Rocky Roberts

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Rocky Roberts, in full Charles Roberts, was born in 1940 in Tanner, Alabama, and died in 2005 in Rome. He was an American R&B singer who later became an Italian citizen. He served in the United States Navy, where he was a boxing champion. His interest in singing arose when he heard the country musician Doug Fowlkes and his band on board ship, who let him sing along.

Music and breakthrough

When he won a singing contest in Juan-les-Pins in France while on leave, he stayed in Europe after leaving the navy in 1962. He appeared on the French television show Les raisins verts. In 1965 Renzo Arbore and Gianni Boncompagni invited him to Rome to record the signature tune of their radio programme Bandiera Gialla. That was T-Bird, a hit in Italy, and after that he went on living in Rome.

Influence

In 1967 he had a big Italian hit with Stasera mi butto, which won the Festivalbar. The success led to a film of the same title in which he starred himself, and more Italian films followed. He almost always wore sunglasses. Roberts also sang the title song of the 1966 film Django, written by Luis Bacalov. Quentin Tarantino used that recording again in 2012 as the opening music of Django Unchained. In this way his voice has remained known far beyond Italy.

Listening

In School of Rock

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