Robert Joseph "Bobby" Bare, Sr. (born April 7, 1935) is an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician.
Bare had many failed attempts to sell his songs in the 1950s. He finally signed with Capitol Records and recorded a few rock and roll songs without much chart success. Just before he was drafted into the Army, he wrote a song called "The All American Boy" and did a demo for his friend, Bill Parsons, to learn how to record. Instead of using the version Bill Parsons did later, the record company, Fraternity Records, decided to use the original demo recorded by Bobby Bare. The record reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but they made an error: the singles' labels all credited the artist as being "Bill Parsons". The same track, with the same billing error, peaked at No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1959. In 1965, an album of older recorded material, Tender Years (JM-6026), was released on the Hilltop label. The same material, but under a different cover, was released on the Sears label under the title Bobby In Song (SPS-115) that same year. These albums are not usually included in Bare's published discographies.