His “Bobby Goldsboro Show” television program brought a couple hundred more songs over its three-year run, and the fifty-two episodes of his children’s TV show (“The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon”) feature another couple hundred songs. He released over sixty singles and a couple dozen albums. Someone wrote his output was “not of quantity,” but Goldsboro was one of the more prolific recording artists of the time. Goldsboro’s freak accidents are also relayed in comical stories, as when he cut his toe on a Rice Krispie or somehow mistook stinging canker sore medicine for eye drops in the middle of the night. When the guy sticks his fork in the frog leg, Goldsboro makes the croaking noise and the drunk is so shaken that he is quiet for the rest of the night. A favorite story involves him being in a restaurant while a loud, drunk patron orders a plate of frog legs. The “cricket” sound he did on all the television shows and concerts is actually a tree frog noise. On one album alone, 1968’s “Word Pictures,” his songwriting includes a cynical look at holiday commercialism (“Look Around You, It’s Christmas Time”), life after nuclear holocaust (“The World Beyond”), poverty and depression (“Hard Luck Joe”) and divorce (“Autumn of my Life”). “Broomstick Cowboy” was labeled a Vietnam War protest song, “California Wine” was banned for lyrics, and “Summer (The First Time)” was considered too risqué for many stations. While some of Goldsboro’s signature songs are “safe and conservative,” some were actually banned by radio for their content. One recommendation would be the 1973 album “Brand New Kind of Love,” which features the jazzy title song, the heartwarming “A Song for Children,” a fantastic upbeat arrangement of the standard “Fever,” the cleverly nostalgic “Childhood-1949” and a rocker “Birmingham Lucy” among other covers and original gems. There are numerous “hidden classics” on Goldsboro albums. The record might have sold even more, but the pressing plant was limited to how many it could produce in a day and couldn’t satisfy the demand. It didn’t, so Goldsboro released his single that day and in its first three weeks it sold over a million copies. After Goldsboro recorded the song, he kindly agreed with songwriter Russell to hold off releasing it as a single for a full three weeks to see if the Shane single would become a hit. Goldsboro didn’t steal “Honey” from Bob Shane. Regarding some of the earlier posts in this thread: It would be nice if he got more of the recognition he deserves from music historians and through more re-issues of his treasure of recordings. After a concert of great music, Goldsboro routinely meets with fans afterward for hours. He is a wonderful storyteller, from his song lyrics to his anecdotes about tree frog impressions, crazy accidents, or touring with Roy Orbison, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. As a songwriter, his compositions have been covered by artists as diverse as Eddy Arnold and Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin and Swamp Dogg, Bette Midler and Julie Andrews, and even Burt Reynolds and Chuck Woolery. He released over sixty singles, the large majority of which charted somewhere on Billboard, whether it was pop, country or easy listening. Music critics rarely approve of what their mothers like.īut the facts are that Goldsboro had the top seller of 1968, the top adult contemporary single of 1971 (“Watching Scotty Grow”), a 1973 song crowned the top summer song of all-time by the BBC (“Summer )”, and a television show that was the highest rated syndicated program of the time. But throughout, his albums and concerts would span a variety of musical styles, so much so that a particular album was actually titled, “The Romantic, Wacky, Soulful, Rockin’, Country Bobby Goldsboro.” Since his hits were scattered among the different music genres, he never had that long string of consecutive big country hits or pop hits that would have looked really good on paper.Īnd with “Honey,” Goldsboro became a frequent television talk show guest and eventual host of his own show, appealing strongly to housewives. He was generally considered a teenybopper rocker in the mid-60’s, a middle-of-the road pop singer from “Honey” to the mid-70’s, then a country singer into the early 80’s. He appealed to a wide range of ages and musical tastes. Though hugely popular (the top selling single in the world in 1968 and #1 on several charts), some people don’t seem to like the Bobby Russell lyrics, the emotion of the subject matter, or they just got tired of the frequent airplay.Īlso, Goldsboro was hard to categorize. “Honey” was a blessing and curse for Goldsboro. Sadly, most of his catalog has been ignored for reissue onto compact disc, and radio airplay on oldies stations has been rare. Bobby Goldsboro is my favorite entertainer, so of course I feel his work has been underappreciated.
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