Singer-songwriter scored his first hit aged 12, and was known for hits such as ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and ‘If You Don’t Want My Love’. Robert John, the crooner behind “Sad Eyes” who scored his first hit when he was just 12, has died aged 79.
![[Robert John in 1979]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/26/8/56/GettyImages-74278642.jpeg)
Born Robert John Pedrick on 3 January 1946, John first recorded under the name Bobby Pedrick Jr aged, 12, reaching No 74 on the US Billboard chart with “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes”. A decade later, he was back in the charts with “If You Don’t Want My Love”, popular both in the US and the UK, then again with a cover of The Tokens’ 1961 classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, delivered in his signature high voice.
John proved to be an enduring presence in popular music through the Sixties and Seventies, scoring further hits with “If You Don’t Want My Love” (1968), “When the Party’s Over” (1970) and “Hushabye” (1972). This success wasn’t enough to satisfy his record companies, however, prompting him to temporarily drop out of music: “[Atlantic Records] didn’t have enough faith to let me do an album,” John told Rolling Stone at the time.
“I decided if that’s what happens after a [hit] song, then I just wasn’t going to sing anymore.”. His career took a pause and John began working in construction in Long Branch, New Jersey, when he was produced by producer and songwriter George Tobin, who wanted to work with him.
This led to his best-known track, the swooning ballad “Sad Eyes”, was the first-person account of a man forced to break up with a temporary girlfriend because his partner was returning home. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, in 1980, and also featured on John’s third, self-titled album.
John said in a 1979 interview with American Bandstand that it was his favourite he’d ever performed, due to the fact that he wrote it himself, rather than collaborating with other songwriters or covering fellow artists. After “Sad Eyes”, John had two more modest hits with “Lonely Eyes” and “Hey There Lonely Girl”, both in 1980.
