June 13: Bobby Freeman, "Do You Want To Dance?" "C'mon and Swim," is 73-years-old today.

Bobby Freeman, who is from San Francisco, is best known for his the hit record he wrote in 1958 when he was 17 years-old, "Do You Want To Dance?" He also had a Top Ten hit in 1964, "C'mon and Swim."

"Do You Want To Dance?" has been covered (as "Do You Wanna Dance") by Del Shannon, The Beach Boys, Bette Midler, John Lennon, Cliff Richard, The Mamas & The Papas and the Ramones. Many believe the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia played guitar on the original Bobby Freeman version, but it's never been confirmed.

"C'mon and Swim" was written and produced by twenty-year-old Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone. In 1964, Bobby Freeman played nightly at the Condor Night Club in San Francisco where Carol Doda performed her topless Go-Go dancing shows.

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Freeman began his recording career at age 14 with the Romancers who recorded briefly on the Dootone label. At 17, he scored a hit with "Do You Want To Dance?" and appeared on the pop charts with various follow-ups through 1961. In 1964, he was back in the Top Ten with the dance-craze hit "C'mon and Swim", which reached #5.


His popularity started to sink when he released his follow-up "S-W-I-M", but he continued to tour widely over the next few years. Mainly supporting himself as a singer in strip clubs by the late 1960s, he released another single in 1974 on Touch Records, but it met with little commercial success.

Freeman has stayed active in the entertainment indlustry by performing at the Bay Area Music ("Bammy") Awards in recent years.

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