Bobby Curtola, Canadian singer, Died at 73

Robert Allen “Bobby” Curtola was born April 17, 1943, on and died on June 4, 2016.

He was an early Canadian rock and roll singer and teen idol.

Bobby Curtola went on to record hits such as “Indian Giver”, “Aladdin” and his biggest chart topper, “Fortune Teller” in 1962, which was also successful internationally, selling 2.5 million copies.

From 1960 to 1968, Bobby Curtola had continual single and album releases on the Tartan label in Canada.

Dyer and Basil Hurdon, the managers and main songwriters were brothers.

And the Del-Fi label released some of those singles in the US.

Curtola wrote and performed the song “Things go better with Coca-Cola” in 1964 for advertising and was a pitchman for the company.

During 1966, Bobby won a RPM Gold Leaf Award for becoming the first Canadian to have an album go gold.

During the early 1970s, he hosted a CTV musical series entitled, Shake, Rock and Roll and Curtola went on to a successful singing career at Las Vegas, Nevada casino venues.

In an attempt at updating his image during the 80’s, Curtola briefly adopted the billing Boby Curtola and released one album under this name before reverting to his original spelling.

Throughout his career, the singer achieved 25 Canadian gold singles and 12 Canadian gold albums.

During 1998, in recognition of his long service to the Canadian music industry as well as his humanitarian work, particularly with children’s charities, he was made a member of the Order of Canada.

Bobby Curtola great contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

He also performed on some Princess Cruises ships in the 1990s but also more recently, in 2014, for example.

Also to his musical work, Curtola was a business entrepreneur, marketing a brand of Caesar cocktail called SeaCzar for three years.

Bobby founded companies that acquired hotel and truck stops throughout Canada, and in 1991 bid for ownership of the Ottawa Roughriders.

Bobby Curtola was chief executive officer of Home Farms Technologies, a Canadian-based company which was attempting to develop an environmentally friendly waste management system for hog waste.

His idea was a development stage company and has been inactive since 2005 according to Government of Canada records.

During received a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto, in 2011.

Bobby Curtola passed away at 73 yrs old.