Bobby Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941)[2] is an American pop and country singer-songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over one million copies in the United States.
Contents[]
[hide] *1 Biography
Biography[edit][]
Early life[edit][]
Goldsboro was born in Marianna, Florida.[2] In 1941, Goldsboro's 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. Goldsboro left college after his second year to pursue a musical career. He played guitar for Roy Orbison from 1962 to 1964.
Career[edit][]
Goldsboro's solo career picked up steam with the top ten hit "See the Funny Little Clown". The single, written by Goldsboro, reached No. 9 on the U.S. national charts in early 1964. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.[2] It was to be the first of a string of similar awards. Goldsboro would go on to have 16 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 12 on the country chart.[1][3] In 1966 he recorded "It's Too Late" with "Too Many People" on the B-side. Although Goldsboro was not a prolific performer of dance music, both of these songs were huge hits with Northern soul in Great Britain and were played extensively.[4] His biggest hit was 1968's "Honey", a tearjerker about the death of a man's young wife.[1][3] The song, written by Bobby Russell, was recorded in one take.[5] It became the largest-selling record in the world for 1968 and topped the Hot 100 for five weeks, reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart on two separate occasions (1968 and 1975),[6] and was a No. 1 single in Australia.[2] It also became his first country hit as well.[citation needed]
From 1973 to 1975, Goldsboro hosted the successful syndicated television variety series The Bobby Goldsboro Show.
One of Goldsboro's compositions, "With Pen in Hand", was recorded by several artists, including a Grammy-nominated pop version by Vikki Carr that reached the "Top 40", in 1969; Johnny Darrell had taken the song to No. 1 on the US country chart a year earlier. Goldsboro's "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 in1977, and John Denver had a hit with the song in 1981.
"Summer (The First Time)", a 1973 reminiscence about a 17-year-old boy's first sexual experience with a 31-year-old woman[citation needed], was a Top 20 hit in the U.S. and reached number 9 in the UK.[7] It was voted the all-time greatest "summer" song in England's history.[citation needed] Using a repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, and an orchestral string arrangement, the song was suggestive enough to spark some controversy[clarification needed]. A follow-up, "Hello Summertime", was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and hit No. 14 in the UK in late 1974.[7][6]
In the 1990s, he composed the music for the CBS situation comedy Evening Shade. In 1995, he created the fifty-two episode children's television series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon. Goldsboro voiced all the characters, wrote all the scripts, and played all the musical instruments.[8] Goldsboro is also an accomplished oil painter. His paintings are carried in major art galleries and have sold all over the world.[9]
Discography[edit][]
Albums[edit][]
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | RIAA | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | CAN | ||||
| 1964 | The Bobby Goldsboro Album | United Artists | ||||
| I Can't Stop Loving You | ||||||
| 1965 | Little Things | |||||
| Broomstick Cowboy | ||||||
| 1966 | It's Too Late | |||||
| Blue Autumn | ||||||
| 1967 | Solid Goldsboro | 165 | ||||
| The Romantic, Wacky, Soulful,
Rockin', Country, Bobby Goldsboro |
||||||
| Our Way of Life(w/ Del Reeves) | 28 | |||||
| 1968 | Honey | 1 | 5 | 41 | Gold | |
| Word Pictures | 116 | |||||
| 1969 | Today | 34 | 60 | |||
| 1970 | Muddy Mississippi Line | 28 | 139 | |||
| Bobby Goldsboro's Greatest Hits | 34 | 103 | 82 | |||
| 1971 | We Gotta Start Lovin' | 20 | 120 | |||
| Come Back Home | 142 | |||||
| 1972 | California Wine | 214 | ||||
