The Hit
In keeping with a new pattern, who the Hell is Bobby Bloom? And didn’t The Beach Boys do “Montego Bay” with Jon Stamos slapping away at the congas?
Of course not, that was two decades after Bloom rose to very brief fame when this tune shot up to No. 8 on the U.S. charts (it made it all the way to No. 3 in the UK). "Montego Bay" was a fun, bubbly number that dances over a loping beat and boasts one of a great, super-sticky hook in the chorus. Bloom has a unique voice - a mix of husky and warm that clicks perfectly with the lazy and carefree spirit of the song - but I can’t sell Bloom’s hit any better than a blog I found called 7 Inches of 70s Pop:
“And ‘Montego Bay’s” mix of pop and calypso along with the pleasurable images of laying on the beach during the day, drinking silver rum and driving your MG to an all night party did more for Jamaican tourism than anything their consulate had dreamed up.”
That post provides a decent glimpse into Bloom’s works and collaborations, even if it sells him a bit short by calling him “a struggling songwriter” (we should all be so lucky…mostly), but its author, Adrianqiano, ends with a deft, telling touch:
“When you hear Bobby break into 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning' at the end of the song and he gets to the line 'Everything’s going my way,' tell me that you don’t get the chills."
The Rest of the Story
While Bobby Bloom didn’t quite struggle, he comes off as someone lurking in the orbit of some of the biggest names of the era. A Brooklyn kid, he got into the industry about a half decade prior, but on the wrong-end of the doo-wop era with a group called The Imaginations that didn’t go much of anywhere. He had a decent ear for songwriting, though, and caught his break when he co-wrote “Mony Mony” for (the inescapable) Tommy James and the Shondells. That one caught the attention of one of the bubblegum pop era’s biggest, fattest wheels, Jeff Barry, the man who thrived from the girl-group boom - e.g., “Da Do Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Chapel of Love” - including working with the legendary (lunatic) Phil Spector - e.g., “Be My Baby.” With his wife, Ellen Greenwich, collaborating they become one of the dominant songwriting teams of the mid-to-late-1960s…at least until their relationship caught fire and they flamed out (call it a hard lesson in working with your spouse). I could write about Barry forever, obviously - I haven’t even gotten to The Archies yet, never mind The Monkees - but this is Bloom’s story, so let’s get back to that, or at least what’s left of it.
In keeping with a new pattern, who the Hell is Bobby Bloom? And didn’t The Beach Boys do “Montego Bay” with Jon Stamos slapping away at the congas?
Of course not, that was two decades after Bloom rose to very brief fame when this tune shot up to No. 8 on the U.S. charts (it made it all the way to No. 3 in the UK). "Montego Bay" was a fun, bubbly number that dances over a loping beat and boasts one of a great, super-sticky hook in the chorus. Bloom has a unique voice - a mix of husky and warm that clicks perfectly with the lazy and carefree spirit of the song - but I can’t sell Bloom’s hit any better than a blog I found called 7 Inches of 70s Pop:
“And ‘Montego Bay’s” mix of pop and calypso along with the pleasurable images of laying on the beach during the day, drinking silver rum and driving your MG to an all night party did more for Jamaican tourism than anything their consulate had dreamed up.”
That post provides a decent glimpse into Bloom’s works and collaborations, even if it sells him a bit short by calling him “a struggling songwriter” (we should all be so lucky…mostly), but its author, Adrianqiano, ends with a deft, telling touch:
“When you hear Bobby break into 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning' at the end of the song and he gets to the line 'Everything’s going my way,' tell me that you don’t get the chills."
The Rest of the Story
While Bobby Bloom didn’t quite struggle, he comes off as someone lurking in the orbit of some of the biggest names of the era. A Brooklyn kid, he got into the industry about a half decade prior, but on the wrong-end of the doo-wop era with a group called The Imaginations that didn’t go much of anywhere. He had a decent ear for songwriting, though, and caught his break when he co-wrote “Mony Mony” for (the inescapable) Tommy James and the Shondells. That one caught the attention of one of the bubblegum pop era’s biggest, fattest wheels, Jeff Barry, the man who thrived from the girl-group boom - e.g., “Da Do Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Chapel of Love” - including working with the legendary (lunatic) Phil Spector - e.g., “Be My Baby.” With his wife, Ellen Greenwich, collaborating they become one of the dominant songwriting teams of the mid-to-late-1960s…at least until their relationship caught fire and they flamed out (call it a hard lesson in working with your spouse). I could write about Barry forever, obviously - I haven’t even gotten to The Archies yet, never mind The Monkees - but this is Bloom’s story, so let’s get back to that, or at least what’s left of it.
