MUSIC HISTORY 101 OCTOBER 22, 1942 - Born on this day as Robert Gaston Bobby Fuller in Goose Creek, Baytown, Texas: Singer/songwriter/musician/producer BOBBY FULLER (d. July 18, 1966) Bobby Fuller, singer of the The Bobby Fuller Four is best known for making a splash in 1966 with his US #9 charting single I Fought The Law, written by Sonny Curtis, formerly of Buddy Hollys Crickets. At a time when the British Invasion and folk rock were the dominant genres in rock, Fuller stuck to Buddy Hollys style of classic rock and roll with Tex Mex flourishes. His recordings, both covers and originals, also reveal the influences of Eddie Cochran, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers, as well as surf guitar. Born near a war shipyard outside of Houston, Fullers parents, Lawson S. and Eva Loraine Fuller, were worried that the new arrival might upset D.F. “Jack” Leflar, Loraine’s son by an earlier marriage, but the 12-year-old welcomed a kid brother. He was equally delighted by the birth of Randall Fuller two years later( January 29, 1944, in Hobbs, New Mexico). Fullers family moved when Bobby was yet a small child to Salt Lake City, Utah. At age 4, Bobby began developing a more than consuming interest in music. “My husband and I were walking down the street one day with Bobby, when he suddenly disappeared,” Loraine said. “We turned back and found him following a blind man. ‘The man was singing and Bobby was trying to sing along. By the time he was five, Bobby was playing piano,” his mother said. “He was always interested in music. I never discouraged him, but I didn’t give him the idea either. I don’t know where his obsession with music came from. It seemed to be his only interest. We just accepted it early that he would always be involved in music.” Randy and Bobby took music classes in grade school, though Randy, muscular, extroverted and more inclined toward sports, studied music less enthusiastically. Bobby, aloof and circumspect, preferred solitude. He played trumpet and a variety of instruments before settling on drums. “His earliest influences were jazz artist,” Randy said. “Bobby started playing publicly as a jazz drummer in Salt Lake City. Jazz was the only popular form of music there.” While attending Evergreen Junior High School and later Olympus High School, Bobby often ignored homework assignments to pursue his musical interest. He played drums briefly in a jazz band with pianist Larry Jackstein. In 1956, the family moved to El Paso, Texas. Fullers father got a job at El Paso Natural Gas at that time. It was the same year that Elvis Presley became popular, and Bobby, then 12 going on 13, became mesmerized by the new rock and roll sound. 14-year-old Bobby had picked up on the hard-pounding rock piano techniques of the day while also becoming reasonably adept as a drummer. Bobbys brother Randy focused on playing guitar. Bobby first went to Ysleta High but entered Burges High School as a sophomore in Sept. 1957 and played in band and orchestra. Bobby returned to Ysleta in the fall of 1958 where he was in enrolled in ROTC, played drums for the school band (Randy played trombone), and was interested in journalism. He transferred to Technical Center in 1959 and graduated from there July 29, 1960. He briefly studied music, with an emphasis on drumming, at North Texas State University. School bored Bobby, and his grades frequently slipped below average. After graduating form high school, Bobby devoted even more energy to playing. His band enjoyed immense popularity at such hot clubs as the Golden Key Club, Teen a Go-Go and Little Dipper lounge in Skylanes Bowl, 6200 Dyer. He also worked part-time at the Melody Shop in Basssett center and spent his free time flirting with girls and talking about guitars with musical cronies at the defunct Hilltop Oasis, El Paso’s leading hangout at the time. Bobby also loved cars. His 1959 metallic blue Impala was one of the hottest dragsters on the East Side. He and other students occasionally congregated for hot rod races on Montanan Street, near where Lee Trevino drive intersects today. They also gathered in front of Burges, where students carefully painted a quarter-mile strip, measured by counting the revolutions of a bicycle tire rolled along the asphalt. Light poles were striped and signs were erected proclaiming the spot “Burges Dragway.” While in high school, Bobby had seen little of his older brother. Jack Leflar, returned to El Paso after several months roaming across Texas doing odd jobs. Tired of his rootless existence, Jack took a course in barbering and began working for a local barbershop. “He