| 1973 | Brand New Kind of Love | 207 | ||||
| Summer (The First Time) | 10 | 150 | ||||
| 1974 | 10th Anniversary Album | 174 | ||||
| Hello Summertime | ||||||
| 1975 | Through the Eyes of a Man | |||||
| 1976 | A Butterfly for Bucky | 37 | ||||
| 1977 | Goldsboro | Epic | ||||
| 1981 | Bobby Goldsboro | 54 | Curb | |||
| 1982 | The Round-Up Saloon | |||||
Singles[edit][]
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | US AC | CAN Country | CAN | CAN AC | |||
| 1962 | "Molly" | 70 | 17 | singles only | ||||
| 1963 | "Honey Baby" (Laurie 3148) | |||||||
| "Molly" (Laurie 3148) | ||||||||
| "Lonely Traveler" | ||||||||
| "Light the Candles" | ||||||||
| "The Letter" | ||||||||
| 1964 | "See the Funny Little Clown" 1 | 9 | 3 | The Bobby Goldsboro Album | ||||
| "Whenever He Holds You" | 39 | 13 | ||||||
| "Me Japanese Boy I Love You" | 74 | 14 | 39 | Little Things | ||||
| "I Don't Know You Anymore" | 105 | |||||||
| 1965 | "Little Things" 1 | 13 | 4 | 4 | ||||
| "Voodoo Woman" | 27 | 6 | single only | |||||
| "If You Wait for Love" | 75 | Broomstick Cowboy | ||||||
| "If You've Got a Heart" | 60 | |||||||
| 1966 | "Broomstick Cowboy" | 53 | 20 | |||||
| "It's Too Late" 1 | 16 | 5 | It's Too Late | |||||
| "I Know You Better Than That" | 56 | 23 | Blue Autumn | |||||
| "Take Your Love" | 114 | |||||||
| "It Hurts Me" | 70 | 86 | ||||||
| 1967 | "Blue Autumn" | 35 | 71 | |||||
| "Goodbye to All You Women" | 102 | singles only | ||||||
| "Trusty Little Herbert" | ||||||||
| "Jo Jo's Place" | 111 | |||||||
| "Pledge of Love" | 118 | Blue Autumn | ||||||
| "Dime at a Time" (w/ Del Reeves) | Our Way of Life | |||||||
| 1968 | "I Just Wasted the Rest" (w/ Del Reeves) | 56 | ||||||
| "Honey" 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Honey | ||
| "Autumn of My Life" | 15 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 11 | Word Pictures | ||
| "The Straight Life" | 37 | 36 | 6 | 7 | 19 | |||
| 1969 | "Glad She's a Woman" | 49 | 61 | 7 | 44 | Today | ||
| "I'm a Drifter" | 22 | 46 | 14 | 36 | 9 | |||
| "Muddy Mississippi Line" | 15 | 53 | 10 | 1 | 37 | 16 | Muddy Mississippi Line | |
| "Take a Little Good Will Home" (w/ Del Reeves) | 31 | 31 | Our Way of Life | |||||
| 1970 | "Mornin Mornin" | 56 | 78 | 23 | 64 | 18 | Muddy Mississippi Line | |
| "Can You Feel It" | 71 | 75 | 8 | Bobby Goldsboro's Greatest Hits | ||||
| "It's Gonna Change" | 108 | 38 | single only | |||||
| 1971 | "Watching Scotty Grow" 1 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1 | We Gotta Start Lovin' |
| "And I Love You So" | 48 | 83 | 8 | 93 | 7 | Come Back Home | ||
| "Come Back Home" | 69 | 15 | 89 | 17 | ||||
| "Danny Is a Mirror to Me" | 107 | 34 | ||||||
| "A Poem for My Little Lady" | 27 | |||||||
| 1972 | "California Wine" | 108 | 36 | California Wine | ||||
| "With Pen in Hand" | 94 | 28 | Bobby Goldsboro's Greatest Hits | |||||
| 1973 | "Brand New Kind of Love" | 116 | 37 | 40 | Brand New Kind of Love | |||
| "Summer (The First Time)" | 100 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 15 | Summer (The First Time) | ||
| 1974 | "Marlena" | 52 | 76 | 70 | ||||
| "I Believe the South Is Gonna Rise Again"
(w/ The TSU Chorus) |
62 | Through the Eyes of a Man | ||||||
| "Quicksand" | ||||||||
| "Hello Summertime" | 79 | 8 | 46 | Hello Summertime | ||||
| 1975 | "And Then There Was Gina" | 15 | 15 | singles only | ||||
| "I Wrote a Song (Sing Along)" | 16 | 17 | ||||||
| 1976 | "A Butterfly for Bucky" | 22 | 51 | 7 | 7 | 12 | A Butterfly for Bucky | |
| "Reunion" | ||||||||
| 1977 | "Me and the Elephants" | 82 | 104 | 6 | 10 | Goldsboro | ||
| "The Cowboy and the Lady" | 85 | |||||||
| 1979 | "He'll Have to Go" | |||||||
| "Black Fool's Gold" | ||||||||
| 1980 | "Goodbye Marie" | 17 | 19 | Bobby Goldsboro | ||||
| 1981 | "Alice Doesn't Love Here Anymore" | 20 | 34 | 41 | ||||
| "Love Ain't Never Hurt Nobody" | 19 | 33 | ||||||
| "The Round-Up Saloon" | 31 | 38 | The Round-Up Saloon | |||||
| 1982 | "Lucy and the Stranger" | 49 | ||||||
Key: 1 Indicates titles that were awarded gold disc status.