“BOBBY” SHERMAN Jr. , born on this date, is an American singer and actor who was a teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He had a series of successful singles, notably the million-seller “Little Woman” (1969). Sherman left show business in the 1970s for a career as a paramedic and a deputy sheriff, but performed occasionally into the 1990s.

In 1962, Sal Mineo wrote two songs for Sherman and arranged for Sherman to record them. In 1964, Mineo asked Sherman to sing with his band at a Hollywood party where many actors and agents were in attendance. After this, Sherman signed with an agent and soon landed a part on the ABC television show Shindig! as a house singer and member of the cast.

Sherman made several records with Decca and another smaller label and appeared in teen magazines. In early 1968, he was selected for the role of Jeremy Bolt, a bashful, stammering logger, in the ABC television series Here Come the Brides. As of 1970, Sherman had received more fan mail than any other performer on the ABC-TV network.

Sherman appeared on an episode of Honey West titled “The Princess and the Paupers” as a kidnapped band member. He also appeared on The Monkees in the episode “Monkees at the Movies”, playing a conceited surfer-singer named Frankie Catalina (in the model of Frankie Avalon) and performing the song “The New Girl in School” (the flip of Jan & Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve”).

Sherman released 107 songs, 23 singles and 10 albums between 1962 and 1976; seven of his songs were top 40 hits. He earned seven gold singles, one platinum single, and five gold albums. In 1969, he signed with Metromedia Records and released the single “Little Woman”, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (#2 in Canada) and spent nine weeks in the Top 20. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in October 1969.

His other hits were “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” (written by Tom Bahler), “Easy Come, Easy Go”, “Jennifer”, “La La La (If I Had You)”, and “The Drum”(written by Alan O’Day). Some of these songs were produced by Jackie Mills, who also produced the Brady Bunch Kids. In Canada, “Hey, Mister Sun” reached #19, “Cried Like a Baby” reached #10, and “Waiting at the Bus Stop” reached #31. “La, La, La,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” and “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” all sold in excess of a million copies and earned more gold discs for Sherman. “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” was Sherman’s sole entry in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #28 in November 1970. The song competed there for chart space with White Plains’ cover version, which placed at #8.

Sherman toured extensively through the United States and the world in support of his records and albums. He gave many concerts to sellout crowds of mostly screaming young women from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. The screaming of the young women was so loud that Sherman experienced hearing loss.

Published accounts indicate that Sherman’s relationship with Sal Mineo was personal as well as professional. As reported by Michael Musto, “Late in 1962, [British actress] Jill Haworth introduced Mineo to 19-year-old pop singer Bobby Sherman. Two years later, she found them in bed….Devastated, Haworth ended their engagement.”