100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
With a career that has spanned seven decades, Bobby Bare's body of work has made him one of the genre's most influential and critically acclaimed recording artists.
Raised in poverty by his widowed father, Bare was on his own by age fifteen. He built his own guitar and played in a Springfield, Ohio band before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a music career full-time. His first single, “The All-American Boy”, was recorded under the name Bill Parsons. It became a surprise pop hit, reaching #2 in America and the top thirty in England.
His pop career was short-lived, thanks to being drafted into the army. When he returned from service, he resumed performing under his own name, pursuing a singing and songwriting career in the pop music field. He shared an apartment with Willie Nelson and toured with some big pop acts, before turning his attention to country music in the early sixties.
Chet Atkins signed him to RCA in 1962, and he had a string of big hits for the label, including classics like “Detroit City”, “The Streets of Baltimore”, and “500 Miles Away From Home.” Bare began incorporating elements of the folk music scene into his music, and by the end of the decade, he'd established a reputation for tackling challenging material on record, including the controversial “(Margie's at) the Lincoln Park Inn.”
A brief stint on Mercury Records in the early seventies continued the streak of critically acclaimed albums, but he returned to RCA shortly thereafter. It was on that label that he released the landmark album Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends, and Lies. The double album showcased the songs of Shel Silverstein, including the #1 hit, “Marie Laveau” and a duet with his son on “Daddy What If?” Thus began a fruitful partnership with Silverstein that resulted in more critically acclaimed albums, though none of them would approach the commercial success of their first collaboration.
As the seventies progressed, Bare became aligned with the Outlaw movement, and by the early eighties, he was drawing on the catalog of writers such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. After releasing his 1983 album Drinkin' From the Bottle, Singin' From the Heart, Bare took more than a decade off from recording. In recent years, he has returned to prominence through the Americana scene, and is now viewed as one of the forefathers of that fledgling musical movement.
Essential Singles:
- Detroit City, 1963
- 500 Miles Away From Home, 1963
- The Streets of Baltimore, 1966
- (Margie's at) the Lincoln Park Inn, 1969
- How I Got to Memphis, 1970
- Daddy What If? (with Bobby Bare, Jr.), 1974
- Marie Laveau, 1974
Essential Albums:
- Detroit City and Other Hits, 1963
- 500 Miles Away From Home, 1963
- (Margie's at) the Lincoln Park Inn, 1969
- This is Bare Country, 1970
- Bobby Bare sings Lullabys, Legends, and Lies, 1973
- Down & Dirty, 1980
Next: #55. Roy Clark
Previous: #57. Kenny Chesney