’70s Singer Dies Amidst Stroke Recovery: Robert John Was 79

Robert John, the singer-songwriter behind the chart-topping hit “Sad Eyes,” has died. John passed away on Monday, Feb. 24 at the age of 79, his son, Michael Pedrick, confirmed to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not disclosed, but Pedrick said his father was recovering from a stroke suffered several years ago.

Born in in Brooklyn, New York, on Jan. 3, 1946, John began his music career at the age of 12 when he released his first single, “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes,” as Bobby Pedrick Jr. in 1958. The song earned John his first charting single, peaking at No. 74 on the Hot 100, per Billboard.

After briefly stepping away from music to work as a production manager for trade magazines in the mid-‘60s, John changed his name returned to the music scene as Robert John, scoring his next with 1968’s “If You Don’t Want My Love,” which reached No. 49 on the Billboard charts. He followed it in 1970 with the No. 71 hit “When the Party Is Over.” A year later, he scored his biggest hit yet when his version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and sold more than 1 million copies.

Despite his success, however, John recalled that “[Atlantic] didn’t have enough faith to let me do an album. I decided if that’s what happens after a [hit] song, then I just wasn’t going to sing anymore.”

John went on to write for Motown before again leaving music altogether. In 1978, while he was working for a construction company in New Jersey, producer George Tobin reached out to him to reconnect. John went to California to live with Tobin for several months to work on songwriting, and during that time, “Sad Eyes” was born. Released in 1979, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100, reached the Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart, earned John a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

“I look at the charts and see my name, but I still have trouble believing it’s really me,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “I didn’t think the song would be the first single from the album. It’s a ballad and I thought the company was crazy to release it.”

“Sad Eyes” was also featured on John’s third, self-titled album, which peaked at No. 68 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Following the album’s release, John scored several more singles throughout the ‘80s, including “Hey There Lonely Girl” and “Sherry.” He released his final album, Back on the Street, in 1980.

John is survived by his four sons and grandsons, his ex-wife Diane and his partner Susan. Remembering his father, Pedrick said, “He was a really great dad.”