Bobby Charles RIP

We were saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Bobby Charles on Jan. 14th 2009. Bobby was a one-of-a-kind legend and we were honored to have worked with him.

Bio from 1998:

Any observation of New Orleans' contribution to the world of popular music, would be incomplete without considering the influence of Rice N' Gravy Records/Stony Plain Records' recording artist Bobby Charles.

If you think back to the New Orleans' music of the fifties and sixties, Fats Domino and Clarence "Frogman" Henry quickly come to mind. But without Bobby Charles, there would be no "Walking to New Orleans" for Fats and No "But I Do" for Clarence (But I Do was re released as part of the multi - platinum selling soundtrack for the movie Forrest Gump.

Prior to those two songs, Robert Charles Guidry (Guidry was later dropped from the name the feeling being that Bobby Charles would be more memorable) had already established himself firmly in rock & roll history by writing a song, "(See You) Later Alligator" when he was only 14 years old. The song caught the attention of Chess Records in Chicago and was recorded by Bill Haley, selling millions around the world.

Charles had moderate success as an artist for Chess while continuing his phenomenal success as a songwriter. He achieved critical acclaim for his 1972 self titled album on Bearsville (now available on Stony Plain SPCD 1202), accompanied by members of The Band, Dr John, jazzman Joe Newman, David Sanborn and members of Ian & Sylvia Tyson's electric band of the time, Great Speckled Bird. When commercial success didn't measure up to the creative accomplishments of that recording, he moved back to Louisiana and dropped out of the mainstream. His last hurrah was a single song in the Band's farewell film, The Last Waltz. Once settled in Louisiana, Bobby combined songwriting with his environmental consciousness and created The Solution To Pollution, a unique program for school aged children to increase their awareness of everyones role in preserving the environment.

Bobby Charles songs have been recorded by a wide variety of artists from all styles of music. In addition to Fats and "Frogman" these artists include Etta James, Delbert McClinton, UB40, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Lou Rawls, Amos Garrett, Bonnie Rait, Rita Coolidge, Joe Cocker and many more.

His most recent release on Stony Plain, Secrets of the Heart is all the proof you'll need that Bobby Charles is a national treasure.