Bobby Doyle – River Deep Mountain High
Bobby Doyle from the cover of ‘The Bobby Doyle Introductory Offer’ (above)
The Bobby Doyle Three, with Kenny Rogers at left (below)
Listen/Download – Bobby Doyle – River Deep Mountain High
Greetings all.
Before we get rolling, I’ll remind you that I’m going to be returning to Spindletop @ Botanica, alongside the host with the most Perry Lane this Monday, 5/23 starting at 10PM. This time out I’ll be taking a short break from the funk and soul and returning to the garage punk, beat, freakbeat and frat rock of my youth, so if you dig yourself some fuzz, some caveman drums and teen hollering, fall by and soak up the sounds.
Speaking of sounds, how about some cool ones.
If you come by Funky16Corners, and have read the words I spill several times a week, you’ll know that I am nothing if not enthusiastic, and that I’m constantly in search of groovy stuff that I haven’t heard before.
This particular story begins a while back when, in a decidedly non-musical moment of repose, I was chilling, watching a documentary about the life and work of Hugh Hefner. It was during this film that I had another one of those cool, unexpected epiphanies.
They got to the dot on the timeline in the late 60s where the TV series ‘Playboy After Dark’ took to the airwaves, and during a retrospective thereof, they ran a clip of a dude that I’d neither seen nor heard before, dropping a very soulful version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’. That cat was Bobby Doyle.
The name rang only the tiniest of bells, so I ran to the interwebs and started looking for information.
There wasn’t a lot out there, but what I did find was very interesting.
Doyle, who just happened to be blind, never really broke through on a national level, yet was something of a Texas institution.
He was born in 1940 in Houston, eventually moving to Austin to study at a school for the blind.
He began his recording career waxing rock’n’roll for the mighty Back Beat label, eventually making 45s for a variety of local labels as a solo, until forming the Bobby Doyle Three.
As it turns out, I had heard of Doyle before, and it was via the bass player in the Bobby Doyle Three, a youngster by the name of Kenny Rogers (yes, THAT Kenny Rogers). Rogers played bass and sang backup in Doyle’s group from the late 50s until 1965*, when he left, eventually moving on the First Edition and then huge success as a pop/country singer.
The Bobby Doyle Trio toured the country playing their mix of jazz and pop in a variety of venues, including several Playboy Clubs, which seems to be how he eventually got booked on Playboy After Dark.
By the late 60s, Doyle had relocated to Los Angeles, where he made albums for the Warner Brothers and Bell labels while working with producer Mike Post.
The tune I bring you today, Doyle’s funky take on ‘River Deep Mountain High’ was the non-LP B-side of his version of ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ and seems to date from around 1968.
Doyle was a fantastic singer, with a soulful tenor voice that managed to hit gospel heights while still maintaining a level of restraint, something that made him an unusual commodity, especially in the late 60s.
Interestingly, his obit mentions Doyle having done session work for Phil Spector around this period, though I haven’t been able to connect that with Doyle’s recording of this song.
Doyle’s take on ‘River Deep…’ is one of the best versions I’ve heard, with a tight arrangement, featuring his voice and piano, horns and backing singers. It manages to be funky in that generalized, Leon Russell, soul/rock/gospel way without ever going over the top (unusual, especially in relation to this particular song, which seemed to inspire excess).
Though he did appear on TV and release albums for WB and Bell**, Doyle never really connected on a national level, coming close in the early 70s when he was for a short time David Clayton Thomas’s replacement in Blood Sweat and Tears.
Unfortunately Doyle didn’t gel with the group (which appears to have been going through a number of personnel changes at the time) and only appears on piano and vocals on a few songs on the 1972 ‘New Blood’ LP.
Bobby Doyle was probably doomed to obscurity by the fact that even in a time when people were stepping over genre boundaries on the reg, he was too hard to pin down. He was possessed of a genuinely soulful voice, but slipped effortlessly between rock, jazz and soul (which in another time would have been an asset) but perhaps his freak flag wasn’t flying high enough to get noticed.
Doyle went on to work steadily, performing in lounges in Las Vegas, and a variety of venues back in his native Texas, before he passed away at the age of 66 in 2006.
Bobby Doyle is a supreme testament to the fact that sometimes even prodigious talent is no guarantee of fame and fortune. It’s not hard to imagine that there are many such undiscovered/forgotten gems out there, which is the main reason I keep digging.
As far as I can tell very little of Doyle’s work (aside from a few Bobby Doyle Three tracks on a Kenny Rogers box set and some early stuff on rockabilly comps) remains in print. His WB and Bell albums can be picked up fairly inexpensively, as can his 45s from the same period***.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
*Some of the group’s records were produced by Kenny’s brother Lelan, who would also produce the 13th Floor Elevators and a wide variety of soul and funk artists for the House of the Fox, Silver Fox and Blue Fox labels.
** Doyle also has a song (‘The Girl Done Got It Together’) on the soundtrack to the cult film ‘Vanishing Point’
***His early 45s and the Bobby Doyle Three album are much more collectible.
Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recr events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.
If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.
Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press
Themocracy
This is a great version of this song…more stripped down, showcasing the structure of the song. Spector was more than just a decent arranger!
wow I saw the same documentary and have been going crazy trying to find a recording of Bobby Doyle. That rendition of Blowing in the wind is just amazing.
My husband and I are just watching that documentary and hearing Bobby Doyle singing Blowin’in the Wind, sent me to the computer to search. What a disappointment not to be able to find it to download. The best version I’ve ever heard and I want it on my iPod. Great info Larry on Bobby. Too bad we didn’t discover him earlier.
In college in the late 70’s I went to a small night Club which featured Bobby Doyle and his band. I would sit in amazement night after night. He was the best performer I have ever seen. He could sing Blues, Rock, Pop, Country, Gosel, and everything. Seamlessly from song to song. He was amazing. I always wondered why he was in this small Club and why he never made the big time. The more he drank, the better he got ( which might have been part of the problem). His rendition of Carol King’s “It’s Too Late” is my favorite song of all time. I wish everyone could have heard him perform, and I could find his music. Here’s to you Bobby, you were the best.
I recently saw Bobby on the Hef documentary and that song brought me to tears someone somewhere has to have that song and share it with the world it is awe inspiring i would pay and i believe so many others would now in another time of war maybe its his time..
Bobby Doyle appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, but I do not remember the year.
I had the very same experience of watching this guy doing a pretty fantastic version of ‘Blowin in the Wind’ while casually keeping an eye on the Hefner documentary. Someone. Please put it online.
I too heard Bobby’s rendition of Blowing in the Wind on Hef’s doco – airing on one of my local networks in 2017 (days after Hef’s death). Absolutely amazing. If the short take used in the doco exists, lets hope the entire length of the song was recorded. Someone track it down for sake of humanity.