[2] Rodgers was taught music by his mother, a piano teacher,[3] and began performing as a child, first entertaining at a Christmas show when he was only five.
[9] Over the following year, he had a number of other hits that reached the top 10 on the charts: "Kisses Sweeter than Wine"; "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again"; "Secretly"; and "Are You Really Mine?".
Other hits include "Bo Diddley", "Bimbombey", "Ring-a-ling-a-lario", "Tucumcari", "Tender Love and Care (T.L.C)", and a version of Waltzing Matilda as a film tie-in with the apocalyptic movie On the Beach in 1959.
[12] Rodgers also made several appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, including on September 8, 1957, when he was seen by 48,500,000, the largest television audience of his entire career,[13] and November 3, 1957.
Also in 1958, he sang the opening theme song of the film The Long, Hot Summer, starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Orson Welles.
In 1966, a long dry spell ended for Rodgers when he re-entered the Top 40 with "It's Over" (later to be recorded by Eddy Arnold, Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, Mason Williams, Scott Walker, and Sonny James).
[17] It was with that label that Rodgers had his final charting Top 100 single, "Child of Clay", written by Ernie Maresca (of "Shout!
[18] He performed the song on several television variety shows, including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,[19] but it never became a big hit; it reached number 31 on the Billboard charts.
Recovery from injuries sustained mysteriously on a highway in 1967 caused an approximately year-long period in which Rodgers ceased to perform.
[22] On December 1, 1967, Rodgers suffered traumatic head injuries after the car he was driving was stopped by an off-duty police officer near the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles.
According to the police version, Duffy then called for assistance from two other officers, and the three of them put the unconscious Rodgers into his car and left the scene.
[26] That account was supported by the treating physicians, who had first blamed the skull fracture on a beating but, by the latter part of December, they concluded that Rodgers had in fact fallen and that had caused his injuries.
[28] The police and the L.A. County District Attorney rejected these claims, although the three officers (identified in the press as Michael T. Duffy, 27; Raymond V. Whisman, 29, and Ronald D. Wagner, 32)[29] were given two-week suspensions for improper procedures in handling the case, particularly their leaving the injured Rodgers alone in his car.
[30][31] The three officers and the LA Fire and Police Protective League filed a $13 million slander suit against Rodgers for his public statements accusing them of brutality.
[34] In his 2010 biography Me, the Mob, and the Music, singer Tommy James wrote that Morris Levy, the Mafia-connected head of Roulette Records, had arranged the attack in response to Rodgers' repeated demands for unpaid royalties he was due by the label.
TV appearances included performances on American Bandstand, Kraft Music Hall, and Hootenanny, as well as the following: In the mid-1960s, he re-recorded (with altered tunes and words referring to the products) two of his best-known songs, for use in television advertisements: