Bobby Caldwell

This article is about the pop artist. For the article on the rock drummer see Bobby Caldwell(drummer)

Bobby Caldwell is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, despite a prolific musical output over his more than 25-year career, is still best known for his 1978 hit single "What You Won't Do for Love." While he has always maintained a devoted fan base in the United States, he has reached legendary status in Japan.

Bobby Caldwell was born in Manhattan, New York City on August 15, 1951 to Bob and Carolyn Caldwell, the hosts of Suppertime, a popular children's television variety show. Taking up piano and guitar as a preteen, he formed his own band at 17 and recorded an unsuccessful album entitled "Kathmandu". (This album is quite rare; no fans seem to possess it, and some wonder if even Caldwell himself does.)

Ten years later, Bobby Caldwell released his first self-titled solo album, scoring hits with the singles "What You Won't Do for Love," "My Flame" and, in Britain, "Down for the Third Time." ("What You Won't Do for Love" proved such a massive success that the album was later re-released under the song's title. It still receives frequent airplay today.) Caldwell's follow-up albums, 1980's "The Cat in the Hat" and 1982's "Carry On", were artistic improvements upon the first album, but did not match its commercial success. They were, however, big hits in Japan (Cat went platinum and Carry On, gold.) and sealed Bobby's reputation as a superstar in that country.

1983 saw Bobby Caldwell release "Carry On" in Japan only. (It was released in the United States in the 1990s.) Though the album did go gold, Caldwell subsequently took a hiatus from recording instead directing his efforts toward writing songs for other performers, most notably "Heart of Mine" for Boz Scaggs, "Next Time I Fall" for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera, "Janet" for the Commodores and "All or Nothing at All" for Al Jarreau. Ironically, these songs became big hits only when Caldwell himself later recorded them on his 1989 comeback album "Heart of Mine".

Caldwell recorded at a steady pace throughout the 1990s, producing 1991's "Stuck on You", 1993's "Where is Love", and 1995's "Soul Survivor". He later turned to singing nothing but big band standards (and original, yet big band standard-like songs) on 1996's "Blue Condition" and 1999's "Come Rain or Come Shine".

As a performer, Bobby Caldwell has gone through many phases and "looks." His career history can be traced from the perpetually fedora-clad, bearded persona of the 1970s to the ponytailed, trenchcoated image of the early 1990s to his current Rat Pack-like style. (He actually portrayed Frank Sinatra in the 2000 Las Vegas show, "The Rat Pack is Back".)

Bobby's twin daughters, Lauren and Tessa, were born in 1993. Though his marriage to their mother, Rina, later dissolved, a musical love letter still exists in the form of a song named for her that appears on "Where is Love".

Bobby Caldwell continues to record and tour extensively in the 2000s.

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