Bare was born in Ironton, Ohio.[3] In the 1950s, he repeatedly tried and failed to sell his songs.[4] He finally got a record deal, with Capitol Records, and recorded a few unsuccessful rock and roll singles.[2] Just before he was drafted into the United States Army, he wrote a song called "The All American Boy"[5] and did a demo for his friend, Bill Parsons, to learn how to record. Instead of using Parsons' later version, the record company, Fraternity Records, decided to go with Bare's original demo.[2] The record reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but Fraternity erroneously credited Bill Parsons on the label.[6][7] The same track, with the same billing error, peaked at No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1959.[8] In 1965, an album of older recorded material, Tender Years (JM-6026), was released on the Hilltop label. That same year, the material was repackaged by Sears and released under the title Bobby In Song (SPS-115). These albums are not usually included in Bare's published discographies.
Career at RCA Victor (1962–1970)
Bare's big break in country music came when Chet Atkins signed him to RCA Victor. His debut single for the label was 1962's "Shame On Me". Follow-up "Detroit City" reached No. 6 Country,[7] No. 16 Hot 100,[6] and in 1964 earned him a Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. Then a surge of hits followed, including "500 Miles Away from Home" (based on a traditional folk ballad written by Hedy West as "500 Miles")[6] and Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds". In 1965 he received two further Grammy nominations for Best Country & Western Vocal Performance and Best Country & Western single for the latter song. In 1966, he received a yet another Grammy Nomination for Best Country & Western Male Vocal Performance for his song "Talk Me Some Sense". He also recorded two duet albums with Skeeter Davis[2] and recorded six tracks as a trio with Norma Jean and Liz Anderson, which produced a major hit with "The Game of Triangles", a wife-husband-other woman drama that hit No. 5 on the Billboard chart and earned the trio a Grammy nomination. In 1968, he recorded an album with a group from England called The Hillsiders.[9][10] In 1969, he had a Top 5 hit with Tom T. Hall's "(Margie's At) The Lincoln Park Inn".[7]
Bare returned to RCA in 1973, after two years at Mercury.[2] and scored once more with Billy Joe Shaver's "Ride Me Down Easy", which nearly made the Top 10.
Bare started to release novelty songs recorded live with selected audiences. One such song, "Marie Laveau", topped the country chart in 1974; the song was Bare's only #1 hit.[2] It was co-written by his friends Silverstein and Baxter Taylor, who received a BMI Award for the song in 1975.
In 1977, Bare released an entire album of songs by songwriter Bob McDill called Me and McDill, which contained the popular hit "Look Who I'm Cheatin' On Tonight."[11]
Silverstein penned other songs for Bare including a Grammy-nominated hit, "Daddy What If", which he recorded with his five-year-old son, Bobby Bare Jr.[2] The song was an immediate success as well, not only reaching No. 2 on the country charts, but nearly reaching the Top 40 on the pop charts. Bare's album, Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies, became his most commercially successful album, finding him a new audience with pop radio once again playing his songs and also gaining a new following with college kids.[2] These songs, all 14 written or co-written by Shel Silverstein, however, would become Bare's last Top 10 hits.
In 1975 Bare recorded a children's album with his family, mainly of Silverstein songs, called Singin' in the Kitchen.[12] It was nominated in Best Group category in Grammy Awards.[13]
His biggest hits during this time included "Alimony" (1975), "The Winner" (1976), and "Drop Kick Me, Jesus (Through The Goalposts Of Life)" (an unusual Christian-footballwaltz, and a 1976 Grammy nominee for Best Country Song).[14] In 1977 he recorded "Redneck Hippie Romance"[15] and "Vegas" (a duet with his wife Jeannie).
Career at Columbia (1978–1983)
Bare signed with Columbia Records and continued to have hits like "Sleep Tight Good Night Man", which barely cracked the Top 10 in 1978, alongside continuing to score critical acclaim with his releases Bare and Sleeper Wherever I Fall.[2] In 1979, he started off Rosanne Cash's career in a big way by being her duet partner on the Top 20 hit "No Memories Hangin' Round".[2] In 1980, he almost cracked the Top 10 with "Numbers", which came from his album Down and Dirty.[2] On that album, Bare started to experiment with Southern rock, which continued with his following album, Drunk and Crazy (1980).[2] The next year, Bare returned to his country roots with his Rodney Crowell-produced album As Is, featuring the single "New Cut Road". Bare was still doing well chartwise into the early 1980s. In 1983, his duet with Lacy J. Dalton, "It's A Dirty Job", hit the Top 30. His last trip into the Top 30 came that summer with the novelty song "The Jogger". He also released "Used Cars", the theme song from the film of the same name.
Film career
Bare was also given an opportunity to star in movies. He acted in a Western with Troy Donahue, A Distant Trumpet, and had a memorable scene being branded for desertion, and a few episodes of the TV series No Time for Sergeants. He turned his back on Hollywood to pursue his country career.
Later country career (1983–present)
From 1983 to 1988, Bare hosted Bobby Bare and Friends on The Nashville Network which featured him interviewing songwriters who sang their hit songs on the show.
In 1985, Bare signed with EMI America Records where he scored three low-charting singles.
In 2005, he released his first new album in two decades, The Moon Was Blue, produced[16] by his son Bobby Bare Jr., who is also a musician. He continues to tour today.
After being inducted in the 1960s but gradually drifting away, Bare was reinstated as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on April 7, 2018, by Garth Brooks.[18]
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