I wish I could justify this next item with a clip from either American Bandstand or Midnight Special, but there's none to be had as it pertains to our subject du jour, singer-songwriter Austin Roberts.
"Rocky" wasn't only a hit record for Roberts in 1975, but it hit #1 on the country chart for another singer, Dickey Lee of "Patches" fame. Roberts reached the top 10, but no further. Cartoon fans have only become aware in recent years, thanks to the research of fellow blogger Marc Nobleman, among others, that Roberts, using a faux British accent, recorded the theme for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? for its 2nd season, plus all the "chase" songs.
Roberts was brought in, I would assume, along with writing partner Danny Janssen, by Don Kirshner, who had been hired by Hanna-Barbera as a music supervisor not only for Scooby, but also for Josie & the Pussycats (Janssen's La-La Productions was credited with producing the music for that series) and Harlem Globetrotters. Kirshner wrapped his 3 year stint at H-B by supervising the music for Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan, but Roberts was long gone by then.
Anyway, while you listen to "Rocky", study the picture of Roberts, and tell me if he doesn't look like Herman's Hermits frontman Peter Noone, whom he tried to impersonate whilst working on Scooby........
2 comments:
I have this tune on my iPod. Darn if it doesn't tug at your heartstrings despite the upbeat melody.
I'd always thought Roberts was trying to imitate Davy Jones in his singing style. Then again, Both he and Noone were from Manchester so....
It's definitely a Noone mimic.
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