"I was the one who found Wess for Bobby," she recalls. "I knew that Wess was a big-band arranger and had done some albums. Richard had absolutely no interest in rock and roll, while Bobby was basically a rock-and-roll artist at that time. He would never have really talked to Richard Wess about music. Bobby knew who he was, but Wess was just a person who passed through his life; I don't remember them ever sitting down and having a conversation. So I was the one who really inquired of Wess. I went to him and asked him to show me something he had recorded. I liked an album that he had done with a singer named Sally Blair. Wess seemed to be right for Bobby, and so I got Dick together with Bobby. He never even listened to the albums Wess had given me. He trusted my judgment. Dick said to me, 'How do I know Bobby is going to pay me?' I said, 'Just don't worry, it's going to happen, take my word for it.'"
Wasser never doubted that Bobby would return to the standards. "Even when he was doing rock, he never really gave up on everything he had listened to as a kid. He liked rock, and he wanted to be part of the current scene. He wanted the kids to like him, but he also wanted the adults to like him. He was going to do a little rock and roll, but then go out there and sing Jolson's 'Rainbow Round My Shoulder' and show as a 22-year-old, 'I'm going to knock their socks off.' And he knew this was how he would do it."
"Bobby had a great regard for the old performers, for what came before him," says singer Steve Lawrence. "You soak that in, and bring your own intelligence, your own abilities, your own creativity, to what has influenced you. And then you become, it's like the tenth man. You listen to nine other things out there, put yourself into it, and become the tenth man."
Many of Bobby's other peers, in addition to Frankie Avalon, Steve Lawrence, Dion, and Paul Anka, also regarded him as apart, someone with unique gifts, focus, and unusual seriousness. "Bobby was much more hip -- even though we all considered ourselves hip -- than any of us," says singer James Darren. "When you perform, many actors and singers are afraid to show their real selves, afraid they won't be liked if they reveal what's underneath. Bobby did not have that problem. The best thing you can ever do is to show yourself -- because you have what you are, and that's what's unique about each person. Bobby did all that onstage. And that's why Bobby was such a standout. And it all came from the fact that Bobby was confident with himself and not afraid to show it. If you listen to his records today or see him on film, he's sustained, he holds up. Do you know what his impact comes from? It comes from whatever his vibes were when he sang those songs or his vibes whenever you saw him. You come through him. That's you. So that's why Bobby lives, the magic the human being has.
"Bobby was older than what he was. Bobby was 25 going on 55. But he was inventive in the way a young kid is. His head was like he had been there before. Like he came back, reincarnated. The body's young, but his brain -- he was hatched. I was cracking the fucking shell of the egg. And this guy was shaking the shit off his wings."
