Robert Joseph \"Bobby\" Bare (born April 7, 1935) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is the father of Bobby Bare, Jr., also a musician.
Early career
Bare had many failed attempts to sell his songs in the 1950s. He finally signed with Capitol Records and recorded a few rock and roll songs without much chart success. Just before he was drafted into the Army, he wrote a song called \"The All American Boy\" and did a demo for his friend, Bill Parsons, to learn and record. Instead of using the version Bill Parsons did later, the record company, Fraternity Records, decided to use the original demo recorded by Bobby Bare. The record reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but they made an error: the singles' labels all credited the artist as being \"Bill Parsons.\" The same track, with the same billing error, peaked at No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1959.
Career at RCA (1962--1970)
Bare's big break in country music came when RCA Records' Chet Atkins signed him. The first song he released on the label was \"Shame On Me\" in 1962. His second RCA release, \"Detroit City,\" was his first top-ten Country single, reaching number six. It also hit number 16 on the pop charts.In 1964, he also received a Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording for the song Detroit City. Then a surge of hits followed, including \"500 Miles Away from Home\" (based on a traditional folk ballad written by Hedy West as \"500 Miles\") and Ian Tyson's \"Four Strong Winds.\" In 1965 he received two Grammy nominations for Best Country & Western Vocal Performance and Best Country & Western single for the song \"Four Strong Winds\". In 1966, he received a Grammy Nomination for Best Country & Western Male Vocal Performance for his song \"Talk Me Some Sense\". He also recorded with Skeeter Davis, Norma Jean and Liz Anderson. \"The Game of Triangles\", a wife-husband-other woman drama that hit number five on the Billboard chart earned the trio a Grammy nomination. In 1968, he recorded an album with a group from England called The Hillsiders.In 1969, he had a Top 5 hit with Tom T. Hall's \"(Margie's At) The Lincoln Park Inn\".
