Bobby Rydell at Marple Newtown Performing Arts Center

Beginning his career as a drummer over a half-century ago, Rydell’s talents far transcend his seminal teen-idol exposure. His repertoire, on display at a recent benefit at the Marple Newtown Performing Arts Center, blends American popular standards with his youthful hits, all expertly guided by his 37-year musical director, Marple Newtown High School alumnus David Kovnat.

Opening the show with a modern swinging arrangement of the 1930s Johnny Mercer/Matty Malneck classic “Goody Goody,” Rydell engaged the largely senior audience with lively anecdotes about his life and career between his smooth yet resonant vocals. The 1962 hit “Wildwood Days” was prefaced with recollections of his youthful summers in the Jersey Shore town, 45 RPM singles, and the fact that the song put Wildwood on the international map.

He also recreated his 1960 version of “Sway,” itself a cover of a Dean Martin hit from the ’50s more recently revived by Michael Bublé and Harry Connick, Jr. From 1965 came the ballad “Forget Him” by the British songwriting team of Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent (“Downtown,” “Call Me”), which was Rydell’s final Top 40 hit.

Rydell also offered tributes to colleagues Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin, saluting the former with an adaptation of the Nelson Riddle arrangement of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto), who died in 1973 at 37, was represented with a medley consisting of “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Beyond the Sea,” and of course “Mack the Knife” (from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht), whose English lyrics were supplied by West Philadelphia native and Penn alumnus Marc Blitzstein. Rydell concluded the standing-room-only evening with “Volare,” the 1960 cover of a hit by Italian singer Domenico Modugno, which he regards as his signature.

Frank Day’s liner notes to the 1962 Cameo/Parkway LP An Era Reborn: Bobby Rydell and the Bernie Lowe Orchestra Recreate the Days of The Big Bands (recorded during the filming of Bye Bye Birdie, in which Rydell costarred with Ann-Margret, Dick Van Dyke, and the late Paul Lynde), offer the following prophecy: “It is most generally agreed that, of all the young talent today, Bobby is one of the very few who has lasting power. His vast amount of talent destines him to become one of the real show business greats.” The recent concert at Marple Newtown emphatically proved the truth of this statement.

Oddly enough, the suitcase with arrangements of all of Rydell's music was lost on his way home from this performance. Story here.