Song:Sentimental Lady
Album:70s Music Explosion: Magic
Bob Welch is known for his days as a member of the early 70s edition of Fleetwood Mac. Sentimental Lady was a top ten hit in 1976 and is considered to be his signature song. He had mixed success otherwise and he died tragically. He was born Aug. 31, 1945 in Los Angeles and grew up in a showbiz family. His father Robert L. Welch was a producer at Paramount Pictures and his mother Templeton Fox was an actress. Welch got interested in music as a teen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and then at UCLA. Welch said he mostly smoked weed in Paris. In the 60s, Welch was a member of the unsuccessful group The Seven Souls. When they split up in 1969, Bobby Watson and Tony Maiden formed Rufus. Welch moved to Paris and formed the unsuccessful band Head West. In 1971, he was invited to join Fleetwood Mac after Peter Green left. Christine McVie joined at the same time. Welch became a bigger part of the band after Danny Kirwin left in 1972. Sentimental Lady was on the 1972 Fleetwood Mac album Bare Trees. When Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, Welch left though he was asked to stay. Welch formed Paris with recording engineer Jimmy Robinson and former Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick. They recorded two unsuccessful albums. Welch was going to record a third Paris album. But it turned into his first solo album French Kiss. Sentimental Lady reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. French Kiss was certified Platinum. Subsequent albums did not do as well. And in the early 80s, Welch was addicted to cocaine. There is a Best Of Bob Welch on Rhino but it's expensive. Beware of CDs with rerecorded versions of Sentimental Lady. This Time Life 2CD various artists comp will suit most fans. Bob Welch recorded occasionally over the years. He sued Fleetwood Mac over royalties in 1994. It was settled out of court. As a result, when Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Welch was not invited to attend. Later he would reconcile with John McVie. Bob Welch had spinal surgery in 2012. When he was told that he would be an invalid, he committed suicide by gunshot on June 7, 2012 at age 66. Here's the video for Sentimental Lady by Bob Welch.
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