{"id":849,"date":"2014-12-09T11:35:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T17:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com.s72150.gridserver.com\/en\/?p=849"},"modified":"2014-12-09T11:35:42","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T17:35:42","slug":"read-bobbys-appearance-in-the-toronto-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/read-bobbys-appearance-in-the-toronto-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Read Bobby’s appearance in the Toronto Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to view the article on the Star website<\/a><\/p>\n

By: Trish Crawford Music, Published on Mon Dec 08 2014<\/p>\n

Bobby Curtola has cut his first record in decades, a Christmas song whose profits will go to a children\u2019s charity.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s ever stopped singing those hits from the 1960s that rocketed him to fame at the age of 16.<\/p>\n

In fact, Sunday night he popped in on old friend Robbie Lane, who was performing with his band the Disciples at the Seven44 Restaurant & Lounge (formerly Chick \u2019n\u2019 Deli) on Mount Pleasant. Before too long, Curtola was up onstage singing \u201cFortune Teller,\u201d \u201cCorinna, Corinna\u201d and \u201cThree Rows Over\u201d \u2014 the songs that took him from Thunder Bay to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s been so happy to see me,\u201d says Curtola, 71. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since 1960.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtola is in town promoting his Christmas song \u201cSt. Nicholas Christmas\u201d to raise funds for CP24\u2019s Christmas Wish fund.<\/p>\n

Splitting his time between homes in Las Vegas, where he worked in the casinos for 25 years, and Nova Scotia, Curtola still sings at concerts and charity events. He loves the quiet and friendliness of the East Coast, which reminds him of Thunder Bay when he was growing up.<\/p>\n

While he has never lost his ties to his hometown \u2014 his brother still lives there as does a member of his band \u2014 Curtola in person emits a Las Vegas vibe. He was wearing a jewel-encrusted gold ring that once belonged to Elvis Presley, a blue jacket embellished with gold flowers (he also has one in orange) and a black pompadour.<\/p>\n

He got his big break in high school when he sang with two bands: he was backup in the country band and lead singer for the pop band.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all the same guys, we just changed sweaters,\u201d laughs Curtola, who liked to cover Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.<\/p>\n

A first record, \u201cHand in Hand With You\u201d as Bobby and the Bobcats, a spot on The Ed Sullivan Show and a cross-Canada tour resulted in him signing a lucrative contract with the consent of his parents and school principal, abandoning plans to study law at university.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like the other Bobbies, Frankies and Johnnies. It was the time of the invention of the transistor radio and fabulous DJs who played our songs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Curtola achieved 25 Canadian gold singles and 12 Canadian gold albums.<\/p>\n

He recently returned to his former elementary school in Thunder Bay at the request of the principal, who wanted his students to aspire to fulfil their dreams. Curtola read the little stars pinned to the children\u2019s sweaters that said \u201cdoctor,\u201d \u201cfireman,\u201d \u201cartist\u201d and choked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to come back and tell all these young people, \u2018Dreams do come true.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A fellow St. James Public School student, Tommy Horricks, continues to play saxophone in Curtola\u2019s band, the Sensational Hot Rods.<\/p>\n

While he was rich very young, Curtola avoided being tabloid fodder, saying, \u201cI was more afraid of my father than I was of the police. He said, \u2018Don\u2019t embarrass me, don\u2019t embarrass the family.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He also learned to be a canny investor, he says, always saving and planning for that \u201crainy day\u201d that never came.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started, 60 was considered old,\u201d he says, expressing surprise that he\u2019s still performing and touring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible that there\u2019s still something to that era of music that never went away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtola says living his dream makes him humble and grateful, as he\u2019s seen many deserving performers never make it big.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only difference is hit records. There are many wonderful talented people who never got through the eye of the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to view the article on the Star website By: Trish Crawford Music, Published on Mon Dec 08 2014 Bobby Curtola has cut his first record in decades, a Christmas song whose profits will go to a children\u2019s charity. But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s ever stopped singing those hits from the 1960s that rocketed [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobbycurtola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}