Bobby Goldsboro

Music career The Webbs In high school Goldsboro joined Spider and The Webbs which featured Amos "Mugsby" on bass, Dave Robinson on drums, "Flying Fingers" John Rainey on lead guitar, and "Rockin" Steve Murphree on rhythm guitar. Goldsboro performed semi-professionally as part of The Webbs while at college. At the end of his second year in college, the band's manager, Buddy Buie, arranged for the Webbs to play for Roy Orbison, who was without a backing band in a show he had organized. This arrangement worked well, and The Webbs then became the permanent backing band for Orbison, performing with him for two-and-a-half years until 1964, touring with Orbison in the US and Europe.

Solo success Goldsboro continued performing with The Webbs and Orbison until his solo career kicked off with the top 10 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 1 million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the next few years, he achieved a few Top 40 hits, including "Little Things", "Voodoo Woman", and "It's Too Late". However, his attempt at more serious songs was derailed when "Broomstick Cowboy", a protest song, was banned from ABC's American Bandstand. were huge hits on the Northern soul scene in Great Britain and were played extensively.

In 1968, Goldsboro released the biggest hit of his career, "Honey", a tearjerker about the death of a man's wife. It became the largest-selling record in the world for 1968 and topped the Hot 100 for five weeks, reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 and 1975, In 1970, Della Reese included a cover on her album Black Is Beautiful. 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 covered it in 1977, and John Denver had a hit with the song in 1981.

Goldsboro also wrote "When Your Love Has Gone."

Goldsboro reached No. 11 on Billboard'''s national charts with the Mac Davis-penned song "Watching Scotty Grow". "Summer (The First Time)", a 1973 reminiscence about a 17-year-old boy's first sexual experience (with a 31-year-old woman), was a Top 25 hit in the U.S. and reached number 9 in the UK. Using a repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, and an orchestral string arrangement, the song was suggestive enough to spark some controversy. The follow-up "Hello Summertime" was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and hit No. 14 in the UK in September 1974.

Television The success of "Honey" led to numerous television appearances for Goldsboro, and he became a regular on The Mike Douglas Show, co-hosting the show a few times.

In the 1990s, he composed the music for the sitcom Evening Shade. In 1995, he created the 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 in the show.

He also created several animated specials and children's books with Peeler-Rose Productions: Snuffy: The Elf Who Saved Christmas, Easter Egg Mornin', Stinger: King of the Bee's, Boy Who Became a Frog, A Cat Named Bob, and Lumpkin the Pumpkin.

Personal life

Goldsboro was married to Mary Alice Watson, whom he met while he was in college; He married Dianne J. Roberts in 1985. Goldsboro is an oil painter.

Discography Honey (1968)

Books