Bubbling Under: Dobie Gray
Dobie Gray (L) performs "Drift Away" with Uncle Kracker in 2003 (Getty Images/Kevin Winter)
It’s been a tough stretch for musician mortality the last week or so: R&B singer Howard Tate, Howlin’ Wolf‘s guitarist Hubert Sumlin, and singer Dobie Gray all crossed over. The obituaries for Gray all mentioned his classic hit “Drift Away.” A few others took note of “Lovin’ Arms” and “The In Crowd” among Gray’s eight Hot-100 hits. All are worthy of note, but in this particular feature, we explore the chart below the chart — Billboard‘s Bubbling Under chart — where Gray appeared three times.
“Rose Garden,” the Joe South song that country singer Lynn Anderson took to the upper reaches of the pop charts in 1971, bubbled under for Gray in 1969. Where Anderson is countrypolitan smooth, Gray brings a soul swagger.
Months after “Drift Away,” Gray spent eight weeks bubbling under the Hot 100 with “Good Old Song.” In 1974, he charted for a single week with “Watch Out for Lucy.” This is not the same “Watch Out for Lucy” that Eric Clapton wrote and recorded on Backless in 1978. Gray’s “Lucy” was co-written by bluesman Lonnie Mack. And it’s great.
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