Robert Bloom (January 15, 1946 – February 28, 1974) was an American Pop and blue-eyed soul singer, songwriter, musician, producer and engineer. He is best known for being a one-hit wonder with the 1970 song, "Montego Bay", which was co-written with and produced by Jeff Barry.
Bloom was born in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated from Wantagh High School in 1964. Bobby was a struggling songwriter in the early 60s. He was trying his hand at everything, including doing some sound engineer work for Shuggie Otis and performing in the doo-wop groups, The Imaginations, The Ebonaires and The Expressions in 1963.
Bobby also played a role as a songwriter for the Kama Sutra/Buddah group of labels. He got hooked up with Tommy James & the Shondells in 1968 and co-write the #3 hit, Mony Mony. This got the attention of Jeff Barry, who had just started producing music for the Saturday morning cartoon, The Archie Show when he met Bobby. Soon after a ‘group’ called the Archies was formed and hit #1 with Sugar Sugar in 1969 and Bobby & Jeff collaborated on a follow-up single called Sunshine on which Bobby can be heard singing background. That same year found Bobby as one of the singers in the group Captain Groovy and his Bubblegum Army who released one single.
Bloom and Barry started to write some additional songs that Bobby would demo at his friend’s recording studio. Somehow the tracks got out and a little record label called L&R decided to put out the single, Montego Bay, to see what would happen. It ended up being a Top 10 record in the US & the UK. The song hurtled Bloom into a life of constant travelling. As the single went into the charts in various countries, he followed it, promoting, doing television and live dates. From the West Coast to London, to Hamburg, to New York, to Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam and so on. He even squeezed a four day trip to Jamaica and visited Montego Bay.
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 at the controls.
Early solo projects included "Love Don't Let Me Down" and "Count on Me". 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.
Tragically Bloom died on February 28, 1974, in an accidental shooting at his home in Hollywood, at the age of 28. It’s hard to know what exactly happened. Stories of it being self-inflicted because he was depressed, an accident because he was cleaning his gun or murder because he was breaking up a fight, have clouded the truth. And no one sure what the facts truly are. In a later interview with Don Charles Jeff Barry said “Somebody shot him, in a fight over a girl. It was crazy! He kicked down a door, and ran into the room, and the guy reached for a gun. I don’t think they ever found the guy.”
Barry learned he was the sole beneficiary of Bloom's life insurance policy. Apparently the police never opened an investigation to clarify Blooms death. The location of his burial remain unknown.
(Edited from Wikipedia, 7 Inches of 70’s Pop, Bubblegum University & Rock Anecdotary)