Dick Robertson (songwriter)
American songwriter
Richard Joseph Robertson (July 3, 1900 – July 12, 1979) was an American popular big band singer and songwriter of the 1930s and 1940s. He sang for many bandleaders such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Leo Reisman, Andy Kirk, and Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra, and was on the artist roster at Banner Records.
Early life
Robertson was raised in Brooklyn where his father owned a construction business. After high school, he worked for his father as a construction foremen but during the winter season, when business was slow and his parents were vacationing in warmer climes, he moonlighted first as a taxi driver and then later as a singer in a local band. The latter employment led to him accepting work as a vocalist for a New York music publishing company and eventually work in various radio station which at that time, often featured live performances.
Career
While not a star in his own right, Robertson was one of the most prolific New York based vocalists (along with Irving Kaufman, Chick Bullock, Scrappy Lambert, Elmer Feldkamp, Paul Small and Smith Ballew) on scores of records from late 1928 through the mid 1930s. A series of records issued on Melotone/Perfect/Banner/Oriole/Romeo, Crown, Bluebird from 1930-1934 were issued under his name or as being under his nominal leadership. He also used the pseudonym "Bob Richardson" for some recordings on Mayfair Records and “Bob Dickson”, and “Bobby Dix” for some of his studio work.
Robertson frequently performed in front of live audiences, either as part of a larger vaudeville act, or as a vocalist with supporting musicians. While often credited as "Dick Robertson and His Orchestra" on record labels, Robertson never led an orchestra in public.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16008787. VIAF identifies the subject as 1322149108402068780002. The Library of Congress control number is n94083523. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1979, 1928 and 1930.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dick Robertson (songwriter)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.