was cutting some guy’s hair, and they started talking struck up a friendship,” Randy remembered. “They decided to go shooting. They were taking turns setting up targets, when this guy unloaded on Jack, just shot him in the back of the head. The guy took off with Jack’s car and money. I was 17 and bobby was close to 19. We weren’t that close to Jack then, because he was always gone. But it shook us up.” Jack was murdered Feb. 22, 1961. His Killer, Roy Leon Handy of La Mesa, Texas, was arrested in Lubbock and readily confessed to the slaying. Police found Jack’s body at Pidgeon Tank near Mescalero in Northeast Otero County. Handy’s motive was unclear, but the murderer also admitted killing his father, because, he said, “somebody had to do it.” Handy was imprisoned, paroled and later moved to North Carolina. Jack’s death instilled urgency in Bobby. His musical endeavors intensified. He wanted immortality. With the help of his father, Bobby opened the Rendezvous, a dance club for teens (no liquor was served), in 1963 at Hondo Pass and Diana in Northeast El Paso. It was an instant success. Bobby Fuller and his band were regular fare, but occasionally a notable star was featured. Bobby Vee played at the Rendezvous June 27, 1964. Admission was $2. “The club went real well,” Loraine said. “It was crowded constantly, huge crowds. Bobby was happy again. He loved playing for teenagers.” At home, many of the Fullers practice sessions on the family reel-to-reel recorder were destined for posterity. Not long after, his idol and fellow West Texan Buddy Holly of Lubbock became a major star and the teenage brothers figured they, too, had the chops to make it and pursued a music career. Early on, they fantasized about stardom as Captain Fuller and the Rocket Squad, a band name destined for abandonment. Tape machines were sturdy in those days and that particular recorder received more than its share of wear and tear as the two practiced, laid down tracks, erased, wrote more songs, hit play/record and went at it again. Bobby (who had become a solid guitar player by the early 60s) and Randy were confident enough to approach some of the smaller regional labels with what they considered their better demos. The 100-mile road trip up Highway 54 resulted in the late 1961 release of Youre in Love by Alamagordo, New Mexicos Yucca Records, credited to Bobby Fuller (lead singer on the track). The song and its flip, Guess Well Fall in Love, left little doubt as to the heavy Crickets influence. Bobbys fascination with Buddy, nearly three years after the iconic singers death, ran deep and would leave its stamp on many future Fuller efforts. The record wasnt what youd call a hit... unless you lived in El Paso, where it was played frequently on local station KELP. During the early 1960s, the Fullers remained playing in clubs and bars in El Paso, and recorded on independent record labels in Texas with a constantly changing line-up. The only constant band members were Fuller and his younger brother, Randy on bass, but the door had been opened for the Fuller brothers to make another record. This time they went straight to the source of their inspiration, beyond Alamagordo, past Roswell, further northeast to Clovis, New Mexico and the Norman Petty studios where Holly had made his historic recordings. My Heart Jumped, the more polished second single, was also released by Yucca. When in the 11th grade, Bobby began building a recording studio in the garage of the family house with the approval of his parents, putting out a single on their own Eastwood label (named after Eastwood High School in El Paso) with Bobby acting as the producer. Using a couple of microphones and a mixing board purchased from a local radio station, the quality of the recordings was so impressive that Bobby offered the use of his studio to local acts for free so he could hone his production skills. Rod Crosby, 36, played almost 13 years in El Paso with his band, the Intruders. He was Bobby’s biggest competitor; Bobby couldn’t resist inviting his rival over for a recording session. “As soon as Bobby got his studio hooked up, he called me to see if I wanted to do some recording, just for fun,” Rod said. “We recorded a song called Anita Marie. Bobby was a real show-off. He was pretty egocentric and sometimes went overboard with it. But you sometimes have to be that way to be a successful entertainer. “In some ways, he considered me his only competition,” Rod said. “Bobby was a couple of years older than me, but we both learned the same Buddy Holly songs at the same time. Buddy Holly was our biggest influence.” Bobby