Search - Bobby O :: The Best of Bobby "O"

80s Disco Genius

Disco Buff | Tokyo, Japan | 10/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bobby, having debuted at age 19, was a real star of 80s disco for me in my teen age. She Has A Way, Givin' Up, Reputation, Whisper To A Scream...all of his High-Energy tunes were popular in clubs in Japan as well as the other parts of the world! His vocal was not so superb, but I am sure his technique of arranging electronic instruments as a producer was novel enough to rival Patrick Cowley, who produced likewise many techno-disco gems including Sylvester for hit-maker Megatone Records. There are a couple of his CD compilations on sale but this one is the best in its sound quality and song choice sense. Recommended.



According to information on some disco websites, he already retired from music business and now a lawyer in NY."

Bobby O does his thing

A. Griffiths | London | 03/11/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Bobby Orlando churned out countless records in the 1980's and early 1990's, nearly all of which are made from one Hi-NRG rhythm blueprint. The majority were sung by session singers and released under various guises of female groups and soloists, but he also released albums of himself. This is the only Bobby O "solo" CD I have, and it's enough for me. Although I'm a fan of his music, I prefer it when he's not doing the vocals as for one thing, he's not that great a singer, in fact he's prone to ham it up, trying to come across as some kind of loverman/Lothario who can charm his way into any lady's heart (or panties)....oh dear.



Sadly, that doesn't really work on the major audience for this type of music (ie, gay men), which brings me to the second drawback of Bobby O's solo CDs, which is that he writes with a surprisingly sexist attitude. A lot of the appeal in Bobby O female fronted projects comes from the cute and very camp lyrics which portray all his vocalists as brainless bimbos hung up on romance and flirting. This has led to some huge hits, for example The Flirts' "Passion" and "Calling All Boys". Unfortunately, when he writes for himself, it becomes clear that he's actually pretty disdainful of women, and many of his songs are insulting and misogynistic when sung by a man ("Another Knife In My Back", luckily not featured here, is particularly offensive).



For these two reasons, I would stick with the CDs that he has produced fronted by other groups. However, don't pass this CD up entirely, as it does contain at least one bona-fide classic in the shape of "She Has a Way", a great dance workout whose calibre is affirmed by the fact that it has been plundered and sampled by modern club DJs (so, for that matter, has "I'm So Hot For You", more recently, by Junior Jack). But some of the other tracks are totally fogettable, like the pompous "I Cry For You", which blatantly steals it's chorus from "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (!). This shameless cloning of other people's work is most notable on "Pump It Up" which is such a close duplicate of "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood that I'm surprised they weren't on the phone to their lawyers as soon as it was released!



What I'd like to see is more hard to find Bobby O tracks collected together onto CD. The Flirts, Divine, Roni Griffith and Oh Romeo all have CD collections on the market, and any of these would be ideal for fans of the famous "dum-dum, dum-dum" bassline that Bobby made his own. But there are still lots of "O" projects floating about out there, like Malibu, Hotline, Girly, Gina Desire, Bonnie Forman, Miss Kimberly...the list goes on and on. And they all sound better than Bobby by himself. So let's have those on CD. Sorry Bobby - you're a great producer, but your work is at it's best when you stay away from the microphone."