I’m Like A Bird: “Rock-In Robin” by Bobby Day

The first one-hit wonder to appear in this list – or would have been, had Bobby Day not had a minor hit in 1957 with his song “Little Bitty Pretty One” (although Thurston Harris had a much bigger hit with his cover). However, as an effective one-shot hit, “Rock-In Robin” – that is how the title is spelt on the label of the original 45 rpm single – is an agreeable and engaging record. Born in Fort Worth, Day – real name Bobby Byrd (no, he was not that Bobby Byrd) – then moved to Los Angeles and worked with some doo-wop groups, including the Hollywood Flames and the Satellites, before going solo.

“Rock-In Robin” was written by one “Jimmie Thomas.” In reality this was Leon René, who had been around since 1902 and composed such classics as “When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano” and “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South.” You might therefore be forgiven for thinking that “Robin” has a dubious reputation. In Britain this is probably down to the fact that Bobby Day’s original record was only a minor hit and the song is best known through Michael Jackson’s irredeemably twee 1972 cover (to which I will be returning here in due course).

There really isn’t much to the song, if truth be told, but Day gives it an authoritative and enthusiastic reading – his rhetorical pause after the word “oriole” is particularly striking - and it helps that the backing band rip through the song with such unashamed gusto, complete with concluding wolf-whistles. Flute solos in rock ‘n’ roll? There’s no sound in flutes, as Buddy Rich once complained, but Plas Johnson’s onomatopoeic piccolo – yes, piccolo - solo here provides the record with its necessary punctum. Unfortunately, René opted to use Day’s song “Over And Over,” which would undoubtedly have given him another major hit, as the B-side; however, the Dave Clark Five remembered it and took the song to number one in 1965.

Date Record Made Number Two: 18 October 1958

Number of Weeks At Number Two: 2

Record At Number One: “It’s All In The Game” by Tommy Edwards

UK Chart Position: 29

Other Information: Bobby Day went on to be the original “Bob” in Bob and Earl but was subsequently replaced by another “Bob” – Bob Relf, he of Northern Soul perennials such as “Blowing My Mind To Pieces.” It is Bob Relf whom you hear on “Harlem Shuffle.”

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