Bob Donius (Image courtesy of sbu.edu)
For as long as St. Bonaventure University senior Eve Callahan can remember, she and her friends have always followed a mention of Bob Donius’ name by singing it to the tune of Duran Duran’s 1986 single “Notorious.”
“I can’t say when I first heard it, but it seems like we’ve done it since we got here,” Callahan, a history major, said. “It just always seemed so natural. Someone would say Bob’s name and then someone else would always chime in with a ‘Bob-Bob — Bob DONius, Bob DONius.’”
Tuesday afternoon, Callahan and her friends were embarrassed to notice the vice president for University Ministries seated two tables over in Hickey Memorial Dining Hall right after they’d broken out into song using his name.
“I couldn’t believe it when Katie [Green, Callahan's roommate] pointed out right after the second ‘Bob-Bob’ that Bob himself was sitting right next to us,” said Callahan. “He just smiled at us, but we all got red in the face and quickly left the scene.”
Ward Barton, the spokesman for University Ministries, said that Donius had never heard his name sung to “Notorious” before. Barton said the vice president also was not familiar with the 1986 Duran Duran song or the 1999 Notorious B.I.G. track that samples it.
“That’s not to say he didn’t enjoy the Hickey performance,” Barton noted. “He actually finds the remixed lyrics quite amusing and applauds St. Bonaventure students for their cleverness.”
The history of the Donius/”Notorious” remix is fuzzy. Donius has held his current position on the administration since 2002. St. Bonaventure legend states that a staffer at campus radio station WSBU-FM finally made the rhythmic and rhymic connection between Donius’ name and the Duran Duran track during the fall semester of 2005.
“I specifically remember the day,” said Andrew Eckhardt, a 2006 graduate and former WSBU station manager. “We were all sitting around at The Buzz and somebody played either the Duran Duran or Biggie version. In the song, they go “No-no—noTORious,” but one of the kids said “Bob-Bob — Bob DONius, Bob DONius,” and we all burst out laughing and started singing along.”
Students throughout the St. Bonaventure community have sung the remixed “Notorious” lyrics since that day.
“I remember when I first heard it last semester,” said Trevor Furman, a freshman biology major. “My friends and I all thought it was genius.”
Duran Duran released its smash-hit “Notorious” in 1986, and it hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also featured on the soundtrack of the popular cult film Donnie Darko.
Callahan said she and her friends offered Donius an apology, which he said was unnecessary.
“We told him we were sorry to be disrespectful,” said Callahan, “but he said it was an honor to have a song sung in his honor.”
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