His sound was soulful and haunting, and the freshness of his early hits made Lobo a national hit.
We haven’t done one of these in a while, despite requests. But a reader who wrote about this old Lobo song from the 70s was just too good to pass up when we took the time to listen. Enjoy it….!
We receive questions and requests from readers who enjoy our occasional break from sports to write about popular music and hit songs from the past that simply make people feel good.
And one of our most frequent is a reader from across the border in Indiana who jogged our memory about a song written in 1972, by a young man named Roland Kent LaVoie, who had his period of radio fame in the 70s when he wrote and recorded a song entitled Me And You And A Dog Named Boo.
Of course, you’ve never heard of Roland LaVoie, but you might be familiar with the name LOBO, and the song that a reader named Rene wrote about was Lobo’s follow-up hit, I’d Love You To Want Me, written and released in 1972, and posted below for your listening enjoyment.
LaVoie, who’s still living at age 82 (in Ft. Myers, Florida). was born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1943 and spent his formative musical years as a guitar player and crooner with a myriad of bands while attending the University of South Florida. It wasn’t until 1964, when he met a producer named Phil Gernhard that ‘Lobo’ began to get some traction as a solo performer.
The name Roland LaVoie wasn’t getting it done, so by 1971 he began performing under the name of ‘Lobo’, which is Spanish for ‘wolf’. Phil Gernhard by that time was an executive with Big Tree Records and believed in both the name Lobo and LaVoie’s soulful, haunting voice. Within weeks of the name change Gernhard released the single Me And You And A Dog Named Boo, which was catchy, sold well, reached #5 on the US hit chart, and eventually sold a million records as a single, Big Tree Records first major hit.
The Lobo alias got him the attention he had previously lacked, and his music and the simplistic blend of folk harmonies and background led to the 1972 release of I’d Love You To Want Me and Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend, both of which received popular acclaim…but the former would become his biggest all-time seller and gain gold record status by November of that year.
His new-found fame and familiarity landed him an appearance on American Bandstand, and spawned subsequent album releases of his original music, which while good, were nothing in comparison to the fame he received for I”d Love You To Want Me. Sales of his albums stalled, and by 1976 he had left Big Tree Records for Nashville to seek a new start and a broader platform for his soft rock, folk, and his version of country.
He changed labels, and he subsequently changed producers which brought him modest success, but nothing compared to the early releases with Phil Gernhard. He eventually went out on his own as a producer, but found that he couldn’t escape the popularity and demand for his early hits.
As his following diminished in the United States, it increased overseas, especially in Asia, where he propped up his repertoire by covering songs popularized by other artists.
By 2000 his career as a solo artist was in the sunset of its decline and Lobo began to enjoy a quiet life and the fruits of his earlier labors, and the more than 35 singles he wrote, recorded and released prior to 1985.
None bigger than…I’d Love You To Want Me.
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