Robert Calvin Brooks was born on the 27th January 1930, in Barretville, Tennessee USA, and much better known by his stage name Bobby Bland, was a blues singer who released 27 studio albums and a number of his singles, including “Share Your Love With Me” (1964), “Today I Started Loving You Again” (1976), etc. His career was active from 1952 until 2003, when he passed away.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Bobby Bland was? According to authoritative sources, it was estimated that the total size of Bobby’s net worth was over $1 million at the time of his death, accumulated through his successful involvement in the music industry.
Bobby Bland Net Worth $1 Million
Bobby Bland was raised by his mother and his stepfather, Leroy Bridgeforth/Bland, as his father left the family when Booby was a toddler. Thus, when he was older, he took last name of his stepfather. He attended high school, but never matriculated, and in 1947 moved with his mother to Memphis, and there started singing with a local gospel group called The Miniatures. Soon, he began to perform at the city’s famous Beale Street, where he met other musicians such as Junior Parker, B.B. King and Rosco Gordon, among others.
Bobby began his professional musical career in 1952, when he released several singles through Modern Records and Sun Records, but without any major success; however, it marked the beginning of an increase of his net worth. In the following year, he signed to Duke Records, and released the single “Army Blues”, after which he went on to serve in the US Army for two years. When he returned home, he reached enormous success with the hit single “Farther Up The Road” (1957), which topped the R&B chart and peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was followed by another hit entitled “Little Boy Blue” (1958), reaching No. 10 on the R&B chart.
At the beginning of the next decade, Bobby released his debut studio album entitled “Two Steps From The Blues” (1961), and the singles “I Pity The Fool”, which became No. 1 on the R&B chart, and “Turn On Your Love Light”, peaking at No. 2 on the same chart. In the following year out came his second studio album “Here’s The Man!”, which was later followed by other albums such as “Ain’t Nothing You Can Do” (1964), “Touch Of The Blues” (1967), and “Spotlighting The Man” (1969), all of which added a considerable amount to his net worth.
Bobby’s next two studio albums were released through Dunhill Records – “His California Album” (1973) with the hit R&B single “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City”, and “Dreamer” (1974), after which he signed a contract with ABC Records, through which he released such albums as “Get On Down” (1975), and “Reflections In Blue” (1977), increasing his net worth by a large margin.
To speak further about his career, Bobby signed with Malaco Records in 1985, and released over 10 more albums until 2003, which included “Members Only” (1985), “Blues You Can Use” (1987), “Sad Street” (1995), and “Blues At Midnight” (2003), all of which increased his net worth. In 2008, he released with Mick Hucknall, the lead vocalist of the band Simply Red, the album “Tribute To Bobby”.
Overall, Bobby released 27 studio albums, ten compilations, three live albums, and a great number of hit singles, and thanks to his accomplishments in the music industry, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. Beside that, he was also rewarded with the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named as one of the best artists of the all time.
Regarding his personal life, Bobby Bland was married to Willie Martin Bland from 1983 to 2013, when he passed away at the age of 83, on the 23rd June in Germantown, Tennessee. He had with Willie two sons.
