Robert Gordon (March 29, 1947 – October 18, 2022) was an American rockabilly/rock and roll singer and actor. Gordon grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. At the age of nine, he was greatly inspired by the Elvis Presley song "Heartbreak Hotel" playing on radio and decided to pursue a career as a rock and roll musician at that young age. Along with Elvis, Gordon's influences included Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran among other notable rock 'n roll music artists of the period.
Gordon made his recording debut at age 17 in 1964 with a group called The Confidentials. He was also actively performed with the Newports in his teenage years. By 1970, Gordon had relocated his family to New York City with the intent of operating a clothing boutique. His focus shifted to the punk rock scene at the nightclub CBGB. He became a member of the punk-pop band Tuff Darts. During 1976, the Tuff Darts recorded "All for the Love of Rock and Roll", "Head over Heels", and "Slash" for a compilation album called Live at CBGB's, which included a number of other local New York City bands.
Record producer Richard Gottehrer discovered Gordon during a rehearsal one afternoon with Tuff Darts and soon afterward the two were talking about making a rock and roll record. Gottehrer was impressed with Gordon's voice and his rendition of Elvis Presley's "One Night". After some conversation, Gordon suggested working with guitar legend Link Wray. Wray was contacted and he agreed to work with them both. "Robert to me sounds a lot like the early Elvis, back when he was at Sun Records", he commented. In 1977, Robert Gordon with Link Wray on Private Stock Records was the result of this collaboration. After Elvis Presley's unexpected death in August, 1977, the album picked up some airplay, and the Private Stock label attempted to hype Gordon as the heir to Elvis. In 1978, Gordon made a second album with Wray, for Private Stock called Fresh Fish Special. The record featured The Jordanaires, who had been background vocalists for Presley, and included the Bruce Springsteen song "Fire". Springsteen played keyboards on the track.
In 1978, RCA Records signed Gordon to a contract which he described as "a dream come true" to record for "Elvis's label". In February, 1979, the album Rock Billy Boogie was issued on the RCA Victor label, this time without Wray, as Chris Spedding joined Gordon, playing lead guitar. Writer Bruce Eder (AllMusic) hailed Gordon's next album, Bad Boy, released in 1980, as one of the best mature rockabilly albums ever recorded. Gordon's next and final album for RCA was 1981's Are You Gonna Be The One. The title track written by Marc Jonson. It is Gordon's best-selling album to date, with more than 200,000 copies sold. Danny Gatton played lead guitar on this record and Marshall Crenshaw penned the single "Someday, Someway", which went to No. 76 on the Billboard charts in 1981.
During the early 1980s, Gordon toured briefly with Gatton. A recording of one of their performances was later released on NRG Records as "The Humbler".
In the early 1990s Gordon toured with Spedding, including Japan, Norway, Finland, United States, Spain and Sweden, with a number of live tracks later appearing on the 2006 Climate Control album Born To Rock.
This compilation release was a (hand-numbered) collectible, strictly limited edition of 1,000 copies. It includes some previously unreleased tracks.
1 Rockbilly Boogie
2 The Catman
3 The Way I Walk
4 Love My Baby
5 The Fool
6 Red Hot
7 Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll
8 Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache
9 Lonesome Train ( On A Lonesome Track )
10 Fire
11 Hot Dog ( That Made her Mad )
12 Don't
13 Bad Boy
14 The Worrying Kind
15 Mean To me
16 Drivin' Wheel
17 Someday, Someway
18 Look Who's Blue
19 Little Sister
20 The Wanderer
21 Rock Therapy
22 Devil In Disguise
23 Lonely Blue Boy
24 Sea Of Heartbreak
25 Playing For Keeps
26 Wasting My Time
27 I'm Dreaming Of You
28 It's Only Make Believe
The Essential Robert Gordon