who brought him to New York. "That's where it really started for me," Hebb says. "She had a place called the Blue Morocco. In those days I was known as Bobby (Mojo) Hebb, because one of my ending songs was an old Muddy Waters tune, 'Mojo Workout.' There was a place called Freddie's across the street, where a lot of jazz musicians played, so people like Stanley Turrentine would come down and we would have jam sessions. We would get together and have a big, good time, man." Hebb and Vanderpool appeared as Bobby and Sylvia, and recorded in New Orleans with Dr. John on guitar and James Booker on piano. As a soloist, he cut records for several small labels before hitting in 1966 with "Sunny," a song he had written three years earlier. "I'm a recovering alcoholic, and in those days I was very heavy into Jack Daniels," he says. "And one morning I came home and saw a purple sunrise. I had never seen that before and I didn't know what was going on, and I started writing just what that reminded me of. The thing that ran into my mind was, 'Why am I feeling sad?' Not that our emotions should not appreciate the sadness along with the happiness, but it's just that there was no reason to be sad if I could look at a brighter side. So I started writing 'Sunny.' "What I had in mind was that we should, as individuals, have a sunny personality, so that we can not only get along with others but get along with ourselves a little better. I wasn't aware of how large the song would become with its popularity; I was only trying to make people happier. So you might say the popularity was really a reward." The song brought Hebb national television exposure and a supporting spot on the Beatles' 1966 tour, but after later records failed to match its success he decided to play less and devote more of his attention to other interests. Today, although he has published more than a thousand songs, recorded by artists such as Lou Rawls, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells and Herb Alpert, Hebb's name remains inextricably linked with "Sunny." Many performers who are associated with one number grow tired of having to do it night after night, but Hebb says he still regards it as not only a pleasure but a challenge. "No matter what I do, I always close with that particular song," he says. ''Because I try not to do it the same way twice, and that's difficult. That gives me something to look forward to at the end of the night. "Anyway," he adds, the song still means a lot to him. "I'm a little guy, so I don't know how to look down on things. I've always looked up." |
Hebb has been living quietly in Rockport, working in communications for the state Highway Department and playing occasionally at a jazz club in Essex. Tonight he will make his first Boston-area appearance in decades, bringing his four-piece band to Johnny D's in Somerville. Hebb has sung everything from jazz to country to earth-shaking soul, but in recent years he has focused on his jazz guitar skills. "I play somewhere between Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel; those are my two favorites," he says, speaking by phone from his home. "Basically, trumpet was my original instrument and I like big band sounds, Gerald Wilson or the Basie band. It's almost impossible to get those dynamics with a small group, but you can get a little close to it."