Robert Eberly (born Robert Eberle, July 24, 1916 – November 17, 1981) was a big band vocalist best known for his association with Jimmy Dorsey and his duets with Helen O'Connell.
His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, most notably with Glenn Miller's orchestra. Their father, John A. Eberle, was a policeman, sign-painter, and tavern-keeper. Another brother, Al, was a Hoosick Falls, New York, village trustee.Popular singer Bob Eberly spent much of his career with Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra. Eberly, who changed the spelling of his last name from Eberle because the announcer of the Milton Berle radio program kept mispronouncing it, gained prominence by winning Fred Allen’s amateur hour. He began his professional career singing in clubs around his hometown of Hoosick Falls, in upstate New York, where the Dorsey Brothers discovered him and later hired him to replace the departing Bob Crosby.
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| Bob Eberly with Bing Crosby |
Eberly stayed with Jimmy for eight years and ranked as one of the top male vocalists of his day, rivaling Bing Crosby and later Frank Sinatra for that title. He placed third in Billboard magazine’s 1940, 1941 and 1942 college polls for best male vocalist, moving up to second in 1943. He recorded the original version of "I'm Glad There Is You" in 1942 with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra on
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Decca Records. The song became a jazz and pop standard.
Eberly and Helen O'Connell teamed up regularly on records; Eberly would have a ballad chorus (he much preferred slow tempos) and then, after an instrumental interlude, O'Connell would take a hotter chorus. Engineered originally by arranger Tutti Camarata so both singers could be featured on Dorsey's radio show, the combination clicked from the start, resulting in hit versions of "Amapola,""Tangerine,""Green Eyes" and "Maria Elena."
Well-liked by his peers, Eberly became best friends and eventually roommates with Jimmy Dorsey. Throughout his career, he was encouraged by many in the industry to strike out on his own, but he refused. He was perfectly happy earning a weekly salary with Dorsey’s group. Most famous are his duets with Helen O’Connell, in whom he also had romantic interest.
Eberly recorded for the Coral and World labels in the late 1940s before signing to Capitol in 1951, where he was reunited on duets with O’Connell. During the early 1950s, he was a regular on the television program TV’s Top Tunes. In 1953, Eberly and Helen O'Connell headlined a summer replacement program for Perry Como's CBS television show. The program also featured Ray Anthony and his orchestra, but by the middle of the decade he had faded from the public eye.
He did continue working into the 1970s, and co-hosted a summer replacement television show with Helen O'Connell one year, but was largely forgotten. He spent the rest of his career singing mostly in small clubs.His last engagement was during 1980 at the Top of the World in Disney World, Fla., only weeks before he underwent surgery for removal of his right lung. Frank Sinatra paid for the operation, even though the two singers had never met. Bob had been suffering from cancer, and he had sustained four heart attacks as a result of
Eberly was married to Florine Callahan from January 23, 1940 until his death in 1981; the couple had 3 children; Robert Jr., Kathy and Rene. Robert Jr. went on to sing professionally and although he was talented, he never achieved the popularity of his father which was due, in part, to the changing times and the diminishing nightclub scene as the popularity of Big Band music as a whole began to decline during the mid to latter part of the 20th century. (Edited from Bandchirps, Wikipedia & AllMusic)