Biography:

Robert Bloom (January 15, 1946^[1] – February 28, 1974) was an American^[1] singer-songwriter. He is known best for the upbeat 1970 hit, “Montego Bay“, which was co-written with and produced by Jeff Barry.

Background

Bloom was born in Brooklyn, NY. In the early 1960s, while still in his teens, Bloom had been a member of the doo-wop group, The Imaginations.^[2][3] He received a big break in 1969 when he was awarded a contract to write and record a jingle for Pepsi, paving the way for his later success with “Montego Bay”. He also played a role as a songwriter for the Kama Sutra/Buddah group of labels,^[4] co-writing “Mony Mony” for Tommy James and the Shondells and, with Jeff Barry, “Sunshine” for The Archies.^[4] Bloom co-wrote songs with Jeff Barry and Neil Goldberg for the Monkees‘ album Changes and their 1971 single “Do It in the Name of Love“. He often recorded demos of his songs at the recording studio of MAP City Records, owned by friends Peter Anders and Vincent “Vini” Poncia Jr., with chief engineer Peter H. Rosen^[5] at the controls. Early solo projects included “Love, Don’t Let Me Down” and “Count on Me”.^[4]

The recordings that followed his success with “Montego Bay” in 1970, “Heavy Makes You Happy“, which became a hit for the Staple Singers in 1971, “Where Are We Going” and The Bobby Bloom Album all used the same combination of pop, calypso, and rock.^[4]

Career

1960s

By October, 1965, Bloom’s single, “I Still Remember” bw “Rough And Tough” was released on Kapp K-710.^[6] According to Cash Box, this was one of the records due for release in Holland that Hans 1. Kellerman was very enthusiastic about.^[7]

Under the pseudonym of Bobby Mann,^[8] he recorded the song, “Make the Radio a Little Louder”. Backed with “Heart of Town”, it was released on Kama Sutra KA 210.^[9][10] With the production credited to Bloom and Linde, it was in the Billboard Spotlight Singles section for the week ending June 4, 1966. It was predicted to reach the top 60 of the HOT 100 Chart.^[11] It was covered by English group that was managed and produced by Ron Fairway, The Ways and Means. It was the B side to their single, “Sea of Faces” which was released later that year.^[12][13][14]

It was reported in the March 25 issue of Record World that Bobby Bloom’s label Kama Sutra was pushing for Bloom’s Latest single, “Love, Don’t Let Me Down” to be a hit. According to Johnny Davis an exec. for the label, there was a great national reaction to the record. It was also one of the picks at WDRC. It was reported in the April 8 issue of Record World that the single had been picked up by some of the top r&b stations. It had also been picked up by twelve major pop stations.^[15] It had also debuted in the Record World Singles Coming Up chart at no. 10.^[16][17]

Bloom and Marty Kupersmith composed the song ” You Bring Me to My Knees”. Producer Gary Katz was a friend of theirs and as a result the song was brought to Eric Mercury.^[18] It was included on Mercury’s 1969 album, Electric Black Man. Two other Bloom compositions would be included on the album. One was a sole Bloom composition, “Life Style” and the other, “Again N’ Again” was co-written with Linde.^[19]

It was reported by Record World in the November 22, 1969 issue that Jeff Barry had produced Bloom’s first single “The Sign of the V” for the Earth Label. The single was written by Barry, Barry, Jim Carroll, Joey Levine and Kris Resnick.^[20] The song which took its theme from the Woodstock Rock Festival was one of the four Sleeper Picks Of The Week by Record World in the December 13 issue.^[21][22]

Credits: