Robert John, an itinerant singer-songwriter who was working in construction before scoring a Number One hit with 1979’s “Sad Eyes,” died Monday, Feb. 24. He was 79.
Michael Pedrick, John’s son, confirmed his father’s death to Rolling Stone. There was no immediate cause of death, but Pedrick said his father was still recovering from a stroke he suffered several years ago.
John’s career in the music business spanned several decades, a journey marked by modest, intermittent successes before he finally topped the charts with “Sad Eyes.” Just like John’s career, the song was a slow-burner on the charts, entering the Hot 100 on May 19, 1979 and finally topping it 20 weeks later in October after ousting that year’s smash, “My Sharona” by the Knack).
“I look at the charts and see my name, but I still have trouble believing it’s really me,” John told Rolling Stone in 1979. “I didn’t think the song would be the first single from the album. It’s a ballad and I thought the company was crazy to release it.”
Twenty years before he reached the pinnacle of the pop charts, John made his debut on the Hot 100. As a kid in Brooklyn, Robert John Pedrick, Jr. honed his singing chops with street-corner doo-wop groups, and in 1958, when he was just 12 years old, he reached Number 85 on the pop charts with “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes,” released under the name Bobby Pedrick, Jr.
John recorded a few more songs for labels like Big Top and Verve, but after further success failed to materialize, he stepped away from music and spent the mid-Sixties working as a production manager for trade magazines (via The Billboard Book of Number One Hits). By 1968, however, John was back, linking up with the songwriter Michael Gately to produce a string of tunes, including “If You Don’t Want My Love,” which just cracked the Top 50, reaching Number 49.
John and Gately secured publishing deals, and the pair went on to write songs for artists including Lou Rawls, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Bobby Vinton. John also worked as a background vocalist, singing on records by Al Kooper, and later Smokey Robinson. As for his solo career, it suddenly took off in 1972, when his version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” sold more than one million copies and rose all the way to Number Three on the Hot 100.
Despite that massive success, John’s career stalled. “The company [Atlantic] didn’t have enough faith to let me do an album,” John told Rolling Stone. “I decided if that’s what happens after a [hit] song, then I just was’t going to sing anymore.”
Over the next six years, John spent some time working as a staff writer for Motown, before leaving music altogether. In 1978, he was working for a construction company in New Jersey when producer George Tobin — whom he’d met during his late-Sixties/early-Seventies run — reached out to reconnect. Tobin had John come to California and live with him for several months while they worked on music. During that period, John wrote “Sad Eyes,” fine-tuning it for several months until it was perfect.
Despite the attention it received, “Sad Eyes” wasn’t the first song John and Tobin went with. Another recording was picked up by the small label Ariola, and while it didn’t do particularly well, it did pique the interest of EMI president Jim Mazza. Mazza signed John, who went on to record an album (1979’s Robert John) of largely upbeat pop-disco tunes. But it was the ballad, “Sad Eyes,” that Mazza chose as the single.
Along with topping the Hot 100, “Sad Eyes” earned John a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male (though he lost the prize to Billy Joel’s “52nd Street”). John followed up “Sad Eyes” with a few more modest hits, including “Hey There Lonely Girl” and “Sherry,” releasing his final album, Back on the Street, in 1980.
Pedrick says John had four sons and grandsons. He was married for 46 years to Pedrick’s mother, Diane, and spent 10 years with his partner Susan. “He was a really great dad,” Pedrick says.
