Camille Bob (November 7, 1937 – July 6, 2015), also known as Lil' Bob or Little Bob, was an American rhythm and blues singer and musician who led the dance band Lil' Bob and the Lollipops.
He was born in Arnaudville, Louisiana and as a teenager he traded a horse for a set of drums so he could escape backbreaking work in the fields as a sharecropper. He started his music career in the mid-1950s as drummer in a band led by the unrelated Good Rockin' Bob and first recorded for Goldband Records in Lake Charles in 1957. The following year he formed his own dance band with horns, sax and piano.
He wanted to name the band Lil' Bob and the Tigers, but on the advice of a club owner and tapping into the popularity of Cookie & the Cupcakes, he wanted something with a little more girl appeal: and Lil' Bob & the Lollipops was born. The band got quite a following playing the fraternity and dancehall circuits in the gulf area. During a time of racial segregation, Bob and the Lollipops became a top draw at white and black clubs.
As a singing drummer, Lil' Bob's band played Louisiana's dance halls and clubs in the 1960s, like the Southern Club and Bradford's White Eagle in Opelousas and the Step Inn Club in Lawtell. They recorded for various small local labels during the early and mid-1960s and in 1964, the late Carol Rachou recorded Bob at his La Louisianne Studios in Lafayette. Session singles included "Nobody But You," a regional hit, and its B side, "I Got Loaded." This horn driven, party song became an instant hit and still reigns as one of south Louisiana's most requested and covered songs. Robert Cray, Keith Frank, Tab Benoit and Los Lobos are among the artists who have covered it.
In 1966 the Band released the album Nobody But You. Many of their 1960s recordings have remained popular on the Northern soul circuit in Britain. By the late 1960s, Bob enjoyed local stardom with his own live dance show on KLFY TV 10, a rare feat for an African American artist in the 1960s. Lil' Bob joined the Jin label in 1968, releasing several singles and an album, Sweet Soul Swinger which became a local bestseller.Bob and band backed blues singer O. V. Wright in 1969 and later had gigs backing up Al Green, Johnny Taylor, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Rivers and others. From 1971, he recorded as Camille Bob for several local labels.
Bob remained a fixture at local clubs throughout the 1980s and '90s. He was inducted in 1990 into the Louisiana Hall of Fame. He made a brief comeback in 1990 with "Back Again" on Vidrine Records, reuniting Gable, Hart and drummer Jockey Etienne, sporadically until the early 2000s. He retired in 2005 when he began to experience health problems and stayed in a nursing home in Opelousas, where he was frequently visited by old friends. Bob’s 75th birthday party was front-page news in the Opelousas Daily World. He died of cancer in Opelousas General Hospital in 2015, aged 77. Bob was the grandfather of comedian Kemah Bob.
Camille Bob was one of the best and most enduring of Louisiana’s soul men. It’s probably because the majority of his recordings were for labels associated with other forms of music like swamp pop or Cajun that he never rose from regional obscurity to national stardom and has been rather undervalued to date.
(Edited from Wikipedia, The Daily Adverstiser, Southern Garage Bans & Sir Shambling)