Goodbye to Robert John. The American singer -songwriter was 79 years old

Robert Johnthe singer who in 1979 reached the first place with “Sad Eyes“, He died at the age of 79. The news was confirmed in Rolling Stone USA by John’s son, Michael Pedrick, who said his father died on Monday and was still recovering from a stroke he had had several years ago.

John is known above all for “Sad Eyes”, who interrupted the six weeks of Knack stay at number 1 with “My Sharona”, but his career began in the late 1950s and continued with Bobby & The Consoles, A doo-wop group that led to New York in the early 1960s.

John was born like Robert John Pedrick in Brooklyn on January 3, 1946; He recorded his first album in 1958 as Bobby Pedrick, Jr.

John was only 12 years old when “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes”, written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, reached n. 74 49 With “If you don’t want my love”.

In 1972 John also wrote the song “I Can’t Move No Mountains” for the Jazz Rock group Blood, Sweat and Tearspublished in the album “New Blood”.

In the same year the singer -songwriter reaches the top 40 for the first time with a cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight“Which remains in n. 3 for three weeks.

His falsetto in the song – very similar to the original version that brought the tokens to the top of the 1961 charts – is a test bench for “Sad Eyes“, which debuts in Hot 100 on May 19th.

On October 6, 20 weeks later, “Sad Eyes” (contained in the homonymous album released in 1979) rises to n. 1 of the Billboard 100. At the time the song equals the record established by Nick Gilder’s “Hot Child in the City” as a single that took the most time to reach first place.

The song, a soft rock ballad, remains at the top of the ranking for a week, gaining John a grammy nomination for the best pop voice performance.

“I look at the rankings and see my name, but I still struggle to believe it is really me,” he told Rolling Stone during the climb to the “Sad Eyes” charts. “I didn’t think the song would be the first single of the album. It is a ballad and I thought the company was crazy to publish it.”

The long history and success of “Sad Eyes” ranking – the lasting and constant ascent and the interruption of the six weeks of stay on the top of “My Sharona” – He contributed to giving John five other minor successes in the following years.

The next single, “Only Time”, stopped outside the Top 100, but “Lonely Eyes” (always on the topic “Eyes”) the top 40 missed in 1979. The last three singles of John in the standings were all Cover:

In recent decades John had only performed sporadically and lived in Las Vegas with his family.