Bob
King was born in Joyceville, Ontario and moved to Ottawa with his mother in the
late 1930’s. With the support of
his stepfather, Bob mastered the guitar as a teen and, with two friends, now
known as the “Country Cousins”, entered and won numerous amateur contests.
The decision to become a fulltime country music entertainer was made at
age 16, and a subsequent solo competition saw him win first place over another
aspiring singer, Paul Anka.
Ottawa DJ, “Long John” Corrigan, arranged a guest spot with Mac Beattie and
the legendary Ottawa Valley Melodiers. In
1954, Bob’s recording of “Laurel Lee” sold over 40,000 copies.
At the same time, he was invited to become a member of Wilma Lee and
Stoney Cooper’s Clinch Mountain Clan, and performed with them on a daily radio
show in West Virginia. He also
toured with Doc Williams and Hawkshaw Hawkins, and performed with the legendary
Elvis Presley in Norfolk, Virginia.
Returning to Canada, Bob joined the Wilf Carter Show and then, at the request of
Ken Reynolds, became a founding member, with “Papa” Joe Brown and fiddler
Ward Allen, of the CFRA Happy Wanderers. With
this group, he performed on thousands of live radio shows and a total of 59
television shows, and made uncountable personal appearances.
Moving from RCA to Rodeo Records, Bob went to record 13 albums and release 40 singles. At this time, he also encouraged and concentrated on his wife, Marie’s singing career, becoming her manager and producer and contributing to the success of her first single, “The French Song”, which resulted in sales of 50,000 copies. Bob produced Marie’s first ten albums, including the certified gold record “Allo Mon P’tit Bobby”. He also encouraged and promoted his son and daughter in their musical careers and completed his own career as road manager and featured singer with the Marie King Road Show.