For a time back in the late '70s, Robert Gordon was in a rare position for a solo rock & roller. A veteran of bands like the Tuff Darts, he suddenly found himself leading a revival of rockabilly music at the end of the 1970s, and was the focus of attention of the world's rock press. The revival never quite happened, and his records didn't sell the way his label hoped, but Gordon ended up a celebrated figure among open-minded oldies buffs, rock & roll enthusiasts, and anyone with ears. Gordon grew up in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding Virginia area. He discovered Elvis Presley upon his first RCA single release, and was hooked on his early sound -- not when he was the "King of Rock & Roll," but when Elvis was known as the "Hillbilly Cat," in his Memphis days. By age 15, Gordon was leading his own band, playing around Washington and the suburbs of Maryland. An enlistment in the National Guard was followed by a move to New York during 1970, and membership in the Tuff Darts, an early New York punk band that recorded for Sire at the end of the 1970s. As it turned out, he had little sympathy for punk rock, and Gordon exited in the early '70s. In 1976, Gordon started singing again, and this time he decided to push in the direction that he wanted, toward the rockabilly sounds that he loved. He soon hooked up with Private Stock Records and producer Richard Gottehrer, the ex-member of the Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"), and the two of them got Gordon working with guitarist Link Wray, a rock & roll veteran from the 1950s. The two discovered that they got on well. Gordon wasn't aping rockabilly music -- rather, he was a true believer, approaching it as the authentic music of rebellion. He lived it and breathed it in his performances, and the result was a pair of albums, Robert Gordon With Link Wray and Fresh Fish Special, that almost succeeded in putting rockabilly music back in the mainstream rock vocabulary for the first time since 1956. Gordon's credibility was enhanced by the presence of Bruce Springsteen -- then near the peak of his superstar status -- at one New York gig, jamming with the band, and his contribution of a song called "Fire" to the second Gordon/Wray album only added to the mystique of the man and the band. The presence on the same album of the Jordanaires, the gospel trio best remembered as the back-up singers of many of Elvis' RCA recordings, seemed to pull several strands out of rock & roll history together at once. Among the other classics out of the past that Gordon restored to the popular culture in new, riveting versions was "Black Slacks," an old hit by the Sparkletones, and "Sea Cruise" and "Bad Boy." Even if the record sales weren't what anyone hoped for, Gordon's work was sufficiently popular (especially in Europe) to help secure reissues of the original recordings by many of the artists that influenced him. The association with Link Wray ended in 1978, and he was replaced by British guitarist Chris Spedding, an adequate successor. Private Stock had been distributed by RCA, but with the recording of his third album, Rock-Billy Boy, Gordon was signed directly to RCA. He released two subsequent albums, Bad Boy and Are You Gonna Be the One, on RCA. Gordon's star never rose much higher than the point it reached with Fresh Fish Special. The rockabilly revival proved to be only a cult phenomenon, loosely associated with the garage punk underground movement and the oldies circuit (which Gordon abhorred), but never more than that. He ceased most recording after the start of the 1980s, and has remained an aloof but very fondly remembered figure, standing apart from the cacophonous punk music of the late '70s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide