Bobby Caldwell

After several R&B and smooth jazz albums, Caldwell turned to singing standards from the Great American Songbook. He wrote many songs for other artists, including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single "The Next Time I Fall" for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera. Caldwell's musical catalog is perhaps best known today for its later sampling by several prolific hip hop and R&B artists.

Bobby Caldwell was born in Manhattan and grew up in Miami. His mother sold real estate and one of her clients was reggae singer Bob Marley; Bobby and Marley became friends. Bobby was exposed to a variety of music including Latin, reggae, and R&B. His parents hosted a local variety television show called Suppertime. He grew up listening to the music of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. When he was 12, Bobby began to play piano and guitar. He was drawn to rock and roll, jazz, and rhythm and blues.

Bobby Caldwell was a member of Katmandu, a Miami band who wrote much of their material while also performing traditional standards. He played multiple instruments and sang. At 17, he worked with the band in Las Vegas and then moved to Los Angeles. Caldwell got his first career break as a rhythm guitarist for Little Richard in the early 1970s. He and his band eventually left Little Richard and Caldwell went solo. By 1977, Caldwell had spent six years in Los Angeles playing in different bar bands and trying to get a record deal. He eventually signed with TK Records in Miami in 1978. After songs for his first album were recorded, executives told Caldwell they enjoyed the album, but thought it was lacking a hit. He returned to the studio for two days and wrote "What You Won't Do for Love". TK was mainly an R&B label popular among African American listeners. Executives at the label wanted to conceal the fact that Caldwell was white, so they kept his face off the album cover. When he toured with Natalie Cole to support the album, most of the audience was black and many were surprised to find out that Caldwell was white. "What You Won't Do for Love" on Bobby Caldwell reached the top ten on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 (No. 9) R&B (No. 6), and Adult Contemporary (No. 10) charts. The song has been covered, remade and sampled many times. Caldwell remade it in 1998. It was covered by Go West, Phyllis Hyman, Roy Ayers, Michael Bolton, Intro, Boyz II Men, and Snoh Aalegra. It was sampled by Tupac Shakur for his hit "Do for Love". It was covered by Elliott Yamin during the fifth season of American Idol in 2006. Caldwell's track "My Flame" is sampled for "Sky's the Limit" by The Notorious B.I.G. featuring R&B group 112. Caldwell's debut album was followed by Cat in the Hat (1980) and Carry On (1982). For the album Carry On, he played all the instruments, was the producer, and helped with arranging and mixing. In 1983, Caldwell released August Moon only in Japan. It was released in the United States in the 1990s. Singer Boz Scaggs advised Caldwell to write songs for other musicians after TK Records shut down. Caldwell wrote "The Next Time I Fall", which became a hit for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera, along with songs for Scaggs himself, Roy Ayers, Chicago, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack, and Al Jarreau. On Blue Condition (1996), Caldwell turned from performing and recording R&B to recording big band arrangements of songs from the Great American Songbook, particularly those sung by Frank Sinatra. Caldwell also portrayed Sinatra in tributes to the Rat Pack in Las Vegas. Caldwell continued to sing standards on Come Rain or Come Shine (1999), The Consummate Bobby Caldwell (2010), and After Dark (2014). In 2015, he collaborated with record producer Jack Splash on the album Cool Uncle. '

Caldwell died at his home in Great Meadows, New Jersey on March 14, 2023, at 71. His death was announced the next day by his wife, Mary Beth Caldwell. According to his wife, his health had declined after suffering severe side effects from fluoroquinolone in 2017. After Bobby Caldwell's death, his 1978 hit song "What You Won't Do for Love" experienced a surge in popularity on social media, such as on TikTok and Instagram. In early 2024, the song reached No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart as well as a brief entry at No. 86 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart. That was due to a viral trend featuring videos of chocolate-covered strawberries paired with the song's signature horn intro.

• BobbyCaldwell.com Official site • Complete discography and lyrics * *