Bobby Goldsboro

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Bobby Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941) is an American Country and Pop singer-songwriter as well as an accomplished painter and television producer. Goldsboro was one of the most popular recording acts of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Early life

Born in Marianna, Florida, Goldsboro was a teenager of 15 in 1956 when his family moved 35 miles north from Marianna to Dothan, Alabama.^[1] He graduated from Dothan High School in 1959, and later enrolled at Auburn University. He left college after his second year to pursue a musical career.

Career

After playing guitar for Roy Orbison from 1962-1964, he set out on a solo career. He soon had a Top Ten hit with his own composition "See the Funny Little Clown," which reached No. 9 on the U.S. national charts. He would go on to have 11 top-40 hits in the pop field and 12 in Country music.^[1][2]

His biggest hit in both fields was 1968's "Honey", a controversial tear-jerker detailing the death of a man's young wife.^[1][2] The song, written by Bobby Russell, was recorded in one take.^[3]

The single reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart on two separate occasions (1968 and 1975), selling in excess of one million copies. In Australia, "Honey" also made it to #1, ranked #10 overall for the year 1968, and is ranked at #25 on the Oz Net Music Chart's Top 100 for the 1960s. It became his first country hit and was the beginning of his hits becoming more successful on the country charts than on the pop charts. Goldsboro's last top 40 hits in pop music came in 1973/1974, although he remained a fixture in the Country top 40 for the rest of the 1970s and well into the early 1980s.

Goldsboro wrote some of his hits. One in particular, "With Pen in Hand", was recorded by several artists, the biggest of which was a Grammy-nominated pop version by Vikki Carr that was a Top 40 pop hit in the United States and the UK in 1969; while Johnny Darrell took his version to number 3 on the U.S. country chart a year earlier. His song, "The Cowboy and The Lady" became a Top 10 country hit as "The Cowgirl and The Dandy" for Brenda Lee in 1980; Dolly Parton had also covered it in 1977 and John Denver also covered and had a hit with the song in 1981.

In early 1971, a plane Goldsboro was traveling on was hijacked to Cuba. Goldsboro said they were given lunch in Havana and generally well treated.^[4][5]

From 1973 to 1975, he hosted the syndicated television variety series, The Bobby Goldsboro Show.

In 1973 he had success in the UK Top 20 with the hit called Summer (the first time) (written by Goldsboro) which featured himself as a young 17 year old boy striking up a romantic relationship with a 31-year-old woman. This story/song uses a powerful repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, some organ playing and a dramatic orchestral string arrangement as it recounts someone's first romantic encounter. On a hot June day/night the singer loses his virginity with an older Southern belle.

The record was a big hit in the UK recorded on United Artists records and reached number 9 in the charts. Some would argue that the record was his best ever recording with many young men relating to the romantic relationship portrayed in the recording that they experienced with an older woman. He also had a follow-up hit called "Hello Summertime" (written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway) also on United Artists which hit number 14 in the UK in late 1974. Goldsboro retired from full-time performing in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, he scored the soundtrack to the CBS situation comedy, Evening Shade, and in 1995, he launched the children's television series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon. He also sells original paintings on his official website.^[6]

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

Bibliography

• Allmusic
• Wood, Gerry (1998). "Bobby Goldsboro". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 205.

External links

• Official website
• The Fans Of Bobby Goldsboro homepage
• Bobby Goldsboro at Classic Bands
• Bobby Goldsboro at the Internet Movie Database
• Bobby Goldsboro at TV.com
• Bobby Goldsboro at Discogs