Biography
Bobby Hebb first appeared onstage at the Bijou Theater on his third birthday, July 26, 1941, after tap dancer Harold “Hal” Hebb brought his younger sibling into the Jerry Jackson Revue of 1942. The singer later recalled that Jerry Jackson, a prominent vaudeville figure of the 1930s through 1950s, often scheduled shows under the following year’s title. At nine years old, Hal teamed with Bobby for numerous nightclub engagements before the younger brother reached first grade. Venues in Nashville—the Hollywood Palm, Eva Thompson Jones Dance Studio, Paradise Club, the Prentice Alley basement bar, and the Bijou itself—featured the brothers dancing and singing then-popular numbers such as “Lady B. Good,” “Let’s Do the Boogie Woogie,” and “Lay That Pistol Down Babe.” William Hebb, Bobby’s father, performed on trombone and guitar; his mother, Ovalla Hebb, played piano and guitar; and his grandfather served as chef aboard the Dixie Flyer, an express train on the Louisville & Nashville railroad. Hal later joined the Excello group the Marigolds, an association noted in Jay Warner’s biography of Johnny Bragg, Just Walkin’ in the Rain. Bobby, steeped in this musical environment, composed hundreds of songs, among them “Sunny,” which BMI ranked as its twenty-fifth most-played title on its website in 2000.
Georgie Fame and Cher placed the song on British charts, yet the original Bobby Hebb recording achieved the highest positions in both Europe and the United States. Versions by Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Frankie Valli, Nancy Wilson, the Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, and many others extended its reach far beyond listeners of Top 40 and oldies stations. The track also crossed over to country and R&B charts, an accomplishment Kal Rudman described as a rare industry “hat trick” in the liner notes for the 1966 Philips album Sunny. Unexpectedly, Boney M. and Yambu carried the number into dance clubs, while jazz artists delved into its subtleties. In 2001 Hebb performed it with the Kubato Power Jazz Unit and the Michael Shea Trio, the latter featuring his nephew Thomas Hebb on bass. Author James Isaacs, whose liner notes appear in several Sinatra box sets, compiled a roster of jazz interpreters that includes guitarist Pat Martino; vocalists Ernestine Anderson, Bill Henderson, and Anita O’Day; organist Joey DeFrancesco; drummer Don Houge; pianists Joe Bonner and Hampton Hawes; trumpeter and flügelhornist Marvin Stamm; alto saxophonist Sonny Criss; and guitarist Stanley Jordan, among others.
Hebb’s impact extended well past “Sunny.” Around 1952 he joined Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys in Nashville, becoming one of the first African-American performers on the Grand Ole Opry before Charley Pride. In 1954 he relocated to Chicago, later remarking, “I wanted to play some music, and I wanted to advance my career. I didn’t find the jazz I was looking for, but I ran into a lot of blues.” He worked with Bo Diddley, possibly contributing to an early Ellis McDaniels album, and recorded “Diddly Diddly Diddly Daddy” with the Moonglows and Little Walter at Leonard Chess’s studio behind the record shop on Cottage Grove Avenue; Hebb noted that “Leonard was the engineer.” Enlisting in the Navy in 1955, he played trumpet and absorbed West Coast jazz, performing throughout his service with the USS Pine Island Pirates band in ports that included Hong Kong, where the ensemble entertained Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mei-ling) and later met Chiang Kai-shek himself.
Near 1958 Hebb cut “Night Train to Memphis,” a number Owen Bradley had written for Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys; the track reappeared in 1998 on the Warner Bros. box set From Where I Stand, which also contained “A Satisfied Mind” from the 1966 Sunny album. He subsequently collaborated with Dr. John and left Nashville for New York. Disc jockey John “R” Richbourg, owner of Rich Records—the label that had issued “Night Train to Memphis”—secured Hebb an engagement at Sylvia Robinson’s Blue Morocco Club. Hebb recalled opening the first two weeks with Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther on Up the Road,” backed first by Jimmy Castor and later by Bernard Purdie, who had recently arrived from Baltimore with Jewel Paige. Hebb eventually replaced Mickey in Sylvia Robinson’s duo Mickey & Sylvia, known for “Love Is Strange,” after which the act became Bobby & Sylvia once Mickey departed for Paris.
Following that partnership, manager Buster Newman helped bring “Sunny” to widespread attention; every publisher the pair approached initially declined the song. Newman’s associate Lloyd Greenfield, who already represented Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, added Hebb to his roster. While groups such as the Remains and the Ronettes without Ronnie Spector supported the Beatles on their 1966 tour, Hebb actually headlined several dates with the Fab Four. He later met comedian and composer Sandy Baron, and the two began work on a Broadway musical that never reached the stage. Two songs from the project—“A Natural Man” and “His Song Shall Be Sung,” originally inspired by Marvin Gaye—were recorded by Lou Rawls for MGM. The pair had set “A Natural Man” aside from the show; its working title had been “Natural Resource,” but they revised the groove once Rawls expressed interest, and it became a major hit. In 2001 Universal issued Natural Man/Classic Lou, a best-of collection that took its title from the song.