built a primitive echo chamber in the back yard. At the time, echo chamber effects were achieved by trial and error. During the 1950s, Les Paul and Mary Ford sang in a bathroom to produce a hollow ring and Bobby hoped for a more sophisticated mechanism. Once completed, he possessed the ability to emulate the reverb-laden surf guitar of Dick Dale and The Ventures, but Hollys Not Fade Away was one of their first home recordings. Sadly, although in spite of strong musicianship and improved acoustics, it came off more along the lines of a weak Tops label knockoff. Most of these independent releases (except two songs recorded in Clovis), and an excursion to Yucca Records, also in New Mexico, were recorded at home. Bobby then took on regular lead guitar duties as Randy settled in on bass, Jim Reese came on board as rhythm guitarist, and Dalton Powell became the bands drummer. They played around with different group names but couldnt decide on a permanent one. Saturday Night, a Todd label single in 1963 (still under the Bobby Fuller name), imitated Eddie Cochrans Summertime Blues, but the flip side, The Stinger, was a strong surf-style instrumental, giving them a foothold in a much more contemporary arena. On a trip to Los Angeles in 1964, they met with indifference from several record labels but received encouragement from Del Fi Records owner/producer Bob Keane who was noted for discovering Ritchie Valens and producing many surf music groups. Bobby, back in his South Texas comfort zone, opened an all-ages club in El Paso called the Teen Rendezvous (with financial backing from his parents) while the band waxed three singles for Exeter Records including I Fought the Law, a no-nonsense rock song written by Sonny Curtis and first recorded in 1961 by Curtiss post-Holly Crickets. Fuller moved to Los Angeles in 1964 with his Bobby Fuller Four, and was signed by Keane to Mustang Records late that year. By this time, the group consisted of Fuller and his brother Randy on vocals/guitar and bass respectively, Jim Reese was still on guitar, but DeWayne Quirico replaced Powell, whod married and started a family in El Paso. Loraine Fuller drove out west in her Oldsmobile to give her sons moral support and often stayed for long periods. Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics had finally been decided on as the groups name (theyd used it on the third Exeter single); the hot surf instrumental Our Favorite Martian (having no connection to the hit CBS-TV series My Favorite Martian starring Ray Walston and Bill Bixby) was the bands debut on Donna, a Del Fi subsidiary. Keane attempted another blatant television tie-in gimmick, billing them as The Shindigs (after ABCs rock and roll music series of the same title) on another instrumental surf tune Thunder Reef, establishing a new label, Mustang, in the process. Then he announced that the band would henceforth be known as The Bobby Fuller Four, a decision not popular with Reese or Quirico, but accepted in view of the contracts that called for an even four-way split of all royalties. Shes My Girl was the first single under the new group name; as with the others, it was not a hit. In a fortunate turn of events, KRLA disc jockey Casey Kasem took a liking to the band and booked them for many of the dances he sponsored while Keane made a deal with the station to release an album by the group titled KRLA King of the Wheels, tying them into the Southern California drag race scene while providing guaranteed promotional exposure. They also began making regular appearances at PJs nightclub in West Hollywood (where Trini Lopez had made a name for himself a couple of years earlier). The hoped-for hit finally came with Let Her Dance, released first on Mustang in the summer of 65 and then a short time later by the larger Liberty Records, though what type of wrangling was done (with or without Keanes cooperation) is uncertain. An exuberant, uptempo number with an overtly Californian surf-and-drag feel (taking the group further from their Texas roots than ever before), it went Top Twenty in Los Angeles, but because it failed to connect beyond a few west coast cities, it fell shy of hitting the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The big national smash happened a few months later, at the beginning of 1966, with a re-release on Mustang of the Exeter 45 from 64, I Fought the Law. This time around it garnered airplay on stations from coast to coast and hit the national Top Ten in March. I Fought the Law, peaked at #9 on the Hot 100 during March 12-19, 1966. The song was written by Sonny Curtis, who became