Metro Detroit's Bob Anderson is still singing the tunes of yesterday

(CBS DETROIT) - Bob Anderson's passion for singing started at a young age, inevitably getting in the way of his first job: babysitting.

"I would put the music on the floor with me and just listen all night. I wasn't a very good babysitter," Anderson said.

Little did he know, his lackluster attitude towards babysitting would pay dividends down the road. 

A native of Warren, he got his start in Las Vegas at the age of 21, where he found himself in the right place at the right time. He was at the Sahara Hotel to see Nancy Sinatra and the Everly Brothers, when all of a sudden, an argument between the two led to the Everly Brothers leaving the stage just hours before showtime.

"I walked up to the stage and said 'excuse me I'm a singer and I can do whatever you need' then I opened that evening at the Sahara Hotel with her," Anderson said.

His talent as an impressionist wouldn't come about until a short time later when he was invited to a party at Merv Griffin's house for his 50th birthday. 

 "I walked in, there was Elizabeth Taylor... everybody was there Kirk Douglas, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, all these people were there and I felt so out of place with all these major stars," Anderson said.

That's when Merv Griffin started playing the piano, and asked Anderson to sing. So he started doing impressions of Tony Bennett and Robert Goulet, catching Griffin's attention.

"He [Griffin] turned to me and said we found your act, you're going to be the singing impressionist."

Nearly 50 years later, Anderson is still impersonating the likes of Bennett, Frank Sinatra and dozens of others, all while singing their classic songs.

Anderson says he was the last guy in Las Vegas to catch the golden age of the strip, where he would go on to work for 32 years. He's still touring across the country, and is happy to be back at home. 

"It's a great thrill for me...I really love coming back, I'm still singing here," Anderson said. 

He performed Thursday night at the Andiamo Celebrity Showroom in Warren, a venue he's played a number of times.

 Despite the long nights and heavy loads of makeup to bring to life the artists of yesterday, he has no intention of slowing down.

"I'm singing as well as I ever have, I feel great, I'm in the health club four or five days a week...my voice is like it always was," Anderson said.

As time goes on, one of the challenges Anderson faces is keeping the music alive. The songs he sings and the artists he impersonates relate to a much different generation.

"The music from these artists is so fantastic that it deserves to be heard by other people," Anderson said. "If one thing you notice about today's generation, they don't care about anybody else except the now generation that's where they're at they don't think about things of the past."

However, Anderson believes there are plenty of young people out there who are curious about the music, and want to learn more. During a year-long run of his "One More for the Road" tour at the Palazzo Hotel, Anderson surveyed his audience to see just how young or old they were. 

Over the course of the show's run, one-third of his audience was under 30 years old.

"That means that they wanted to see what Sinatra was about," Anderson said.

He's trying his best to keep the music alive for the younger generations, as he believes nothing can surpass the music of that time.

"It's a different world, totally different...to the point where it deserves to be heard and that's what I'm doing with this music, just try to keep it alive. Not only here, but all over the world."