17-year-old Bobby Freeman was still at High School in San Francisco when he began enjoying chart hits – none as great as his debut Do You Want To Dance? (1958).
The song (which was also later a hit for The Beach Boys, The Mama’s and The Papa’s and Bette Midler) won him a gold record and made Freeman one of San Francisco’s first teen idols.
His follow-up was Betty Lou Got A New Pair of Shoes, and between 1958 and 1961 seven of his records made the charts, including Need Your Love, Mary Ann Thomas, Ebb Tide, (I Do The) Shimmy-Shimmy, and Mess Around.
He toured the East Coast and appeared regularly on American Bandstand.
Back home in the Bay Area, he sang at Cow Palace rock & roll shows, and in 1964 he began his first stay on Broadway, singing seven nights a week.
He enjoyed another big hit with C’mon and Swim and went on the road again to capitalise on the hit. But by 1967 he was played out.
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