Austin Roberts (born George Austin Robertson Jr.; September 19, 1945 – November 1, 2024) was an American singer and songwriter. His most successful

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

was 1975's "

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...

"; a

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

. He also wrote several songs that featured in episodes of '' Scooby-Doo Where Are You!'' and performed the theme for season 2 of the show.

Life and career

Roberts was born in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

on September 19, 1945. He performed the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

to the second season of the animated series, ''

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning cartoon schedule on Septem ...

'' as well as the season 2 "chase songs", many of which he also composed. In 1972 he sang the hit "Something's Wrong With Me",

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

by Danny Janssen and Bobby Hart, which reached No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1972. " Keep on Singing", later a No. 15 single for

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

in April 1974, was another hit for Roberts, reaching No. 50 on the Hot 100 in March 1973. "

" brought his greatest success, reaching No. 9 on the Hot 100 in October 1975. The track also reached No. 22 in the UK in November 1975, which to date is Roberts' only

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

appearance in the UK. It also topped the pop charts in Germany and South Africa. Roberts died on November 1, 2024, at the age of 79.

Discography

Albums

*1972: ''Austin Roberts'' (Chelsea) - U.S. No. 203, AUS No. 64 *1973: ''The Last Thing On My Mind'' (Chelsea) *1975: ''Rocky'' (Private Stock) *1976: ''Eight Days: A Personal Journey'' (Austin Roberts & Advent) (Newpax) *1981: ''Paint My Life'' (MCA Songbird)

Soundtrack

*'' Scooby-Doo's Snack Tracks: The Ultimate Collection''

Singles

*1968: "Ricky Ticky Ta Ta Ta" (Philips) *1968: "Mary and Me" (Philips) *1969: "Baltimore" (Philips) *1970: " Runaway" / " Just a Little" (Philips) *1970: "Pretty Mary Sunlight" (Philips) *1970: "One Night Ann" (Philips) *1970: "Sing Out the Love (In My Heart)" (lead vocalist for Arkade) (ABC Dunhill) - U.S. No. 99 *1971: "Life Is for Living" (ABC Dunhill) *1971: "The Morning of Our Lives" (lead vocalist for Arkade) (ABC Dunhill) - U.S. No. 60, U.S. AC No. 16 *1971: "

Where You Lead "Where You Lead" is a song written in 1970 by Carole King with lyricist Toni Stern, introduced on King's iconic 1971 album ''Tapestry''. A Top 40 hit for Barbra Streisand in both a studio version from her 1971 album '' Barbra Joan Streisand'' an ...

" (lead vocalist for Arkade) (ABC Dunhill) *1972: "Like a Rosebud" (Horizon featuring Austin Roberts) (Virgo) *1972: "Every Day in My Life with Linda" (Horizon featuring Austin Roberts) (Virgo) *1972: " Something's Wrong with Me" (Chelsea) - U.S. No. 12, U.S. AC No. 16, AUS No. 40 *1972: " Keep On Singing" (Chelsea) - U.S. No. 50, U.S. AC No. 22, AUS #46 *1973: "The Last Thing on My Mind" (Chelsea) -

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

No. 120, *1973: "One Word" (Chelsea) - U.S. CB No. 121, *1974: "Something to Believe In" (Chelsea) *1974: "I'd Rather Be with You" (Chelsea) *1975: "

" (Private Stock) - U.S. No. 9, U.S. AC No. 22, UK No. 22, AUS No. 25 *1975: "Children of the Rain" (Private Stock) - U.S. CB - No. 114, *1976: "Just to Make You Mine" (Private Stock) *1976: "

This Time I'm in It for Love This may refer to: * ''This'', the singular proximal demonstrative pronoun Places * This (Egypt), or ''Thinis'', an ancient city in Upper Egypt * This, Ardennes, a commune in France * This, a country mentioned in the ''Periplus of the Erythrae ...

" (Private Stock) *1978: "Don't Stop Me Baby (I'm On Fire)" (Arista) *1980: "In the Garden" (MCA Songbird)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Austin 1945 births 2024 deaths Musicians from Newport News, Virginia American country singer-songwriters American male pop singers American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Virginia 20th-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American singer-songwriters Philips Records artists 20th-century American male singers 21st-century American male singers Private Stock Records artists