Bobby Curtola

Bobby Curtola was Canada’s Bobby. He was Canada’s teen heart throb who put 19 songs on Toronto’s CHUM chart between 1960 and 1965, and he even got two songs on Billboard, though neither got higher than 41.

He recorded for the Tartan label, pure Canadiana, and putting this collection together was a challenge, because for a long time reissues of his music were few and far between. I see that there is a 25 song CD collection available on his web site, and Amazon sports a pretty decent collection of 19 songs – not quite the exact same 19 songs that were on the chart but pretty close. But I got this stuff almost exclusively on singles that I picked up at more second hand stores than you can shake a stick at.

His stuff is a bit more MOR and a bit less teeny bopper cute than the typical Bobby Vee / Bobby Rydell / Frankie Avalon fare, but only a bit.

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Bobby Curtola:

• Hand In Hand With You – His first hit, from the summer of 1960.
• I’ll Never Be Alone Again – From.the fall of 1961.
• You Must Belong To Me – There’s that belonging thing again. From the spring of 1962.
• Fortune Teller – Not the oft-coverd Benny Spellman song. From the spring of 1962. This one made number 41 on Billboard.
• Alladin – Close your eyes and make a wish. From the fall of 1962. His second and last Billboard single; it reached 92.
• Destination Love – It’s the journey that counts, not the destination. From the winter of 1963.
• As Long As I’m Sure Of You – From the summer of 1964.
• When I’m Away
• Hitch-Hiker – A hitch-hiker on the road to love he says. What’s that mean, he’s not paying his way? From the winter of 61 / 62.
• Little Girl Blue – This is not the classic made famous by Judy Garland et al. It’s a song about a girl in the audience. Cute, but The Statler Brothers wrote the book on that topic (Do You Know You Are My Sunshine). From the winter of 1964.
• Johnny Take Your Time – Good advice. From the spring of 1962.
• Three Rows Over – The inevitable new girl in school song. From the fall of 1963.
• Indian Giver – This is not the Annette song, nor is it the 1910 Fruitgum Company song. The politically incorrect expression, however, bears the same meaning. I don’t suppose anyone has brought this to the attention of the CRTC… From the summer of 1963.
• Mean Woman Blues – Done by Elvis and by Roy Orbison. Bobby didn’t stand a chance. Still, it managed to get as high as 23 on the CHUM chart, and that was in early 1965. It was Bobby’s last hit.