Robert John, Who Topped the U.S. Singles Chart in 1979, Dies at 79

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Robert John performing his #1 single, “Sad Eyes” on the Dutch TV series TopPop

Robert John, who scored a pair of Top 5 singles in the U.S. in the 1970s, died on February 24, 2025. News of his death, at age 79, was first reported by Rolling Stone, which received the news on Feb. 25 from the singer’s son, Michael Pedrick. Though the cause of death wasn’t revealed, it’s known that John had suffered a stroke several years ago.

John first reached the Hot 100 in 1958 as a 12-year-old under his real name, Robert Pedrick Jr., with “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes,” written by the songwriting tandem Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. After releasing several other singles, he reached #3 under his stage name with a 1972 cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” He was unable to follow-up on that success until 1979 when he wrote and recorded “Sad Eyes.” While the singles chart was dominated that year by disco songs recorded by such disco stars as Donna Summer and Chic, as well as pop and rock stars like the Bee Gees and Rod Stewart, John’s saccharine recording on the EMI America label incredibly rose to #1. While it notably ended the reign of The Knack’s “My Sharona” for a single week on the Hot 100, the industry trade magazine Record World placed it at #1 for five weeks.

Related: The #1 singles of 1979

In the ensuing years, John charted with several other singles, though none reached the top 30 of the chart. Even the Wikipedia entry for the singer and songwriter, born on January 3, 1946, in Brooklyn, reveals little about his career.