a member of Buddy Hollys former group The Crickets after Hollys death. I Fought The Law was recorded by the line-up of the Fuller brothers, James Reese on guitar, and DeWayne Quirico on drums. The groups third Top 40 single was a cover of Hollys Loves Made a Fool of You. That Spring, the Bobby Fuller Four appeared in the 1966 movie The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (filmed months earlier) backing up Nancy Sinatra on the song Geronimo and continuing to play (and lip-synch) during a pool-party scene. Follow-up single Loves Made a Fool of You, another Crickets track written by Bob Montgomery and Buddy Holly, reached the Top Thirty in May 66. The Bobby Fuller Four had arrived. The next single, Ted Darylls Magic Touch (a song Bobby felt was out of touch with his signature sound) had started getting played on L.A. stations in July, yet Bob Keane felt positive about its hit potential. As it turned out, it was the last new record by the group that would ever get any degree of radio exposure. Within months of I Fought The Law becoming a Top Ten hit, Fuller was found lifeless in the front seat of his mothers Oldsmobile outside his Hollywood apartment with the windows rolled up. An open gas can was inside the car, leading investigators to link the cause of death to the inhalation of gasoline, yet others present testified that he appeared beaten and bruised. The police were inclined to dismiss the case as a suicide, yet those close to him insisted the 23-year-old had no cause to take his own life. The Los Angeles deputy medical examiner, Jerry Nelson, performed the autopsy. According to Dean Kuipers: The report states that Bobbys face, chest, and side were covered in petechial hemorrhages probably caused by gasoline vapors and the summer heat. He found no bruises, no broken bones, no cuts. No evidence of beating. Kuipers further explains that boxes for accident and suicide were ticked, but next to the boxes were question marks. Despite the official cause of death, some commentators believe Fuller was murdered. Within days, rumors of a mob connection emerged and even police corruption was suspected (transforming the lyrics of I Fought the Law into a bizarre coincidence). Abrupt and shocking, the entire incident was shrouded in mystery and to this day remains unsolved. Erik Greene, a relative of Sam Cooke, has cited similarities in the deaths of Cooke and Fuller. Fuller band-mate, Jim Reese, suspected that Charles Manson may have had something to do with Fullers death but never provided credible evidence. A sensationalist crime website has speculated that the LAPD may have been involved because of Bobbys connection to a Mafia-related woman. Fuller is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Bob Keane sought to keep the group going as the Randy Fuller Four, but without Bobby it seemed pointless. He was The Bobby Fuller Four. After a brief attempt, band members found they were unable to go on without him, and the band broke up within months of Bobbys death, although most former members of the Bobby Fuller Four remained active in the music industry after the group disbanded. Randy Fuller recorded a couple of solo singles, then in spring 1969 joined Dewey Martins New Buffalo (Springfield), which evolved into Blue Mountain Eagle in July 1969. He appeared on the bands lone LP for Atco Records in early 1970 before briefly joining Dewey Martin and Medicine Ball. Jim Reese died in 1990. The Bobby Fuller Four bands other most successful songs included Loves Made a Fool of You, Another Sad and Lonely Night, Shes My Girl, Take My Word, Phantom Dragster, King of the Wheels, Fool of Love, Never to be Forgotten, My True Love, Only When I Dream, Little Annie Lou, A New Shade of Blue, Saturday Night, You Kiss Me, and Dont Ever Let Me Know. Bobby Fullers recordings have been reissued by Norton Records, Del-Fi Records, Rhino Records and Munster Records. READ MORE: rockabillyhall/BobbyFuller.html allmusic/artist/bobby-fuller-mn0000073348/biography elpasotimes.typepad/morgue/2011/07/1982-broken-melody-a-biography-of-bobby-fuller.html legacy/news/legends-and-legacies/the-death-of-bobby-fuller/261/ classicbands/MysteryofBobbyFuller.html forgottenhits/bobby_fuller bobbyfullerbio.blogspot/ waybackattack/fullerbobbyfour.html findadeath/Deceased/F/Bobby%20Fuller/bobbyfuller.htm angelfire/music5/archives/fuller.html rhino/article/remembering-bobby-fuller en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fuller en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bobby_Fuller_Four
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 19:58:49 +0000