Bobby Troup
was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Bobby Troup was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) fraternity and the Mask and Wig Club.

His earliest musical success came with the song “Daddy” which was a regional hit in 1941. [This would tend to suggest that Troup recorded the song in 1941, but I've seen no evidence.] Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra recorded “Daddy”, which was no.1 for 8 weeks on the Billboard Best Seller chart and the no.5 record of 1941. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra performed “Daddy” on their radio broadcasts, and The Andrews Sisters also recorded the song. In the same year, Troup’s song “Snootie Little Cutie” was recorded by Frank Sinatra and Connie Haines with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and the Pied Pipers.

In 1946, Troup drove from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to seek his fame as an actor, musician and entertainer. Along the way he wrote his best-known song, “Route 66,” which he sold to Nat King Cole, who had a major hit with it the same year.

Three of Troup’s best known songs were published and first recorded in 1946: “Route 66,” “Baby, Baby All the Time,” each introduced by Nat King Cole, and “The Three Bears.” The latter is more familiar today in modified form as a children’s song.