Biography
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Born
17 April 1943
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Born In
Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada
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Died
4 June 2016 (aged 73)
Born Robert Allen Curtola, in Port Arthur, Ontario, Curtola had several songs on the Canadian music charts beginning with "Hand In Hand With You" in 1960 and his biggest chart-topper came in 1962 with the song, "Fortune Teller" which was also successful internationally. Between 1960 and 1968 he had continual single and album releases on the Tartan label in Canada. The managers and main songwriters were brothers Dyer and Basil Hurdon. The Del-Fi label released some of those singles in the US.
In 1966 he won a RPM Gold Leaf Award for becoming the first Canadian to have an album go gold. In the early 1970s, Curtola hosted a CTV musical series entitled, Shake, Rock and Roll and Curtola went on to a successful singing career at Las Vegas, Nevada casino venues and still performs at various clubs today. In the 1980s, in an attempt at updating his image, Curtola briefly adopted the billing Boby Curtola and released one album under this name before reverting to his original spelling.
In 1998, in recognition of his long service to the Canadian music industry as well as his humanitarian work around the world, he was made a member of the Order of Canada. His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Besides his musical work, Curtola is also a business entrepreneur, marketing a successful brand of Caesar cocktail. He is also chief executive officer of Home Farms Technologies, a Canadian-based company specializing in environmentally friendly waste management systems.
Bobby passed away on 5 June 2016.
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