Singer Bobby Rydell was so popular and influential during his music career that the high school in both the musical and movie “Grease” were named after him – Rydell High.

Rydell burst onto the music scene in the 1950s and continued to have a successful career for an impressive six decades. Some of his best known songs include “Wild One,” “The Cha-Cha-Cha” and “Wildwood Days.” He sold upwards of 25 million records, and 34 of his songs were top 40 hits.

Now comes the sad news that Rydell has died at the age of 79 years old. His official cause of death was complications from pneumonia. He was born on April 26, 1942, and he died on April 5, 2022, just a couple weeks shy of his 80th birthday.

Rydell’s love for music began at an early age. When he was six years old, he declared that he wanted to be a drummer like Gene Krupa. When he was 9, he started playing the drums, and when he was a teenager, he was cast on the show “Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club.”

Rydell’s birth name was Robert Louis Ridarelli, but he eventually decided to change his name to Bobby Rydell. Besides being a talented singer, Rydell was also a talented actor. He starred in the 1963 film adaptation of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Born in Philadelphia, Rydell lived there most of his life. In fact, when he died, it was at a hospital in a suburb of Philadelphia.

He was married two times. He married his first wife, Camille Carmella Quattrone, in 1968, and they had two children together. Their marriage lasted until 2003 when she died. Rydell remarried in 2009. His second wife was Linda J Hoffman, and they remained married until his death.

Rydell is survived by Hoffman and his children, Robert Ridarelli and Jennifer Dulin, as well as his five grandchildren.