RIP Bobby Breen

[sansradio]

Who knew that this child star of the '30s was once signed to Motown?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/mo...e=sectionfront

[woodward]

I knew because I have both of the 45's that were issued by Motown. Thanks for sharing this as we may have never known about his passing.

From the obituary in the New York Times:

In the early 1960s, he signed a contract with Motown after the label’s founder, Berry Gordy, heard him sing in Windsor, Ontario. He made several records that were never released. “I think he realized that my singing was not compatible with the Motown sound,” Mr. Breen told Charles Foster, the author of “Once Upon a Time in Paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood” [[2003).

He actually released two records on Motown and his recording history according to the www.dftmc.info indicates:

M1053 Better Late Than Never b/w How Can We Tell Him [[note A)
M1059 Here Comes That Heartache b/w You're Just Like You

Note A: Marv Johnson recorded this version in 1961, Bobby's was in 1964.

Also M1059 came with a picture sleeve of Bobby Breen which I have.

[sansradio]

Woodward, you're amazing. If anyone knew, I knew you would!

[soulwally]

Who knew that this child star of the '30s was once signed to Motown?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/mo...e=sectionfront

I knew... because I had seen his name in discographies. But I never knew a thing about him until now, unfortunately after his death. I presume his releases for Motown are in the MOR mould, rather than thumping Snakepit-produced floor-fillers.

[marv2]

Rest in peace Bobby.

[sansradio]

I knew... because I had seen his name in discographies. But I never knew a thing about him until now, unfortunately after his death. I presume his releases for Motown are in the MOR mould, rather than thumping Snakepit-produced floor-fillers.

soulwally, you hit it on the head, I'm afraid. File under the Bobby Darin/Sammy Davis, Jr. division:

[sansradio]

Definitely not for the Junior Walker set:

[robb_k]

"Better Late Than Never" is a high quality song written by Smokey. Bobby didn't do too bad a job on it. But, I like Mickey McCullers' version a lot better. Hard to think of Bobby Breen, Billy Eckstein, Sammy Davis Jr., Amos Milburn, Ford Nix, Gwen Owens, Jerry Butler, Leslie Gore, The Four Seasons, Tony Martin, and Barbara McNair as part of "The Motown Family", as their time with Motown was only miniscule, compared with the length of their overall careers.

[keith_hughes]

Many of the vaulted Motown Breen recordings are credited to "Betsy Baron" ... anyone out there have any idea why?

[snakepit]

wasn't Bobby Breen featured on the famous cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" LP?

[sansradio]

wasn't Bobby Breen featured on the famous cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" LP?

He most certainly was. His head is visible between George Harrison and Marlene Dietrich.

[mysterysinger]

Many of the vaulted Motown Breen recordings are credited to "Betsy Baron" ... anyone out there have any idea why?

That's interesting - but I've no idea why. Apparently his real name was Isadore Borsuk [[November 4, 1927 – September 19, 2016). According to TCMS he recorded a dozen tracks for Motown of which 4 appeared on singles.

Better Late Than Never Motown 1053b
How Can We Tell Him Motown 1053a
Here Comes That Heartache Motown 1059b
You're Just Like You Motown 1059a

Oddly [[?) "Here Comes That Heartache" was produced by Eddie Singleton in NY. It was written by Mark Barkan and Ben Raleigh and published by Jobete. Mark Barkan wrote "Pretty Flamingo" which was a hit for Manfred Mann and along with Ritchie Adams wrote the theme song for Banana Splits [[tra la la, la la la la).

"You're Just Like You" was published by Stein & Van Stock. And another name change - the composers Berry Gordy and Robert Gordy were shown as Martin and Kay on the record.

An acetate apparently is known for another song, "Sometimes I Lie" [[co-written by Al Klein with William Stevenson.

Interesting that you confirm the existence of others - obviously not deemed suitable for issue in the Unreleased series. Can it be confirmed how many are still in the vault?

Bobby's version of "How Can We Tell Him" for me pales against Marv Johnson's version of a couple of years previously.

[keith_hughes]

Bobby cut thirty-odd songs for Motown between Dec 1963 and May 1964, but the two singles were all that were released on him.

[mysterysinger]

That's a lot more songs than I expected. Free Bobby Breen from the vaults - on second thought perhaps not.

[Roger Polhill]

He also had an album "Better Late Than Never" M618. proposed but of course didn`t make it.

[mysterysinger]

Well if they released it on CD, I think I'd be forced to buy it.

[motown01]

I wasn't familiar with Bobby Breen until this post - Better Late Than Never is definitely an interesting song, of course with Smokey writing and producing it has potential...but that vibrato is a little off-putting.

I did a search for the Mickey McCullers version and couldn't find it...does anyone know where it exists?

[Graham Jarvis]

I Have all of Mickey McCullers tracks which is the two 45's, and searched for years to not only find him but any other tracks, or acetates etc. Be great if there is another song?

Here's the link for Mickey McCullers we did for "Motown Forum" if it helps.

https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthrea...ckey+McCullers

[robb_k]

I wasn't familiar with Bobby Breen until this post - Better Late Than Never is definitely an interesting song, of course with Smokey writing and producing it has potential...but that vibrato is a little off-putting.

I did a search for the Mickey McCullers version and couldn't find it...does anyone know where it exists?

I played the acetate of Mickey's version [[which was recorded in early 1962) during the mid to late 1970s, while working on "From The Vaults". It had some pops in it, including one big one that hung, and almost stopped the record. So, perhaps the Universal staff that worked on the CD release projects, and the later annual digital inventory releases deemed it not decent enough quality to release. It would have been in "1962 Unreleased", IF it was never released on anything before that.

[robb_k]

Bobby Breen was a child star, a singer and actor. He was a star in several musicals. He was known as "Little Bobby Breen". His career almost disappeared when his voice changed at puberty. Here's a snapshot from one of his films, singing with Louise Beavers:


The film was "Rainbow On The River", from 1936 [[later changed to "It Happened In NewOrleans". He was mostly forgotten after he became a teenager, and certainly was only a small-time, local entertainer as an adult.

[mysterysinger]

Great info Robb