The Rydell story: Old songs, new body parts

BOBBY Rydell readily admits that the Daily News already should have published his obituary.

"You're not being overdramatic whatsoever," he responded, when asked if it would be too much to say that, logically speaking, he should be dead. "I [needed] a liver transplant, then found out I was going into renal failure and needed a kidney transplant - which, fortunately, boosted me up on the transplant [waiting] list."

The dire recollection of his July 2012 double-transplant surgery, proffered in the Eagles- and Phillies-decorated den of Rydell's Lower Merion home, was not at all hyperbolic.

"He was badly debilitated because his long-lasting liver disease had affected his whole body," said Dr. Cataldo Doria, the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital-based transplant surgeon, of the cirrhosis that had brought Rydell to the brink of death. "As a matter of fact, the liver disease had compromised the function of the other organs as well. That's why he required the two organ-transplant operations to basically save his life."

It would be some tale if it ended there with Rydell - who Saturday headlines Jerry Blavat's "Great Voices of the '60s" bill at the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall - fully recovering from the 20-hour surgery. But all entertainers crave encores. Rydell, born Robert Ridarelli in 1942 in South Philly, got one less than a year later.

In March, "I go in and take a stress test. I was having [pain] in the back part of my mouth on the right side. It would go through my cheek down my neck and wind up in the middle of my chest."

A stress test revealed that 95 percent of his coronary artery - the one popularly known as the "widowmaker" - was obstructed, and a second artery had a 75 percent blockage. A double bypass was the cardiologist's prescription.

"So the doctor's reading me the report and I said, 'I have to go to Biloxi [Miss., for a show] tomorrow,' " Rydell said with a broad smile. "He said, 'You ain't going to Biloxi, you're checking into Jefferson!' "

What could have been a tragedy for his family, friends and fans around the globe ultimately wound up as a punch line.

"Everybody I work with now, especially [Frankie] Avalon and Fabian, they call me the 'Bionic Man,' " Rydell said, referencing his fellow 1960s teen idols from South Philly, who sometimes perform together as the Golden Boys. What else could you call someone who's had, by his own account, "two back surgeries, a hip replacement, a shoulder replacement, the liver and kidney [transplants] and . . . a double bypass."

Life away from the doctor's office hasn't been that easy, either. His first wife, Camille, died in 2003. They'd been married 36 years. (On a brighter note, he married Linda Hoffman in 2007.) And then there was his 2009 DUI bust in Lower Merion, for which he completed Montgomery County's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, which allows first-time, nonviolent offenders to clear their records after a probationary period.

Contemplating all this, you could start feeling pretty sorry for Rydell. And wonder where his physical and emotional resilience comes from?

"I honestly don't know," he admitted. "For some reason or another, I pull through surgeries. It's truly amazing. The double-transplant surgery was an awfully big cut - 20 hours in the OR. No pain at all after surgery. When they did the double bypass, they cracked me open, no pain whatsoever. And I recover rather quickly. I've been very, very fortunate. I am truly blessed."

Indeed, seconded Doria. "I figured if he had survived, and if he had done well [postsurgery], I would expect him to be stronger than before," he said. "But honestly, I didn't expect him to perform again."

But Rydell was back onstage six months after the transplants. He did a gig at Glenside's Keswick Theatre, about a month after his double bypass.

A set at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Del., last fall confirmed that Rydell is not only in good physical shape, but his voice - which delivered to the JFK-era world such hits as "Wildwood Days," "Volare," "Sway" and "Swingin' School" - bore no hints of his recent travails.

"After the transplants, my stamina wasn't the greatest," he said. "It took me about half-a-year to recuperate. I was worried, would the surgery affect my vocal chords? But everybody says, 'I don't know what they put in you, Bobby, but you sound better than you ever did.' "

If his health problems have had any lasting effect on Rydell, who on Feb. 2 leaves for a 12-show, three-week tour of Australia ("next to America, my favorite place in the world"), it is in the realm of philosophy and the big issues of life and death.

"I question that an awful lot," he said. "I'm Catholic, [but] I'm not a very spiritual guy, not a very religious guy. But I do believe in God, and I just kind of think he didn't want me: 'Bobby, it's not your turn yet.' "

What he is certain of is that he is going to make the most of what he considers his new lease on life.

"I feel like I'm reborn again," he said, his smile widening. "I have all new parts! All I need is brain surgery . . . maybe a lobotomy, I don't know!"

Blog: philly.com/Casinotes