Bobby G. Rice

Born Robert Gene Rice on 11 July 1944 at a farm near Boscobel, Wisconsin, he grew up in a household where all six siblings learned instruments from an early age. The family first entertained at neighborhood parties before assuming management of the Circle D Ballroom. Bobby G. Rice, who handled guitar and banjo, began appearing with them on that stage at the age of five. Starting in the mid-1950s, the Rices broadcast their own program for nearly seven years on WRCO in Richland, Wisconsin, with Bobby serving as the featured vocalist.

After completing school in 1962 and the family unit’s dissolution, he set out on a professional career. He assembled the Rock-A-Teens, who performed rock & roll locally and on their own WIST-TV program. Two years later, longing for country music, he began working as a duo with his sister Lorraine. The pair drew strong local support, launched their own television show, and supplied backing harmonies for other acts. When Lorraine stepped away, Bobby formed his own band, started writing songs, and concentrated on modern country that incorporated country arrangements of pop material. He relocated to Nashville in the late 1960s and recorded for Royal American.

His first five chart entries in the early 1970s were modest successes drawn from early-1960s pop hits, among them “Sugar Shack” and “Hey Baby.” Subsequent releases included Top Ten singles with the self-penned “You Lay So Easy on My Mind,” a U.K. pop hit for Andy Williams in 1975, plus “You Give Me You” and “Freda Comes, Freda Goes.” Between 1976 and 1988 he placed 19 more titles on the charts, yet only “The Softest Touch in Town” reached the Top 30; his final entry was the 1988 duet “Clean Livin’ Folk” with Perry LaPointe. Although he issued albums on several labels, he never regained the following he enjoyed in the 1970s. Today his primary work lies in record production, and he has discontinued recording new material.