Rydell played in several bands in the Philadelphia area. As a 14-year-old he was the drummer for the Emanons (NoName spelled backward) which included his childhood friend Pat Azzara on guitar. Azzara later assumed the stage name Pat Martino, and went on to achieve recognition as one of the preeminent jazz guitarists of all time. Another band was Rocco and the Saints, in which he sang and played drums. His second success was "
We Got Love". The album of the same name, his first, sold a million copies and obtained
gold disc status. "Wild One" was followed with "
Little Bitty Girl" which was his second million-selling single. He continued releasing hit songs with "
Swingin' School" backed by "
Ding-A-Ling" and "Volare" later in 1960, which also sold over a million copies. It is estimated he sold over 25 million records in total. Rydell's success and prospects led his father, Adrio, a foreman at the Electro-Nite Carbon Company in Philadelphia, to resign in 1961 after 22 years to become his son's road manager. In 1963, Rydell released the song "
Wildwood Days", which reached Number 17 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained there for nine weeks. A mural on the
Wildwood, New Jersey, boardwalk, painted in 2014, honors Rydell, whose song placed the community in the national spotlight. That same year, Rydell portrayed Hugo Peabody in the film version of
Bye Bye Birdie, also starring
Ann-Margret and
Dick Van Dyke. During the 1960s, Rydell had numerous
hit records on the
Billboard Hot 100
chart. His recording career earned him 34 Top 100 hits, placing him in the top five artists of his era (
Billboard). They included his most popular successes: "Wild One" (his highest scoring single, at number 2), "
Volare" (number 4), "Swingin' School" (number 5), "Kissin' Time" (number 11), "
Sway" (number 14), "
I've Got Bonnie" (number 18), and "
The Cha-Cha-Cha" (number 10). His last major chart success was "
Forget Him", which reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in January 1964. The song, written by
Tony Hatch, was his fifth and final gold disc winner. By that point, the
British Invasion had arrived and acts such as Rydell suffered a dramatic decline in popularity. Bands such as
The Beatles became more popular, and Rydell unknowingly inspired
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney to write "
She Loves You", a song which paved the way for their success in the US. Also during that time, Rydell served in the
103rd Engineer Battalion of the
Pennsylvania Army National Guard. In January 1968, it was announced in the UK music magazine
NME that Rydell had signed a long-term recording contract with
Reprise Records. He continued to perform in
nightclubs, supper clubs and
Las Vegas venues throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his career was hampered by the refusal by
ABKCO Records to reissue Rydell's Cameo-Parkway catalog, so it was completely unavailable until 2005, although he did re-record his hits in 1995 for
K-tel Records). He had one more hit after 1965, a
disco re-recording of "Sway", which reached the
Billboard Easy Listening chart in 1976. Rydell continued to tour for the remainder of his life, often with Frankie Avalon and Fabian Forte, performing under the name "The Golden Boys". His autobiography was published in 2016. ==Personal life==