Sandy Baron died in 2001, the same year Roof Music released a sixteen-track compilation of “Sunny” covers that renewed European interest in both the composition and its creator. On July 28, 2001, two days after Hebb’s sixty-third birthday, Bernard Purdie performed with Masters of Groove at the House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hebb and Purdie spoke by phone for the first time in more than three decades and reunited at the concert that evening. Hebb also appeared in June 2001 at the Martini & Rossi 100 Years photo exhibit opening in Boston, shortly after completing mini-med school. He died of lung cancer at age seventy-two on August 3, 2010.
Georgie Fame and Cher placed the song on British charts, yet the original Bobby Hebb recording achieved the highest positions in both Europe and the United States. Versions by Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Frankie Valli, Nancy Wilson, the Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, and many others extended its reach far beyond listeners of Top 40 and oldies stations. The track also crossed over to country and R&B charts, an accomplishment Kal Rudman described as a rare industry “hat trick” in the liner notes for the 1966 Philips album Sunny. Unexpectedly, Boney M. and Yambu carried the number into dance clubs, while jazz artists delved into its subtleties. In 2001 Hebb performed it with the Kubato Power Jazz Unit and the Michael Shea Trio, the latter featuring his nephew Thomas Hebb on bass. Author James Isaacs, whose liner notes appear in several Sinatra box sets, compiled a roster of jazz interpreters that includes guitarist Pat Martino; vocalists Ernestine Anderson, Bill Henderson, and Anita O’Day; organist Joey DeFrancesco; drummer Don Houge; pianists Joe Bonner and Hampton Hawes; trumpeter and flügelhornist Marvin Stamm; alto saxophonist Sonny Criss; and guitarist Stanley Jordan, among others.
Hebb’s impact extended well past “Sunny.” Around 1952 he joined Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys in Nashville, becoming one of the first African-American performers on the Grand Ole Opry before Charley Pride. In 1954 he relocated to Chicago, later remarking, “I wanted to play some music, and I wanted to advance my career. I didn’t find the jazz I was looking for, but I ran into a lot of blues.” He worked with Bo Diddley, possibly contributing to an early Ellis McDaniels album, and recorded “Diddly Diddly Diddly Daddy” with the Moonglows and Little Walter at Leonard Chess’s studio behind the record shop on Cottage Grove Avenue; Hebb noted that “Leonard was the engineer.” Enlisting in the Navy in 1955, he played trumpet and absorbed West Coast jazz, performing throughout his service with the USS Pine Island Pirates band in ports that included Hong Kong, where the ensemble entertained Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mei-ling) and later met Chiang Kai-shek himself.
Near 1958 Hebb cut “Night Train to Memphis,” a number Owen Bradley had written for Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys; the track reappeared in 1998 on the Warner Bros. box set From Where I Stand, which also contained “A Satisfied Mind” from the 1966 Sunny album. He subsequently collaborated with Dr. John and left Nashville for New York. Disc jockey John “R” Richbourg, owner of Rich Records—the label that had issued “Night Train to Memphis”—secured Hebb an engagement at Sylvia Robinson’s Blue Morocco Club. Hebb recalled opening the first two weeks with Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther on Up the Road,” backed first by Jimmy Castor and later by Bernard Purdie, who had recently arrived from Baltimore with Jewel Paige. Hebb eventually replaced Mickey in Sylvia Robinson’s duo Mickey & Sylvia, known for “Love Is Strange,” after which the act became Bobby & Sylvia once Mickey departed for Paris.
Following that partnership, manager Buster Newman helped bring “Sunny” to widespread attention; every publisher the pair approached initially declined the song. Newman’s associate Lloyd Greenfield, who already represented Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, added Hebb to his roster. While groups such as the Remains and the Ronettes without Ronnie Spector supported the Beatles on their 1966 tour, Hebb actually headlined several dates with the Fab Four. He later met comedian and composer Sandy Baron, and the two began work on a Broadway musical that never reached the stage. Two songs from the project—“A Natural Man” and “His Song Shall Be Sung,” originally inspired by Marvin Gaye—were recorded by Lou Rawls for MGM. The pair had set “A Natural Man” aside from the show; its working title had been “Natural Resource,” but they revised the groove once Rawls expressed interest, and it became a major hit. In 2001 Universal issued Natural Man/Classic Lou, a best-of collection that took its title from the song.
Sandy Baron died in 2001, the same year Roof Music released a sixteen-track compilation of “Sunny” covers that renewed European interest in both the composition and its creator. On July 28, 2001, two days after Hebb’s sixty-third birthday, Bernard Purdie performed with Masters of Groove at the House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hebb and Purdie spoke by phone for the first time in more than three decades and reunited at the concert that evening. Hebb also appeared in June 2001 at the Martini & Rossi 100 Years photo exhibit opening in Boston, shortly after completing mini-med school. He died of lung cancer at age seventy-two on August 3, 2010.
Albums
Singles
Live
